The Program in
Urban Public Health has been accredited by the Council on Education
in Public Health (CEPH) to educate professionals to promote health
and prevent disease among diverse urban populations. CEPH has identified
various competencies that should be mastered by graduates of its accredited
programs. Our curriculum is designed to assist students in mastering
the competencies specified by CEPH. At the same time, there are certain
expectations we have of our newly admitted students. We have articulated
these expectations to help you pepare for enrollment. These expectations
are described below as skills, behaviors and tools that students should
possess when they matriculate in our program. In the pages that follow
we suggest strategies that will help students achieve these expectations
more fully. We encourage students enrolled in our MPH program to:
- Determine your
status in all of the areas listed below.
- Take action
to meet these objectives within your first semester of enrollment.
- Consult an
advisor for help in evaluating or strengthening your preparation
for graduate work leading to the MPH degree.
Skills
Students should:
1.
Be able to carry out mathematical operations (including algebra and
statistics) and apply them to pub-lic health.
2. Be able to write and speak clear, coherent English that
describes and analyzes social and scientific is-sues.
3. Possess basic computer skills, including word processing,
the use of electronic mail, and finding in-formation on the internet.
4. Speak English so that others can understand you.
Professional
Activities Development
Students should:
5. Participate regularly in some paid or volunteer work
related to health.
6. Maintain membership in at least one professional organization.
7. Read at least two monthly professional journals regularly,
one of which should be the Journal of the American Public Health
Association.
8. Be familiar with current debates on major public health
issues.
9. Be able to find appropriate references on health topics
in a library.
Tools
Students should:
10. Own a computer, or have access to one on a regular basis.
11. Maintain an internet e-mail account.
12. Subscribe to the Hunter Urban Public Health internet mailing
list for your specialization track (Public Health Nutrition).
Strategies
to Meet Expectations of MPH Students at Hunter College . . .
SKILLS
1. Be able to carry out mathematical operations (including algebra
and statistics) and apply them to public health. Be able to perform
and apply to basic public health problems quantitative operations,
as well as basic concepts from algebra and statistics, and be able
to carry out operations accurately with numbers up to 1 billion, whether
by hand or electronically. Students should be able to represent numbers
in fraction, decimal and exponent form. Students are also expected
to own and be familiar with the use of an electronic hand calculator.
Consider enrolling in an undergraduate (or non-credit) mathematics
course if your background in mathematics is weak or if you received
low GRE quantitative scores.
2. Be able
to write and speak clear, coherent English that describes and analyzes
social and scientific issues. Write clear, coherent grammatical
English to describe and analyze social and health problems for both
academic and general audiences. Help is available through the Hunter
College Reading/Writing Center on line at http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu.
The website will lead you to the Center’s student and faculty
guides, current workshop schedule, on-line handout file, and directions
for e-tutoring (tutoring over email). Students with writing problems,
low GRE verbal scores, or limited experience writing English should
enroll in undergraduate (or non-credit) writing courses.
3. Possess
basic computer skills, including word processing, the use of electronic
mail, and finding information on the internet. For help, contact
The Computer Lab located in 421 Thomas Hunter at 68th Street: 212-650-3952.
Instructional Computing Services is at: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/icit/ics/
and The Computer Center is at: http://myst.hunter.cuny.edu/~rwcenter/computer/index.html.
Students who need more extensive help to achieve basic computer literacy
should enroll in a non-credit course in com-puters.
4. Speak English
so that others can understand you. While we welcome students who
are not native English speakers, public health requires the ability
to communicate clearly. If you need preparation for the Test of English
as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) examination, you may enroll in the Hunter
College Inter-national English Language Institute (IELI) class that
gives intensive preparation for the new computer-based TOEFL test.
Also open to all IELI students are tutorials that provide one-on-one
or small group meetings for practice in writing, grammar, or conversation.
IELI can be reached at 212-772-4290 or 772-4292, e-mail: ieli@hunter.cuny.edu,
or http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/ieli
PROFESSIONAL
ACTIVITIES DEVELOPMENT
5. Participate regularly in at least some paid or volunteer work
related to public health, whether or not it is a component of your
course work. Students are expected to participate in a minimum
of 100 hours of health-related work each year (about two hours per
week) during their enrollment at Hunter.
6. Maintain
membership in at least one professional organization. Consider
student membership in the American Public Health Association, which
includes the monthly Journal of the American Public Health Association,
The Nation’s Health magazine, plus numerous other discounts.
The cost for active students is $50/year: www.apha.org
Additionally, the specialization in Public Health Nutrition suggests
the following:
- American Dietetic
Association (ADA) membership for students ($43/year), which includes
a 1-year subscription to the monthly peer-reviewed Journal of
the American Dietetic Association. You will also automatically
become a member in the state dietetic association of your choice:
http://www.eatright.org
- Local memberships:
ADA members who live or work in NYC are also encouraged to join
the Greater New York Dietetic Assoc. Other nearby district groups
are the LI Dietetic Association and the West-chester/Rockland Dietetic
Association.
- Society for
Nutrition Education: Membership for students is $59/year, which
includes a 1-year sub-scription to the bi-monthly peer-reviewed
Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior: http://www.sne.org/
- Dietetic practice
groups (DPGs): ADA members can build skills and stay current in
their specialty area by joining one or more DPGs. Students may want
to join one or more of these DPGs: Public Health Nutrition, School
Nutrition, Vegetarian Nutrition, Hunger & Malnutrition, Nutrition
Education for the Public, and Nutrition in Complementary Care: http://www.eatright.org/healthorg.html#practice
7. Read at
least two monthly professional journals regularly, one of which should
be the Journal of the American Public Health Association.
Keeping up-to-date on journal readings can be accomplished by either
subscribing to the journal, reading it in the library, or reading
it on-line. Additional journals that can help students meet this goal
are Journal of the American Dietetic Association and Journal
of Nutrition Education & Behavior.
8. Be familiar
with current debates on major public health and health policy issues,
such as health care coverage, food safety, and racial disparities
in health. This is achieved by following the national news and reading/viewing
at least one of the following:
- National daily
newspaper
- National weekly
newsmagazine
- Daily news
reports (TV or on-line)
9. Be able
to find a variety of appropriate references related to health in a
library, and conduct an electronic literature search using standard
search engines. Instruction is available at the central Hunter library,
located on the 3rd floor walkway level at 68th St: http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/,
and at the Health Professions Library on the 2nd floor of Brookdale:
212/481-5117 and http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/hpl/TOOLS
10. Own or
have access to a computer equipped with:
- Multi-media
and internet capabilities (i.e. WINDOWS 98, or greater, graphics)
- Word processing
capabilities (i.e. WORD)
- Spreadsheet
capabilities (i.e. EXCEL)
- Presentation
software (i.e. POWERPOINT)
- Printer with
graphics abilities (i.e. charts, photos [color printing is optional])
Computers for
student use are available in the Health Sciences Library on the 2nd
floor of the Brookdale Center, and at 68th Street.
For advice on
buying your first computer, see these two useful sites provided by
the Sociology Department: http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/socio/comp-rec.htm
and http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/socio/vendor.htm
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Acceptance Into
The Program: Expectations of Matriculating Students