From Intern to Insight: What You Should Know About the One Health Certificate Program
Thairat grew up watching his father, a veterinarian, care for sick animals. One day his father treated a dog that was very ill and close to dying, and the dog recovered. Thairat never forgot it. He decided to become a vet too.
Now he is in his sixth year of veterinary studies at Chiang Mai University. He had heard of One Health, the idea that the health of people, animals, and the environment is connected, but he understood it only in a basic way. "I mainly thought of it as collaboration between veterinarians, doctors, and other professionals to prevent and control diseases," he says.
Then a professor suggested an internship with the Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety Centre for Asia Pacific (VPHCAP), a partner of the Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN). Thairat wanted to work with people from international organizations and different fields, so he joined the team behind the SEAOHWA One Health Certificate Program, a free online course for Thai learners that SEAOHUN developed with funding support from Chevron, in partnership with VPHCAP and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University. As an intern, he helped review the online platform, organize information, and prepare learning materials and presentations.
The program's final exercise changed how he thinks. "It made me realize that a health problem can be much more complex than it first appears," he says. He also learned that antibiotic resistance, which happens when germs stop responding to medicines, involves people, animals, and the environment together. What happens in one area affects the others.
Today, Thairat sees his future work more broadly. He believes vets can help prevent diseases that spread from animals to people, keep food safe, and reduce antibiotic resistance. He also wants to work more with people from other fields.
"The most important thing I've gained from OHCP is not just a certificate or new knowledge, but a different way of thinking," he says.
You don't need to be an expert to start
You don't need any One Health training to join. Thairat says the program begins with the basics and builds from there."You don't have to already know about One Health. You just need to be willing to learn from different disciplines."
Here is how it works:
Start with the basics. Take the One Health Foundation module.
Choose your track. Pick disease tracking (surveillance), antibiotic resistance, or laboratory work, based on your interests.
Try it on a real problem. Finish with an exercise where you apply what you learned.
Earn your certificate. Thairat says it can also be a useful addition to your academic and professional profile.
The program is free, online, and self-paced, so you can study around your classes. The Thai pilot runs in Thai and English. It is open to university students and professionals in human, animal, and environmental health, with a special focus on veterinary students and professionals. Thairat says that even a little time each week makes it manageable.
Ready to give it a try?
If you are a vet student, a public health student, a lab student, or simply curious about how health connects across fields, this is a low-pressure place to begin.
"Give it a try," Thairat says. "You might discover an area that you hadn't considered before. And it can be use for your academic and professional profile."
Comments