Academic Classes in Public Health
Course offerings may vary from year to year.
All Health Promotion academic courses (except PH113) are on hold for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Taking a Public Health course is a thought-provoking way to learn about health and earn academic credit at the same time. Whether you want to learn more about particular health topics or are exploring a career in public health, we have classes for you. All our courses teach critical thinking skills as well as focus on the power of prevention.
Our courses fall into two main categories:
- General enrollment classes open to students enrolled at Cal.
- Peer education programs where students earn academic credit through courses that combine academic course work and field experiences as peer health educators. These programs generally require an application and interview process.
PLEASE NOTE: We are currently reviewing student involvement programs and opportunities. Our peer based programs - Health Worker Program and Sexual Health Education Program (SHEP) - are not recruiting at this time. There may, however, be an opportunity for you to do meaningful health-based work with students and the Berkeley/Oakland communities on a volunteer basis:
- Become an HIV Outreach Worker! Outreach workers receive training through the Berkeley Free Clinic to provide HIV prevention outreach to college age populations. This opportunity is made available through the Berkeley Builds Capacity (BBC) project sponsored by University Health Services and Berkeley Free Clinic. For additional BBC information visit http://uhs.berkeley.edu/hivgrant/.
General Enrollment Courses
Public Health 14
Healthy People: Introduction to Health Promotion (4 units)
Introduction to personal and community health, drawing on physical and social sciences. Specific areas include stress, alcohol and drugs, nutrition, exercise, the environment, communication, and sexuality. Readings, lectures, and discussions explore key issues for students and examine those issues in the context of contemporary American society. Public health approaches to disease prevention and health promotion are explored for each topic.
Public Health 103
Drugs, Health and Society (2 units)
Introduces undergraduates to concepts basic to understanding and analyzing relationships between drugs, health, and society. Using a broad multi-disciplinary perspective, examines legal and illegal drugs and their effects on personal and community health. Prevention of drug problems at the policy, community, organization, and individual levels will be examined.
Public Health 107
Violence, Social Justice and Public Health (2 units)
Addresses violence as a public health issue, using an interdisciplinary approach to explore and analyze violence from personal, social, community and political perspectives. Begins with individual experiences of violence, and focuses on violence against groups identified by socioeconomic status, race, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status and other categories, as well as several environmental factors that promote violence; students will learn to apply public health strategies to identify causes of violence and develop practical community-based plans to prevent violence and promote justice.
Public Health 113
Campus Health Impact Program (3 units)
Focuses on the health of underrepresented groups, including African-American, Chicano/Latino, and LGBT communities, primarily in relation to HIV prevention and sexual health. Covers principles of public health, social justice, and health promotion. Students participate in HIV and sexual health outreach with a community agency organized by the instructor and develop basic outreach and health educator skills. Students from underrepresented groups encouraged to enroll.
Public Health 114
Issues in Personal and Community Health Promotion (3 units)
Introduction to trends and issues in the educational approach to health promotion at the individual and community levels. Focus on dominant problem solving techniques through an analysis of racism and violence as health issue. Special emphasis on the social and political factors that influence both the definition of health and actual health status.
Public Health 131AC
Race, Ethnicity and Health in America (3 units)
This course integrates public health theory, values and practice into a curriculum that acknowledges and values the health practices and philosophies of African American, Chicano/Latino, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native communities. Historical and cultural perspectives on health for each ethnic community is examined. Students will critically analyze the roles racism and classism play in health outcomes, as well as examine how the issues of gender, sexuality, psychology and family impact the health status of communities of color. This course fulfills the American Culture requirement.
Peer Education Programs
Public health internships in Health Promotion combine academic course work and supervised field experiences as peer health educators. Academic credit for these internships is awarded through the following courses:
Public Health 104A/B
Health Promotion in a College Setting (2 units)
Topics include health promotion, medical self-care, and delivery of health care service. Through a combined theory and practice approach, topics are covered as they apply to the campus community.
Prerequisites: Application process for one of our peer education programs - SHEP and Health Worker program - and consent of instructor. We are not recruiting applicants for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Public Health 105
Policy, Planning, and Evaluation of Health Promotion in a College Setting (3 units)
Theory and practice of policy, planning, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion programs a college setting. Comparison of different methodologies (peer education, teaching, problem-solving, organizational change), content areas (stress, alcohol and drugs, HIV/AIDS, human sexuality, and sexual assault), and settings (clinical, classroom, campus).
Prerequisites: 14, 104A or 104B, and consent of instructor.
Location Second floor of the Tang Center across from the elevators
Phone (510) 642-7202
