Public Health (BA) Program Learning Outcomes

The Learning Outcomes for the Public Health Major (BA) are contained in eight core standards within three themes. The Public Health Program has embedded these learning outcomes in coursework, experiential requirements and opportunities and assessments. The discipline of public health seeks to maximize human health and wellness at the population or community level, and our program is particularly focused on health equity, that is, ensuring that health and wellness are achieved for all individuals in the group. The study of Public Health requires both the attention to content contained in the first three standards of the first theme, and the acquisition of skills and of ethical values discussed in the second and third themes.  Three benchmarks required over the course of the program are: maintenance of 2.0 or higher GPA in the major; completion of a significant experiential project; and completion of a summative reflective essay at the conclusion of the senior experience.

Theme I: Understanding the social, biological, behavioral, and political forces that foster and impede human health and well-being (determinants of health).

Graduates demonstrate understanding in the following areas:

Standard 1: Social Determinants of Health: Graduates describe social determinants of health, that is, the non-medical factors that affect health outcomes, including the broader forces and systems that shape everyday life conditions.

Standard 2: Biomedical Basis of Health. Graduates explain the roles of infectious, chronic and genetic disease in population and community health.

Standard 3: Behavioral and Policy Factors in Health. Graduates describe the ways that individual and collective (government) decisions and choices affect population and community health.

Theme II: Developing and Exercising Relevant Skills

Standard 4: Statistical Analysis: Graduates use statistics to provide and interpret data related to public health measurements and questions.

Standard 5: Epidemiological Analysis. Graduates use the basic concepts and tools of epidemiology to describe the distribution and determinants of disease.

Theme III: Ethical Dimensions of Public Health

Standard 6: Health Equity. Graduates apply a health equity lens to analyses of public health challenges, changes, and goals.

Standard 7: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice: Graduates develop an appreciation for persons with racial, ethnic, economic, sexuality, gender and gender identity, religious, and disability identities different from their own. They direct attention to their own positionality and to the identities of those making decisions as well as those impacted by these decisions.

Standard 8: Cultural Competency. Graduates cultivate the ability to approach groups and cultures different from their own with respect, openness, and humility.