Community Health Education

Faculty

David A. Hair, M.Ed., M.S., Chair
Ronald W. Deitrick, Ph.D., Program Director of Exercise Science
Virginia M. Corcoran, Ed.D., R.D.
Paul T. Cutrufello, Ph.D. candidate
Debra L. Fetherman, Ph.D. Program Director of Community Health Education
Stephen L. Klingman, M.S.
Aukje Kluge, Ph.D. candidate
Georgios A. Stylianides, Ph.D.
Andrew Stuka, M.S.

Overview

The Health Education Profession is dedicated to excellence in the practice of promoting individual, family, organizational, and community health. The World Health Organization defines “health” as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or disability. The American Journal of Health Promotion defines “optimal health” as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual health..

Health educators use the “science and art” of health promotion to help individuals and communities change their lifestyle behaviors in an attempt to move toward “optimal” health regardless of individual disease or disability. Lifestyle change is facilitated through strategies to increase awareness, change behavior and develop supportive environments so individuals and communities can adopt and maintain healthy practices.

The Community Health Education (CHED) major is multidisciplinary in nature and rooted in the Jesuit liberal arts tradition. The CHED major enables students to develop key areas of responsibility and competencies that professionally prepare them to be community health educators without the restrictions of a traditional functional/disciplinary major. Students can utilize cognate, general and free electives in a concentrated area pertaining to general health topics or Nutrition or pursue a minor in various areas of interest (i.e., Counseling and Human Services, Human Development, Psychology, and Spanish). Electives can also be used in preparation for graduate health professional programs in Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant and Public Health.

Students will be educated to embody the spirit of “men and women for others,” and encouraged to address issues of social justice and sustainability. Students will develop creative and interpersonal skills to be adept writers, good listeners and speakers. Emphasis will be placed on building skills to work with diverse populations and understanding cultural sensitivity.

Students will be required to complete internship and service learning experiences in a variety of settings. Based upon the internship or service learning site, students may be required to submit a Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance and a Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Record Check to the CHED program. Students whose primary residence is out of state may also be required to submit an FBI background check. Copies of these clearances will be provided to sites upon request.

Students will earn a bachelor’s degree which is generally a minimum requirement for an entry-level health educator position. Some states require health educators to be certified health education specialists and others may prefer to hire those who are certified. The Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) designation is offered by the National Commission of Health Education Credentialing. Students may qualify to take the certification exam after earning a degree in health education.

A comprehensive list of courses that qualify for electives will be provided to students by the academic advisor. Consult individual departments for specific course descriptions.

Community Health Education Curriculum
Dept. and No.				Descriptive Title of Course	Credits
				FIRST YEAR	FALL	SPRING
MAJOR		NURS 100		Family Health	3
COGNATE		BIOL 110–111		Struct. & Funct. of the Human Body	4	4
COGNATE		COGNATE ELECTIVES		Cognate Electives	3-4.5	3-4.5
GE S/BH		CHS 111(S) or PSY 110 (S)		Intro Human Adjust or Fund of Psych	3
GE SPCH-WRTG		COMM 100 - WRTG 107		Public Speaking - Composition	3	3
GE C/IL		C/IL 102		Computer Literacy		3
GE PHIL		PHIL 120		Introduction to Philosophy		3
GE QUAN		PSYC 210		Statistics in the Behavioral Sciences	3
GE FSEM		INTD 100P 1		Freshman Seminar	1
					17-18.5	16-17.5
				SECOND YEAR
MAJOR		CHS 112 1 or HADM 112 1		Human-Service System or Health Systems	3
MAJOR		EXSC 230 (D)		Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Health Disparities		3
MAJOR		CHED 210		Intro Community Health Education	3
COGNATE		NUTR 101 or NUTR 220		Intro to Nutr/Nutr Health Pro	3
GE PHIL-T/RS		PHIL 210–T/RS121		Ethics–Theology I	3	3
COGNATE		COGNATE ELECT		Cognate Electives	3	3
GE QUAN		ELECT		Quantitative Elective		3
GE HUMN		HUMN ELECT		Humanities Electives	3	3
GE PHED		PHED ELECT		Physical Education Elective		1
					18	16
				THIRD YEAR
MAJOR		CHS 335 or HADM 314		Administration in Human Services or Health Policy		3
MAJOR		CHS 341 1 or HADM 315 1		Group Dynamics or Cultural Diversity and Health Administration		3
MAJOR		CHED 320		Program Planning, Implementation and Evaluation		3
MAJOR		CHED 310		Foundations of Health Education Theory, Research and Practice	3
COGNATE		COGNATE ELECT		Cognate Electives	6	3
GE T/RS		T/RS 122		Theology II		3
GE S/BH		S/BH ELECT		S/BH Elective	3
GE HUMN		HUMN ELECT		Humanities Electives	3	3
GE PHED		PHED 112		First Aid & CPR	1
GE ELECT		FREE ELECT		Free Electives	3
					18	18
				FOURTH YEAR
MAJOR		CHED 410		Health Education Communication Methods and Techniques	3
MAJOR		CHED 480		Internship in Health Education		6
MAJOR		EXSC 413 (W)		Worksite Health Promotion		3
COGNATE		EXSC 435 (D) 1		Exercise, Nutrition and Women’s Health	3
GE PHIL		PHIL 316		American Perspectives in Medical Ethics		3
GE ELECT		FREE ELECT		Free Electives	9
GE PHED		PHED ELECT/PHED 112		Physical Education	1	1
					16	15
					Total: 132-135 Credits
1 Includes service-learning components.