Bachelor of Science, Major in Community Health

at Northeastern Illinois University USA

The Master of Public Health (MPH) is a 42-credit hour program that offers a broad, interdisciplinary training in public health. The MPH program prepares students to lead, conduct research in, serve, and work in a variety of public health settings. Settings may include public and private health care organizations, health research facilities, social service and environmental health agencies, and government institutions dedicated to public health policy, programming, and services. Additionally, students will be prepared to pursue terminal degrees in the behavioral health, epidemiological, or environmental health sciences, as well as health-related law and policy, health care administration, and health communication.

Northeastern’s generalist Master of Public Health is unique in the greater metropolitan Chicago area. The program is taught by a team of faculty across disciplines. Similarly, students will have the opportunity to select six credit hours of electives from a wide variety of disciplines; therefore they are not limited to a concentration area, but rather a wide variety of topic areas related to public health.
Student Learning Outcomes

Students are expected to demonstrate foundational public health knowledge in:

• The profession and science of public health
• Factors related to human health

Students are expected to demonstrate foundational public health competencies in:

• Evidence-based approaches to public health
• Public health and health care systems
• Planning and management to promote health
• Policy in public health
• Leadership
• Communication
• Interprofessional practice
• Systems thinking

Political Science is central to an understanding of all basic social issues and is one of the most popular liberal arts majors. A political science education gives people the ability to understand the workings of politics and the way it impacts the lives of all of us. A major in this field helps students develop skills of understanding and analysis, and builds competence in oral and written expression. Graduates go on to careers in law, business, journalism, teaching, and government.

The major in Special Education is designed to meet state teacher licensure requirements by training students to be knowledgeable and skilled regarding the education of all school aged children and adolescents with disabilities. Majors are selected during October to begin studies during the following Spring semester. Majors progress through the program as a cohort. Most coursework is offered during daytime hours.

The B.A. in Art with a concentration in Art History introduces students to numerous periods of art, cultural and historical events, visual means of expression and communication, and research methods. Students begin the program with survey courses that cover the history of Western art from ancient to modern eras, plus selected areas of non-Western art and continue on to seven specialized courses at the upper-division level, which include areas such as:

• early European art
• Latin American art
• Pre-Columbian art and architecture
• African, Native American and Oceanic art (through the lens of art and ritual)
• Contemporary art (national and international movements across media in the visual arts)

Upper-level art history courses include theory, analysis, and criticism and students have access to NEIU’s extensive database of more than 300,000+ art history images. Students have the opportunity to take part in international art history study trips to Italy and Peru and are able to work with the Northeastern Art + Design Association (NADA), our student art and design organization, on a variety of student organized art exhibitions and events. Each semester one art history major is appointed to tutor students in 100-level art history courses through the NEIU Learning Support Center.

The Master’s Degree in Computer Science has three concentrations: one for individuals who want to enter careers in industry, one for individuals who want to pursue a Ph.D., and one for high school teachers who want to obtain an endorsement to teach computer science. The program is designed especially for the convenience of the part-time student; courses are scheduled in the evening and on Saturday.

The Communication, Media and Theatre (CMT) Department, as suggested by its name, includes three distinct, creative and demanding disciplines that are linked with their foundation in the study of communication in a variety of contexts. Students majoring in these areas will learn to become more proficient in the theory and practice of communication, media and theatre arts, while developing an appreciation of differing values and perceptions of the world in which they live.

Northeastern Illinois University’s Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Justice Studies program gives students the opportunity to examine the social and historical roots of justice, crime, and the law. Students seek to discover how these roots have shaped public policies, including those of the criminal justice system, and study systematic explanations for the failure—or triumph—of justice in society and explore the potential for transformative justice.

Through critical inquiry, social science investigation, and experiential learning, Justice Studies students develop an understanding of social and economic justice issues and critical criminology. For instance, criminology examines the structural roots of crime and takes up the legal and social concerns of diverse, urban, low-income, and disenfranchised communities, whose members are often heavily targeted by the criminal justice system.

Northeastern’s Department of Psychology offers an undergraduate program that leads to a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Our comprehensive Psychology program exposes you to various areas of psychology as well as opportunities for hands-on research and optional field experience.

The department faculty members represent a number of theoretical approaches as well as a wide range of content areas, enhancing your opportunity to become acquainted with the full scope of this broad and complex subject. Because of the need to create a combination of courses consistent with their career goals, students are urged to form a continuing relationship with a department faculty advisor early in their major.

The interdisciplinary nature of psychology requires familiarity with other fields. Students intending to pursue graduate studies should have a strong background in mathematics and the natural sciences. All Psychology majors will benefit from course work in philosophy, physiology, literature, history, the social sciences, and computer science.

The graduate program offers work leading to a Master of Arts degree in Linguistics. Our dynamic curriculum combines core studies in the structure of language [phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics] with current approaches in sociolinguistics, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, language contact and bilingualism, World Englishes, native and endangered languages, discourse analysis, and identity studies.

Our carefully designed curriculum provides students with a solid foundation in the study and understanding of human language as a convergence of genetic, psychological and social systems and networks. We train students to critically examine and analyze the world within and around them—skills that can be applied to teaching, curriculum development, corporate cultures, legal contexts, intercultural communication, forensics, artificial intelligence, publishing, counseling, speech pathology, and child development. Knowledge of how and why we use language brings us closer to understanding who we are and how we can affect our worlds.

NEIU offers a Master of Arts degree for those individuals seeking an advanced degree in Community and Teacher Leaders. The program is designed to develop knowledge, dispositions, and skills to foster reflective, collaborative and transformative leaders in both community and school settings. Specifically, students will learn to harness the collective knowledge of community members and educators to have a positive impact on community and school success in both traditional and non-traditional settings; promote collaborative governance and leadership in communities and schools with a consistent focus on improved outcomes; model excellence in community leadership and teaching with a strong foundation in transforming the climate; and provide coaching, mentoring, and support to educators and community members to promote and influence change.  Instructional strategies include research, inquiry, analysis, and evaluation as well digital literacy and technology skills.  

Students may select one of two concentrations: community leadership or school-based teacher leadership. While both the Community and Teacher Leaders concentration lead to a Master of Arts degree, the Teacher Leader concentration also leads to a Teacher Leader Endorsement as recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education. Teachers who already have a Master's degree and an Illinois teaching license may take a subset of these courses to earn only the Teacher Leader endorsement. This school-based teacher leader concentration provides knowledge and skills related to leadership and mentoring, professional development, promoting school culture that focuses on student learning, using data to improve educational outcomes, and building collaborative relationships with stakeholders. The community-based leader concentration provides knowledge and skills that foster leadership in ethical and culturally sensitive public engagement, acknowledgement and consideration of the complexities of local and global communities, and leverages community assets to promote social justice.