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Senior Curriculum

The Senior Curriculum is designed to help students think critically about what factors shape health, and how they can be leaders and change agents in their communities. By the end of this program, each student will be able to:

  1. Describe several definitions of community, public health and medicine;
  2. Define socio-contextual determinants of health;
  3. Conduct an informal community needs assessment;
  4. Use social media to create public health messaging;
  5. Deliver an oral presentation with accompanying visual aids;
  6. Feel empowered to create change in their community.

Specific learning objectives for each session are detailed in the outline below.

At the end of the year, students' final projects demonstrate their understanding of health science content and allow their own voices to be heard on community health issues that are important to them. Here are the 2016 senior cohort's final projects (community needs assessments and public service announcements):

Learning Objectives

Session 1: Community

  1. Define community.
  2. Identify how individuals interact to create communities.
  3. Identify health issues within the students’ communities.

Session 2: Public Health and Medicine

  1. Define public health.
  2. Define medicine.
  3. Describe the roles of public health and medicine within a community.

Session 3: Stages of Prevention

  1. Describe and contrast primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions.
  2. Identify examples of each.
  3. Use critical thinking to develop logical arguments for public health interventions.

Session 4: Communication

  1. Identify communication strategies used in public health messaging.
  2. Identify opportunities to meld public health with social media.
  3. Create a social media message about a public health issue.

Session 5: Final Project Introduction

  1. Brainstorm prompts for Photovoice community needs assessment.
  2. Identify a plan for conducting the Photovoice assignment.
  3. Develop goals, work plan, and timeline for final project.

Session 6, 7, 8, 9: CNA Results, Project Research & Work Time

  1. Apply understanding of socio-contextual determinants of health to selected health issue.
  2. Perform background research on the prevalence, causes and existing interventions for the selected health issue.
  3. Apply learned knowledge to final project development.

Session 10: Dress Rehearsal

  1. Complete all materials for the final project.
  2. Present the results of their CNA and PSA.