Mar 29, 2024  
2021-2023 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2021-2023 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Public Health Minor


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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

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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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