Global Health minor added

CSB/SJU has decided to expand the curriculum by adding a Global Health Minor.

“Training provided by the minor will help students analyze some of the most pressing problems that shape our world, preparing students for exciting careers in healthcare, public policy, international service and more.”

The program is intended to help students study the topic in a more guided fashion. According to Professor Ellen Block, one of the faculty associated with kickstarting the program, studying global health inequalities isn’t new to the two campuses, “[The program will] give students some sort of guidance and rigorous kind of academic foundation in global health, rather than just sort of like piecemeal choosing this here and choosing this there,” Block said.

There was a lot of focus on the program being interdisciplinary. Students could major in Anthropology and follow a similar career to Block-who spent time studying HIV and orphan care in the small African nation of Lesotho. Block described it like a complementary piece, a minor that complements students selected major.

Opportunities for students are already being developed; a summer internship will allow students to work in various ways on global health abroad or in Minnesota. According to Block, faculty will help connect students to organizations and will help to make sure that these internships are within a student’s wheelhouse.

“We’re going to work with organizations there to try to come up with a plan that actually adds value to their organizations,” Block said, speaking on the plan to help interns interested on going to work in South Africa.

A $140,000 grant over two years will help train faculty and provide these opportunities. Over 50 students said in a survey they were interested in the minor, which is available to first-year and second-year students.

“So far students have been really positive in responding,” Block said.