Health Promotion

Introduction

The health promotion degree prepares students with the professional skills necessary to promote healthy lifestyles, particularly among populations that have limited access to health-related information and services. These skills include needs assessment, program development and implementation, and evaluation of program outcomes.

Delaware State’s health promotion program emphasizes hands-on learning. Students gain many of hours of practical work experience via field placements as volunteers in health agencies, public health departments, the corporate world, and other agencies. They develop programs to enhance health in a variety of ways including:
 

• nutrition
• obesity prevention and reduction
• alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse
• sexually transmissible diseases
• pregnancy and prenatal care
• heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and other chronic conditions
• mental health
• pollution and environmental health

PAHO Newsletter, Issue 1, November 2015

Professional Preparation

Graduates enter the work force with a wide range of job-ready work skills, including public speaking, written communication, qualitative research techniques, health promotion and disease prevention education, needs assessment and analysis. The program includes an in-depth study of public, personal, and community health topics, public health policy, informatics, workplace health promotion, epidemiology, barriers to healthy lifestyles, public and community health organization mechanisms, and health-related challenges of diverse and low-income populations.

Faculty

Faculty in the health promotion program teaches from first-hand experience. Combining academic expertise with years of professional practice, they have earned their “street cred” and can offer practical wisdom and insight along with textbook lessons.

Delaware State’s Health Promotion program offers intimate class sizes to enable meaningful content delivery. Instructors are able to develop close relationships with students, offering mentorship, academic guidance, and career advice.

Research and Experience

During the junior year, all students perform dozens of hours of observation and fieldwork at an off-campus site including, but not limited to health care agencies, correctional facilities, HIV Prevention centers, health care and disease prevention entities, etc. Students are required to engage in course encumbered mini-research projects, progressively working towards a qualitative research project.

The senior capstone consists of a minimum twelve-week, full-time placement at a community health agency or public health facility. Here students engage in supervised work site activities.