While all four students were drawn to health care policy, Ackerly's interest was more personal: in high school, he went through several brain surgeries.

"Health care has been my life. I've had experiences in it that are very powerful and almost obligate me to study it more," he says. "That's what feeding the fire."

But after attending a meeting of EPIHC and talking with Professor Allan M. Brandt, who teaches Historical Studies A-34: "Medicine and Society," Ackerly was warned that special concentrations are lonely.

Still, the group of four students persevered. They began working to create a joint application to the Committee on Special Concentrations.

While the students were driven by personal experiences, they were also concerned about the direction the country's health care policies are taking.

"I think this country is in need of people looking [at our system]," Sherber says. "Our health care system is all over the place."

Last May, the Committee rejected the students' proposals, saying they were too similar and too abstract. The students stayed in contact throughout the summer and worked to clarify their plans of study.

Their efforts paid off. On September 25, the Committee approved the first special concentration in health policy.

Although each of the four proposals is slightly different--some focus more on economics, others on government--they all include six semesters of health care tutorials and culminate in a thesis.

In addition to economics and government, the students will take courses in sociology, religion, statistics and history of science. There are many courses they could take--more than 150 professors throughout the University teach classes related to health policy.

"It's different, but that's the whole point of the special concentration--to have an interdisciplinary look at health care," Ackerly says. "There are so many resources here that it would be a shame not to tap into them at the undergraduate level."

Three weeks into the semester, the students say they are pleased with how much they've learned.

"We can already talk about the intricacies of Medicare," Sherber says. "We're jumping in, feet first."

The four sophomores say they're not the only undergraduates who are eager to discuss health care policy. Sherber says she has come across many students who are interested in the special concentration.

After she started talking about her academic plans in a section for Social Analysis 10: "Principles of Economics," she was barraged with question from curious classmates.