Emphasizing health education and awareness
Students in the Community Health department are committed to raising awareness for the health concerns of the University and beyond.
“The goal of the Community Health major is to assess the individual and community needs for health education,” said Rebecca Brimhall, the Community Health advisor. “This entails planning, implementing and administering health education programs, conducting research and evaluation and working as an advocate for health and health education.”
The Community Health major is divided into three different emphases: Community Health Education, School Health Education and Health Services Administration. Each one of these concentrations focuses on a different aspect of the public health domain.
Students in the program focus on the interplay of many different factors that contribute to health and disease: environmental conditions, politics, economics, culture, ethnicity and gender, as well as the accessibility, availability and quality of health services.
“We also have two clubs here on campus,” Brimhall said. “One for our Community Health Education emphasis, called the Community Health Association of UVU (CHAUVU) and the other for our Health Services Administration emphasis, called the UVU Health Care Management Club (UVUHCM). Both clubs are involved in different service projects each semester.”
One example of these great service opportunities is the Study Abroad Program in Ghana, which the Community Health department runs every year.
In this venture, students have the opportunity to experience Ghana first hand while earning Community Health, Anthropology and internship credit. Participants are able to make a substantial impact in the lives of the people of Ghana as they work with local health-care providers, schools and the health ministry in teaching public health and AIDS awareness and prevention programs.
In addition to the trip to Ghana, the department will also be visiting Peru this spring for a Health Conference.
Graduates with a bachelor’s degree in Community Health can pursue a variety of career positions. Jobs include community health education and promotion, school health, health care management and other community health and human service administrations.
Graduates are qualified to work in government and private-sector health care agencies, as well as specialized health agencies such as the American Heart Association, the National Cancer Institute and more.
“We have wonderful students in the Public and Community Health Department,” said Mary Brown, an assistant professor in the program. “They are bright, hard-working and anxious to become health educators, school health teachers and health care administrators.”