JD/MPH in Community Health Education: Curriculum

Law School Curriculum

Law School JD degree requirements for students entering Fall 2009 include satisfactory completion of 88 semester credits, and six semesters of full-time enrollment (defined as 12 semester credits or more). First-year students are required to take a core curriculum totaling 30 credits and comprised of the following courses: Beyond that, all courses are elective, except that a student must take a course in Professional Responsibility (3 credits) and Constitutional Law II (3 credits) before graduating. In addition, each student must satisfy a second-year writing requirement (typically by participating in a moot court or serving as a staff member on one of the Law School's law reviews), as well as a third-year writing requirement (typically satisfied by taking a course meeting this requirement, completing an independent research paper meeting this requirement, which may be an MS thesis, Plan B paper, PhD dissertation, or capstone project, or serving as an editor on one of the Law School's law reviews).

To see requirements for students entering in years other than 2009, visit www.law.umn.edu/current/degreerequirements.html.

In addition, all students in the Joint Degree Program in Law, Health & the Life Sciences take a professional seminar. This 1-credit Proseminar is taught cooperatively by faculty involved in the Joint Degree Program, offered on a pass-fail basis, and required each Fall semester that a student is enrolled in the Joint Degree Program.

JD/MPH in Community Health Education

Community health education promotes the adoption of healthy behaviors in individuals, families, groups, communities, and whole populations. Public health practitioners accomplish this through public and institutional policy, media advocacy and mass media, community organizing, individual and family counseling, support groups and classes, and interventions designed for schoolchildren or employees. Master's degree-level community health educators develop, administer, and evaluate community and organizational programs to support changes in high-risk behaviors, work with policymakers and community leaders to change health-compromising policies and practices, and coordinate the work of public and private agencies and health care organizations for maximum benefit to the community. Applicants are admitted from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, including basic sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities. The program trains health professionals to fill expanding and diverse roles in community health education. The program focuses on behavioral and social theories, community and individual intervention strategies, communication methods, public policy, and evaluation skills.

Research activities focus on behavioral epidemiology and community health education, with faculty involved in assessing population behavior patterns and psychosocial risk factors; designing community-wide intervention programs for heart disease, cancer, AIDS, and alcohol and drug abuse prevention; influencing health policies; and evaluating outcomes of behavior change efforts in schools, worksites, and physicians' offices at the community or population level.

The MPH degree in Community Health Education (CHE) is a two-year, 48-credit program. Coursework in the following areas is required:

• Social and behavioral theory and foundations of health education practice;
• Intervention strategies and risk areas;
• Evaluation methods (including biostatistics and program evaluation research methods);
• Public health core courses in administration, biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, ethics; and
• Elective courses.

CHE students must complete a final capstone Master's project consisting of a written presentation in the form of a scientific research paper, a needs assessment, program development, or program evaluation for a community-based organization (completed in conjunction with PUBH 7096 Master's Project (3 credits)).

In addition, CHE students must complete a supervised fieldwork experience with a public health or related organization outside the School of Public Health. Students have two options for meeting their field experience requirement:

• Students can choose to complete the Master's Project described above that can take the form of a needs assessment, program development, or program evaluation for a community-based organization; or
• Students can choose to fulfill part of their fieldwork requirement by completing an optional internship. These students then have a choice of completing either the standard Master's Project or if they have an interest in research and analysis, they may choose to conduct research or perform data analysis.

Combining Curricula

Students in the Joint Degree Program combine their Law and science/health curricula by cross-counting up to 12 Law credits in their science or health program and up to 12 non-law credits in their Law School program. For more details, click on "Cross-Counting Courses" above.

JD/MS or JD/PhD students are eligible for a minor in bioethics, bioinformatics, or human genetics.