[Aaron] Social justice is a really critical component
of public health. I would say it's at the foundation of public health.
[Gita] Somebody graduating from COPHP, for example,
is really involved in thinking about the practice of working with communities and assessing
their needs and developing programs to work with those communities.
[Amy] It attracts students who very much care about
the social order of things, who care about what makes people healthy and what hurts people
-- in a big sense.
[Gita] One major difference between our program here
at the University of Washington is the use of problem-based learning.
[Aaron] Problem-based learning is a method that's
based on adult learning theory. And the notion is that people learn the most and learn deepest
when they actually discover information, discover competencies, address issues themselves rather
than being told, "Here's the answer to this question."
[Gita] The way that I think about problem-based learning
is that it is a pedagogy that asks students to confront real-world, complex problems that
don't necessarily have a clear or right answer. So it totally shifts the role of a student
and teacher.
[Amy] It's pretty intense. It's obviously a lot
of work. Students are accountable to each other for this work, and they depend on each
other for their learning.
[Aaron] Capstone project in COPHP is, it's the equivalent
of a thesis for a master student.
[Gita] So it may involve many of the same things,
like doing a lit review, doing research, managing a large project, having a specific focus.
But it has to have a so what. And because we're a community-oriented public health,
it has to have some kind of immediate value to the community that you're working with
or the community organization that you're working with.
[Aaron] The faculty in COPHP is, really represents
a wide range of experience in public health. And I think one thing that's important is
that the faculty in this program are people who, many of whom, either come out of the
practice community or they have maintained or developed very strong relationships with
organizations in the community around public health issues.
[Amy] One of the characteristics of COPHP faculty
is that we're all very rooted in our local and state and sometimes national communities,
organizations, professional associations, and we bring these relationships into our
classrooms.
[Gita] There's something really nice about the public
health community in Seattle. I feel like people are very well connected.
[Amy] Graduates of the COPHP program go to work
in state and local health departments, school districts, nonprofit organizations of a variety
of types and locations and sizes.
[Aaron] Former students who are working for the State
Department of Health here in Washington doing policy work around, could be issues around
smoking or tobacco use or injury control. We have students who are doing global health
work, developing curricula for training health professionals in developing countries to improve
services for people with HIV and AIDS. So our alumni are really involved in a wide range
of jobs once they leave here.
[Gita] I grew as a leader in being a part of the
program. I honestly, every single day of my job, I rely on leadership skills that I developed
through COPHP.