Public Health minor supports both WSSU’s central vision of cultivating students “who advance social justice by serving the world with compassion and commitment” and the university’s strategic plan to help build community capacity by engaging students with practical matters of health equity. By providing students with a cohesive program of undergraduate training in public health, WSSU will be developing students who have the necessary skills to recognize and address in some capacity existing and emerging challenges to population-level. At WSSU, we have many talented students who although interested in health do not necessarily aspire to clinical careers. As an alternative, the Public Health minor delivers a narrative of focused interdisciplinary courses designed to encourage students to follow their passion in a way that aligns well with liberal education.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Critical Thinking - analyze, synthesize or desconstruct, interpret and evaluate information and concepts across and within the disciplines of public health to solve problems of health equity
- Effective Communication skills - use appropriate lanaguage, conventions, organization, supporting evidence, and content to effectively communicate in writing and through the spoken word for the purpose and audience
- Scientific Literacy - exhibit knowledge of scientific concepts and processes and ability to engage the scientific method towards informing decision making and participation in civic, social and economic affairs
Prerequisites (6 hours)
The minor designates statistics and human biology courses as necessary to provide a basis on which build public health knowledge. This will provide the student with a more solid foundation that will enhance students’ understanding issues of health equity and social justice.
Students must complete 3 hours of Statistics from one of the following courses:
EXS 2310 Demystifying the Statistics of the Health Sciences
GER 2326 Statistics for Social and Behavior Sciences
MAT 2326 Elementary Statistics
PSY 2326 Statistics for Social and Behavior Sciences**
SOC 2326 Statistics for Social and Behavior Sciences
and
Students must complete 3 hours of Human Biology, from one of the following courses:
BIO 1305 Human Heredity, Genetics and Society
BIO 1340 Human Biology and Disease
BIO 2304 Scientific Investigation of Diseaes
BIO 2311 Anatomy & Physiology I
Foundation (12 hours)
The Foundation courses designated below will give students a general view of population-level health, including theory and assessment methodology. These are the basic elements needed to begin understanding the discipline of public health. Additionally, the foundation selection menu arms those students who choose not to further pursue a Public Health minor with knowledge that is easily transferable to other fields.
Students must complete all of the following courses (12 hours):
EXS 3304 Global Health, Policy, Practice and Perspectives**
EXS 3306 Epidemiology for Public Health Practice**
EXS 3308 Environmental Health**
EXS 3335 Health Program Planning and Evaluation**
Breadth and Depth Courses (6 hours in total)
“Breadth” courses introduce students to a wide variety of courses within the discipline of public health. The objective is to provide students with a cross-disciplinary opportunity to: 1) experience, 2) explore and 3) gain some expertise in various public health subfields, i.e., informatics, biostatistics, epidemiology, maternal/child health, etc.
“Depth” courses have more rigor; they focus on defined subfields of the discipline of public health. Such depth courses typically require the application of knowledge, theories and assessment methods. As these are all generally upper level courses, students would be evaluated vis comprehensive writing papers, applied community-level engagement and more senior-level reading assignments relateive to “Breadth” courses.
Students must complete six (6)** additional hours from the following list. No more than one (1) course may come from a student’s major department. Some courses may have prerequisites.
BIO 1305 Human Heredity, Genetics and Society
BIO 1331 General Microbiology**
BIO 1340 Human Biology and Disease
BIO 2304 Scientific Investigation of Diseases
BIO 3310 Biology of Aging
CLS 1303 Infectious Disease in Modern Society**
ECO 2310 Concepts of Health Economics**
EXS 1301 Lifestyle Behaviors for Healthy Heart
EXS 3312 Community-Based Planning and Invention*&**
EXS 3320 Community-Based Invention Practicum**
EXS 3328 Exercise is Medicine
EXS 4340 Etilogy, Risk Factors, and Prevention Strategies of Chronic Diseases
GER 2301 General Gerontology
GER 3303 Health-Related Functional Aspects of Gerontology
GER 3310 Biology of Aging *
HCM 3303 Proposal of Writing
HCM 3306 Population Health
HCM 3310 Community Health Intervention and Planning
HCM 4301 Chronic Illness/Long Term Care Management
HED 2306 Understanding Health Disparities in the U. S.
HED 3302 Family Health and Sexuality Education
HED 3303 Personal Health Behaviors
MAT 3310 Probability and Statistics I
MAT 3311 Probability and Statistics II
MAT 3312 Biostatistics
PSY 1301 Introduction to the Psychological Sciences
PSY 2316 Drugs, Addiction & Behavior
PSY 2336 Lifespan Development
PSY 3303 Psychology of Aging**
PSY 3306 Abnormal Behavior
PSY 3350 Human Sexuality**
SOC 2302 Health & Society: General Sociology
SOC 2305 African-American Health & Society
SOC 3315 Medical Sociology
SOC 3320 Society and Public Health
SOC 3350 Human Sexuality**
TRC 1305 Living Well! Benefits of Leisure of People with Disabilities
*crosslisted
** approved by ASCC November 20, 2018
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