Health Promotion Minor
The online health promotion minor prepares students for a variety of careers in the growing field of health promotion and disease prevention. Typical job areas include healthcare marketing and communication for hospitals, health promotion for geriatric care facilities, health marketing for non-profits such as the American Lung Association, or health communication positions within the Department of Health and Human Services (e.g., CDC, NIH, FDA). A professional health promotion practitioner uses a variety of communication strategies, tactics, and media to increase awareness, improve knowledge, communicate outcomes, facilitate behavior change, prevent or impede the onset of disease, and develop environments that encourage and support positive healthy behaviors. Health promotion programs take place in many settings, including schools, clinics, hospitals, workplaces and community settings. A minor in health promotion can benefit students in a variety of academic disciplines, including business administration, marketing, communications, public health, liberal arts, medicine, education and social work.
The following courses are required:
1. |
JRL 101 Introduction to Mass Communication, 3 hours |
| This course can be taken on campus or online and is generally offered every term. | |
2. |
Choose one of the following: |
ADV 215 Principles of Advertising, 3 hours |
|
| This course can be taken on campus or online and is generally offered every term. | |
PR 215 Introduction to Public Relations, 3 hours |
|
| This course can be taken on campus or online and is generally offered every term. | |
3. |
JRL 450 Writing for Health Promotion, 3 hours |
| Prerequisites: JRL 101, ADV 215 or PR 215 | |
| JRL 450 must be taken online and is generally offered during the fall and summer semesters. | |
4. |
JRL 452 Applied Health Promotion, 3 hours |
| Prerequisites: JRL 101, ADV 215 or PR 215 | |
| JRL 452 must be taken online and is generally offered during the fall and summer semesters. | |
5. |
JRL 454 Health Promotion Campaigns, 3 hours |
| Prerequisites: JRL 101, ADV 215PR 215 | |
| JRL 454 must be taken online and is generally offered during the spring and summer semesters. | |
To earn a minor in health promotion a student must earn a grade of C or better in each of the five courses. Students completing the entire minor online can expect to complete it in one year.
Students who double-minor in advertising and health promotion or public relations and health promotion may only take JRL 101, ADV 215, and PR 215 once and must replace the duplicated offering with one of the School of Journalism's online 200-level or higher open-enrollment courses.
Students who triple-minor in advertising, public relations, and health promotion must complete all listed courses. However, JRL 101 can be taken only once and must be replaced with two of the School of Journalism's online 200-level or higher open-enrollment courses.
All online courses are taught completely via eCampus. Students need to plan on logging into eCampus daily during the week but can do so at the time of their own choosing. Students should budget the same amount of time for an online class as they do for classroom classes.
School of Journalism students may complete the health promotion as an area of emphasis and should consult their advisor for details.
To register for these courses call Extended Learning at (304) 293-2834 or 1-800-2Learn2. For more information about P.I. Reed School of Journalism classes, contact Cathy Chickerell, the Undergraduate Extended Learning Coordinator at sojonline@mail.wvu.edu.
