What is Public Health?

If you've ever had a vaccination, assumed the water from your tap is safe, taken your baby to a clinic for a checkup, expected the restaurant you eat in to be clean and safe, been screened for tuberculosis, HIV or a sexually transmitted disease, wondered how to avoid getting Lyme disease, or what to eat to stay healthy, then you've been touched by the efforts of public health employees.

Public health protects and improves communities by preventing epidemics and the spread of disease, promoting healthy lifestyles for children and families, protecting against hazards in homes, work, communities and the environment, assuring high quality health care services, and preparing for and responding to emergencies.

Public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire communities rather than individuals. These communities can be as small as a local neighborhood or as big as an entire country... read more from New York State Department of Health.

In responding to the needs of the community, Hostos Community College, City University of New York offers a Community Health program.

The goal of this program is to educate an emerging group of public health professionals in an effort to increase the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in health-related fields. Students graduating from this program would be in unique positions to join national efforts to eliminate health disparities in New York City and other metropolitan areas in the United States.

The A.S. degree program in Community Health produces graduates who can provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to the most vulnerable populations in NYC. Graduates of the program will make significant contributions toward reducing the many barriers that Hispanics and African Americans confront while negotiating services with health and human services agencies. Hostos Community College is in a unique position to train community health workers given that the majority of students are racial and ethnic minority residents from the surrounding communities, our students would match the demographics of the communities that they will serve.

Specifically, the program would meet the following objectives:

• Students will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to act as liaisons between health care providers and consumers.
• Students will demonstrate basic core competencies in health education, which will enable them to be competitive with other applicants upon entering the workforce.
• Students will demonstrate basic core competencies in health education, which will open long-term career paths through transfer programs.
• Students currently working in entry-level positions in health-related fields will demonstrate an increase in knowledge, which will enable them to successfully compete for more advanced positions.

Community Health program of study includes the study of English, behavioral and social sciences, biology or environmental science, mathematics, modern languages, humanities visual and performing arts, health education –community health program required courses, with a total of 60 credits.

Paraprofessionals who are not seeking an A.S. degree, but want to update their skills and expand their employment opportunities may choose to seek a Community Health Worker (CHW) certificate.  The Community Health Worker Certificate could be applied towards satisfaction of College graduation requirements.

Hostos Community College is at 500 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451.

For information on education and employment, please visit Job Search Central at 188 Madison Avenue and 34th Street.