Academic Classes in Public Health

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.

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 113
Campus Health Impact Program (3 units)
Challenges students to understand the interconnectedness between personal health and the larger context of society and the impact to community. Covers principles of public health and social justice, health promotion philosophy, social consciousness, current public health issues, community health issues, diversity and oppression theories. Students participate in a community service placement of their choosing.

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. See Peer Education Opportunities for information on our specific programs. 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 and consent of instructor.

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

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