Students with a passion for science and health should look no further than UVM, according to a recent report by USA Today.

ReLast week, the report that placed UVM among institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California as one of the top 10 schools to study health professions. With programs like nursing, communication sciences and disorders, medical laboratory and radiation sciences, rehabilitation and movement science, and rural emergency medical services training, UVM health profession majors are “centered on research and patient care,” according to USA Today.

The UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences is focused on prevention and providing students with the tools to prevent illness and inspire health, said Patricia Prelock, the CNHS dean.

“We have a vision for inter-professional education and really working together as more than one discipline,” Prelock said. “We recognize that the value that each of us brings to the table is only added by the value that we bring to everybody else’s skill.”

Prelock, a speech-language pathologist, said that even while handling the administrative needs of the CNHS, she is still able to practice her passion and do research that she feels is important to the future of science. Health profession majors at UVM also benefit from an affiliation with the University of Vermont Medical Center, Prelock said.

“Having a College of Nursing and Health Sciences that is highly connected to a College of Medicine and the University of Vermont Medical Center just enriches the whole experience,” she said. “Students have access to faculty, several of our courses are taught with our colleagues at the College of Medicine and having a medical center so close geographically really facilitates engagement,” she said.

Students in CNHS are also able to pursue their passions at with world-class faculty. “In my first microbiology lecture, my professor taught with such passion and knowledge and he didn’t even glance at the PowerPoint,” said sophomore Victoria Chebishev, a medical laboratory science major. “They challenge us and push us to our limits in hopes that we’ll have the science as a skill to pursue our future scientific endeavors, whatever they may be,” she said.

Graduates of CNHS also appreciate the unique opportunities available to them at UVM. “In such a big university, you don’t typically get small classes and hands-on learning through clinicals and internships like you do in this college,” said Maegan Hall, a graduate with a degree in radiation therapy from CNHS.