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

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 Behavioral Science **

SOC 2326 - Statistics for the Social and Behavioral 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 Diseases

BIO 2311 - Anatomy and 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 3312 - Health Economics **

EXS 1301 - Lifestyle Behaviors for a Healthy Heart

EXS 3312 - Community-based Health Planning & Intervention *&**

EXS 3320 - Community-Based Health Intervention Practicum **

EXS 3328 - Exercise is Medicine

EXS 4340 - Etiology, Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies of Chronic Diseases