A decade ago, a small class was created to examine some of the world’s most urgent public health questions. Ten years later, Battling the Bugs: Anthrax, Ebola, and Everyday Life has become one of the department's longest running Honors Seminars, shaping future leaders in a variety of fields.
When Battling the Bugs started, there wasn’t an undergraduate public health major. At the time, Jill DeBoer, the course instructor, was teaching a similar seminar to graduate students, but she wanted the opportunity to reach students earlier in their academic journey. The course eventually found its home in the Honors department.
“The Honors program provides a great opportunity to create new classes, create new course material throughout the seminar, and just try out new topics,” DeBoer said.
Battling the Bugs focuses on public health crises and epidemics. DeBoer is quick to note that what they study aren’t “bugs” in the literal sense, it’s more about the “public perception” of infectious diseases. Her goal was for the course to appeal to students of all majors.
“The general population doesn't really know what public health does so we're trying to give students a peak behind the curtain,” she said. “We really wanted it to be different, we wanted it to be fun and really compelling.”
Sydney Redepenning didn’t have public health on her major or career radar when she decided to take the course her freshman year in 2019. She initially started at UMN as a genetics and cell biology major in the Honors program, but she immediately fell in love with the hands-on problem solving and real world applications of the course.
“I learned what public health is and what infectious disease research looks like,” she said. “It completely changed my career path for the better.”
After finishing the course, Redepenning changed her major to health and wellbeing sciences with a public health minor. That spring, she became a teaching assistant for the non-Honors equivalent of Battling the Bugs which ultimately ignited her passion for teaching. She continued to TA the course through her entire undergraduate degree. During her senior year, Redepenning applied to the U’s environmental health MS program and continued to complete her PhD, which she completed in 2025. She has stayed as a TA with DeBoer the entire time and is now a co-instructor for the course.
“Honors students are very special,” Redepenning said. “When you teach Honors students you can ask a question and more than half of their hands go up. We don’t have a single student we have not heard from, every single one of them is engaged, every single one of them wants to learn more.”
Over the years, the course has evolved alongside global events, incorporating case studies on outbreaks such as Ebola, norovirus and eventually COVID-19. Students analyze data, debate policy responses and examine how social, political and economic factors influence health outcomes.
The course even incorporates examples of public health outbreaks that happen on campus and how teams work behind the scenes to mitigate the risk for the campus community. The seminar is a joint offering by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) and the Health Emergency Response Office (HERO). Guest speakers from both programs join the course throughout the semester to share different roles in public health outbreaks on campus, from facilities management to communications.
At the end of the semester, the students become the instructors. Students are assigned to groups and each group presents a possible public health crisis and the potential solutions for combatting it. At the completion of the seminar, students are invited to join the U of M Medical Reserve Corps.
“This is a unique opportunity as student membership is typically reserved for health sciences graduate students,” said DoBoer. “But after completing this course, these students are very knowledgeable about public health response and are some of our best Medical Reserve Corps members.”
In ten years, over 200 students have taken Battling the Bugs. Each fall, all of the course alumni are invited to watch current students give their final presentations.
"It’s so fun for them to come back and cheer on the current students," DeBoer said. "And it’s a very special moment for me."
As the class celebrates its 10th anniversary, both instructors say the mission remains the same: to prepare the next generation of leaders for the increasing complexities of managing public health.
“It doesn't matter where they end up in their career, they all have a role to play,” said DeBoer.
Battling the Bugs will be offered again in fall 2026.