Community Service Requirement
The MPH Program at West Chester University provides students the opportunity to engage in community service to enable students to cultivate professionalism and conscious responsibility toward the profession along with the goals of public health through service to communities, agencies, underserved populations and organizations. All MPH students will be required to complete at least one six-hour community service activity before graduating. This community service experience is embedded into a course within each track’s curriculum.
In both the MPH-Community Health and MPH-Health Care Management programs, students are required to complete a minimum of 6 documented service hours as a service learning component in HEA 531 Community as a Basis for Health or HEA 613 Advocacy and Quality of Health Care Services, respectively. The service learning experience will be selected by the instructor in order to respond to relevant community partner service needs. The targeted group may vary each semester. Students will meet with the targeted group and work on assigned, evaluated tasks that benefit the target population and agency. Students will complete a written reflection paper critically analyzing how the service learning experience promotes community capacity building efforts and applies to their professional growth and plan for professional development external to the classroom.
In the MPH-Environmental Health program, this service is associated with industrial hygiene. All students are required to complete a minimum of 6 documented service hours and for ENV 524 Industrial Hygiene, those hours will be focused on developing helpful occupational health materials and completing occupational sampling for an assigned targeted group in our community. The targeted group may vary each semester and is selected by the instructor. Students will meet with the targeted group and work on assigned, evaluated tasks that benefit the occupational health of the targeted group.