Health Communication: Program Structure

• 40 credit hours including:
• • Four required Emerson College-Tufts University core courses
  • Two additional required Emerson courses
  • Four elective courses, which you may use to specialize in areas such as social marketing, public health advocacy, or health media (two courses of which may be taken at Tufts)
  • Optional internship (may fulfill up to four credits of electives)
• Full- or part-time enrollment (Full-time enrollment is typically 8 or 12 credits per semester.)
• Classes generally meet from 6-10 p.m.
• Fall admission only (there will be no spring admission for January 2009)
• Offered in collaboration with the Tufts University School of Medicine

Applied Learning Experience

The program culminates in the final semester with the Applied Learning Experience (ALE), which unifies your skills and knowledge into a semester-long consulting project with an organization.  You will work closely with an on-site mentor as well as an Emerson faculty sponsor.

The ALE may involve market research, the development of a strategic plan for a prevention campaign, “construction” of an electronic publication, or the design and production of print and video materials for an educational intervention.  Recent ALE projects have included a marketing plan for the New England Medical Center to spread the word to doctors about the availability and advantages of the Center's Gamma Knife equipment; a campaign for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to inform low-income Hispanic women about emergency contraception; and the development of the Newton (a Boston suburb) Department of Public Health’s bioterrorism readiness plan.