Jonah Lindsay is a student in his senior year at BYU Public Health who is emphasizing in Environmental and Occupational Health.
Jonah is a prolific student in the Environmental and Occupational Health Department and currently is the president of the BYU Occupational Health Association.
He was recently a part of a team of four over the summer that presented at the World Expo 2025 and won the International Organization Award.
I had the chance to sit down with Jonah and ask him about his BYU path through the public health program and the ways that it impacted and changed his life.
Preparing to enter the workforce in industrial hygiene after graduating, Jonah, when he began his public health journey, didn’t fully know what he wanted to pursue as a career path.
Lindsay started off at BYU as a music composition major. It was his initial idea of gaining a job that would give him real experience in the workforce that ended up leading to him applying and receiving a job as an industrial hygienist for BYU with risk management.
Lindsay explained, “I was working as a server at the Sky Room here at BYU and I remember there’s just this moment where I was like, I want some job that gets me experience in something. So I applied to a whole bunch of places on campus and risk management was the only one that I heard back from.”
Lindsay began to work on the industrial hygiene team, which allowed him to experience firsthand working in occupational health.
As the Industrial Hygiene Technician Student Lead, Jonah was able to see different hazards in the workplace and investigate the causes of them. Whether it was noise monitoring or air quality, he and his team would set up and go in with instruments to analyze the hazards and then find ways to mitigate them.
That led him to switch majors to see if he could pursue this newfound work and passion forward with public health.
From working in the risk management section at BYU, Jonah has been able to find a career that he is excited to work in post-graduation.
He explained, “I would love to just become an industrial hygienist for some sort of manufacturing company, transportation, or aerospace. The cool thing about environmental and occupational health is that people need worker safety and health professionals in every field.”
One of the most important things for entering the workplace, according to Lindsay, is the focus on continuing to be a lifelong learner due to the constantly evolving landscape in the public health field.
Collaboration and working with students in his cohort have been a great aspect for Lindsay in staying up to date on the world in public health.
“I would just say collaborate. Connect with other students to see what things are out there in your own field, because sometimes we just don't know everything. And there’s a lot you can learn from everybody,” Lindsay said.
One of the best things about public health for Lindsay, though, was how he didn’t expect to go into the field initially but has found incredible opportunities and friendships because of it.
Lindsay said, “The most important thing I think is that God is at the helm of the ship and that he's always guiding us, especially when we don’t see it. There were times that I definitely felt like I was just steering. For those that feel that way I can definitely relate and just know you're not alone; that happens with everyone. Then they find their field and I would say God has a way of putting everything together very nicely.”