Vision, Mission and Curriculum Overview
The Department of Global Health is home to a diverse community of scholars engaged in research and practice who address public health-related issues in a global context. The mission of the department combines intellectual pursuit with real-world impact and field experience. We see global health as a foundational knowledge of the world and aim to instill in our students a passion for acting as a catalyst for social justice and health equity.
B.S. in Global Health Objective and Curriculum Outline
As one of the first undergraduate Global Health programs in the country (since 2002), the Bachelor of Science in Global Health degree responds to the growing need for well-qualified professionals able to deal with health problems that cut across national boundaries and require collaboration between a complex web of organizations.
The Global Health major provides a unique undergraduate education in the field of global health and development by providing both academic training in a variety of carefully selected health-related subjects and field-based research experiences at premier health and research institutions across the globe.
The Global Health curriculum blends public health and health systems management. Students study the interaction of environment, culture, law, and the political economy of health and development, and analyze how these relationships influence global health outcomes. Experts from the World Health Organization, the World Bank, USAID, and many other global health and development oriented non-governmental and research organizations participate in a variety of curricular activities.
During the first three years of the undergraduate program, students understand the underlying science and learn fundamental concepts, frameworks, and topics in global health. Students develop skills in public health research methods including epidemiology, data collection and statistical analysis, which will prepare them for program, policy, or research focused work during their senior year practical experience.
During their junior and senior years, students will also be able to focus on a variety of topics and current issues in global health, such as the COVID-19 and the HIV/AIDS pandemics, health care financing, access to medicines, communicable and non-communicable disease control, urban and environmental health issues, gender, demography, food insecurity, and the impact of globalization on health.
Student Learning Goals and Core Competencies
- We are preparing tomorrow’s leaders as “people for others.” Students will learn to lead programs, develop policy, communicate with diverse audiences, and design interventions that address health challenges in community and regional contexts.
- Students will study the health of the whole person, framed in Georgetown University’s tradition of cura personalis. The School of Health’s mission of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism frame our teaching and learning on the social and structural determinants of global health, influenced by culture, society, politics, law, and the economy.
- The spirit of inquiry animates students’ scientific exploration of global health challenges. Students master evidence-based problem solving by completing basic science courses and studying diseases, applying quantitative and qualitative research principles, using key data analytic techniques, and analyzing issues through the interdisciplinary lenses of epidemiology, health systems, policy, and more.
- By participating in an integrated global experiential learning program for a whole semester, students will engage in service and action under the supervision of preceptors who teach skills in working with diverse populations in low-resource settings. Students will receive coaching in critical self-reflection, cultural humility, and norms and values for working in the global health profession, preparing them as future teammates and leaders in global health.
- In a university shaped by centuries of Jesuit education, students will learn ethical approaches in global health practice and research that contribute to achieving global equity in health status and access to health care, developing awareness and understanding of the relationship between health, social justice, and human rights.
Experiential Learning
During the fall of their senior year, Global Health students will undertake a semester-long practical experience, gaining first-hand knowledge of health issues faced across different countries, cultures, and populations (GLOH 3950). Students conduct an internship focused on program, policy, or research issues, usually involving the health of underserved populations. They are placed for the semester with an organization based either abroad or in the USA. Organizations include research organizations, government, and non governmental organizations (NGOs). During this time, the students work closely with an on-site preceptor, they observe and contribute to the organization’s activities, and write a scholarly paper.
Internship sites vary from year to year. Current sites include Australia, Bangladesh, Japan, Peru, Mexico, Ghana, and Tanzania abroad; as well as Alaska and West Virginia in the United States.
Prerequisites for a placement abroad include senior standing, good academic and disciplinary standing (GPA of 3.0 and above), completion of core courses (GLOH 2177and GLOH 3303), a minimum of 90 credit hours, and faculty approval. The Global Health faculty will review the record of each student who plans to participate in the practical experience abroad prior to departure.
Language Requirement
All students majoring in global health must achieve proficiency in a modern language through the intermediate level. Placement exams are offered in most languages during New Student Orientation. Students who do not place above the intermediate level of a language on these placement exams can fulfill this requirement by completing courses in a modern language through the intermediate level.
Accelerated Master of Science in Global Health Program
Qualified undergraduate students in the Global Health program have the opportunity to earn Bachelor of Science in Global Health and Master of Science in Global Health degrees at an accelerated pace within five years by counting two graduate-level courses in the undergraduate program toward the graduate degree and enroll in two additional graduate courses. Students with a minimum GPA of 3.5 in the major are eligible to apply for the program no later than January 15th of their junior year.
Georgetown Core Curriculum
The Georgetown Core Curriculum (Georgetown Core) is a distinctive expression of Georgetown University’s identity as a student-centered research university rooted in the Jesuit and Catholic tradition. The Georgetown Core is a two-tiered program. The first tier – the “shared core” – has been created and approved by the Main Campus Core Curriculum Committee and is shared by all undergraduates as a common core experience. The second tier of the requirement – the “school-specific core” – is designed and determined by each of the undergraduate schools, embodying the shared learning goals of the university Core while furthering the specific mission and tradition of each school. Both the shared and school-specific cores change over time, balancing the traditional ethos of a liberal arts education with the changing needs of our students in a changing world. Ultimately, it is the hope that the entirety of a Georgetown education – the cores, majors and minors, and electives – will lead students to embody as life-long habits the goals described in the Georgetown Core Curriculum Learning Goals.
More information about the Georgetown Core Curriculum can be found on the Provost’s Core Curriculum website.
Georgetown Shared Core Requirements
The core requirements that form the first tier, the common experience across the University, are outlined below. Georgetown courses fulfilling each of these requirements are designated “Core: [specific requirement]” in the Attributes in the Schedule of Classes.
Philosophy – 2 Courses
Through the Core, the Philosophy Department is committed to providing courses that promote students’ personal growth as human beings in search of meaningful lives, foster their development as responsible citizens, and offer effective introductions to the discipline of philosophy. The learning goals shared by courses in the Philosophy Core are:
- Understand what philosophy is, how it differs from other academic disciplines, and what its primary areas of inquiry are.
- Understand and construct arguments.
- Describe and analyze complex problems.
- Read, write and speak effectively.
- Engage critically and constructively with moral problems and decisions.
- Apply philosophical analysis, argumentation, and critical reflection to the study of other disciplines.
Please refer to each school/college curriculum for specific courses that will fulfill this requirement.
Theology and Religious Studies – 2 Courses
Through the Core, the Theology and Religious Studies Department is committed to fostering in students a critically appreciative awareness of the religious dimension of human existence, and to assisting students in reflecting upon their own experience and understanding in that enlarged context. The first course provides this foundation while the second course allows students to develop their critical awareness by applying it to a particular area of interest in religion or theology.
The learning goals shared by courses in the Theology and Religious Studies Core are:
- To consider reflectively your relationship to the world, your fellow humans, and God.
- To foster a critically appreciative awareness of the religious dimension of human existence.
- To assist you in reflecting upon your own experience and understanding in that enlarged context.
- To develop your critical awareness by applying it to a particular area of interest in religion or theology.
Problem of God1 (THEO 1000) and one Theology and Religious Studies elective fulfill the Theology and Religious Studies requirement. Introduction to Biblical Literature (THEO 1100) may be substituted for Problem of God or may be used as an intermediate level elective.
Writing – 2 Courses
The writing requirement provides students with opportunities to connect their writing with critical reading and thinking, inquiry, and analysis. The Writing and Culture Seminar, WRIT 1150, approaches writing through three interrelated frameworks: writing as a tool for inquiry, writing as a process, and practice writing in different rhetorical situations. Each section focuses on a cultural theme, with readings and assignments that engage students with compelling questions and problems. Seminar readings provide texts for analysis as well as models and motives for student writing. Students are encouraged to complete this course during their first year at Georgetown. The learning goals shared by different sections in the Writing and Culture Seminar are:
- Experiment with diverse strategies for planning, drafting, and revising writing.
- Adapt writing to respond to, engage, and persuade audiences.
- Employ rhetorical strategies for analyzing, designing, and communicating in writing and other forms of media.
- Engage in writing as a form of thinking, inquiry, and learning.
The second half of the Writing Core is an intensive writing experience located within the student’s chosen major, embedded within the requirements as determined by that program. Each major’s Integrated Writing requirement is established by the department or program in order to express the unique conventions and practices of the discipline. The learning goals shared by courses in the Integrated Writing Core are:
- To prepare students to use the relevant forms, styles, and conventions of writing within their chosen major(s).
- To employ writing as a method to enhance students’ learning of concepts, materials, and methods in their major.
Courses fulfilling this requirement are identified within each major.
Humanities: Art, Literature, Music, and Media (HALM) – 1 Course
(Formerly Humanities: Art, Literature and Culture (HALC))
The Humanities: Art, Literature, Music, and Media (HALM) requirement serves to deepen students’ understanding and experience of a range of creative media representing cultural expressions from various historical periods and world regions, from the local to the global.
Through reading, listening, viewing, analyzing, writing, and/or creative practice, students acquire the intellectual and practical tools to interpret human experiences portrayed in the arts, literature, music, and media.
HALM Learning Goals:
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Understand how art, literature, music and/or media have historically shaped and been shaped by cultures.
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Develop generative habits of mind and exercise critical thinking skills for a world in flux: openness, resilience, curiosity, creativity, imagination.
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Activate knowledge through creative, analytical, and/or critical approaches in individual, collaborative, and/or public-facing projects.
HALM courses must be Georgetown University courses and cannot be fulfilled by transfer credits; they must be 3-credit courses. Courses that can fulfill other Core requirements (such as HIST, PHIL, THEO) are ineligible.
In 2026-27, the older “HALC” designation (Humanities: Arts, Literature, and Culture) will be replaced with HALM (Humanities: Arts, Literature, Music and Media). For this academic year, courses with the designation will be tagged with both HALC and HALM. In Fall 2027, the tag HALC will be retired in favor of HALM.
Science For All – 1 Course
The natural sciences, and the technologies that they enable, are woven deeply into the fabric of our lives and are central to many of the important political and social challenges that we face. They are also pinnacles of intellectual accomplishment in humanity’s ancient and ongoing quest to understand the world in which we live. Thus we believe that to function as liberally educated, ethically responsible citizens, as stewards of the planet, and as effective leaders, all Georgetown students should understand scientific modes of thought and concepts, both in the abstract and as they are exemplified in at least one major area of scientific inquiry. The Science For All (SFA) Core requirement is grounded in these beliefs. The learning goals shared by courses in the Science for All Core are:
- To understand the basic principles and some current research challenges of one or more areas of science.
- To understand science as a set of methods of inquiry that involve forming and testing hypotheses through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.
- To consume and interpret scientific information with critical understanding of the balance of certainty and uncertainty that research findings inevitably reflect.
Quantitative Reasoning and Data Literacy – 1 Course
This requirement applies only to students in the class of 2028 and later.
The Quantitative Reasoning and Data Literacy (QRDL) requirement will help students learn to understand how real-world interpretation of data progresses from a set of numbers, frequently incomplete and with measurement errors, to a visual distillation that clearly conveys meaning. While mathematics and statistics provide a necessary foundation for quantitative reasoning and data literacy, the power of pure mathematics lies in its abstraction. In contrast, QRDL emphasizes a distinctive variety of concrete contexts and applications. The learning goals shared by courses in the Quantitative Reasoning and Data Literacy Core are:
- To build a quantitative toolbox that allows students to become comfortable performing and/or evaluating quantitative analyses.
- To translate and make meaning of data and quantitative analyses as they apply to complex problems.
- To effectively communicate statistical methods and results both visually and textually to a diversity of audiences with considerations to contextual, social, or ethical issues.
Engaging Diversity/Pathways to Social Justice
For students in the class of 2025, 2026, or 2027
Engaging Diversity (2 courses)
All Georgetown students are required to take two Engaging Diversity courses as overlays, meaning that the courses may count toward another degree requirement (Core, major, or minor). One of these courses must be labeled with a “Core: Diversity Domestic” attribute and one must be labeled with a “Core: Diversity Global” attribute.
In courses designated as fulfilling a diversity requirement, students will engage with different cultures, beliefs, and ideas. These courses will explore conditions that contribute to unequal access and influence. Finally, these courses should enable students to reflect on their own identities as they also deepen their understanding of the experience of others. The learning goals shared by courses in the Engaging Diversity Core are:
- To prepare students to be responsible, reflective, self-aware and respectful global citizens through recognizing the plurality of human experience and engaging with different cultures, beliefs, and ideas.
- To be better able to appreciate and reflect upon how human diversity and human identities shape our experience and understanding of the world.
For students in the class of 2028 and later
Pathways to Social Justice (3 courses)
Georgetown’s Pathways to Social Justice (PSJ) curriculum prepares students to critically analyze historical and contemporary power differentials. By fulfilling the Pathways to Social Justice requirement, students will gain a better understanding of how social, political, geographic, economic, and other cultural factors shape experiences of the world, as well as how these factors contribute to marginalization and inequality. PSJ courses will also explore how communities have resisted marginalization, and will focus on axes of identity that have formed the basis for historical and contemporary marginalization and oppression, including race, gender, class, caste, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
A cornerstone of this requirement is the one-credit University Seminar in Race, Power, and Justice which is designed to ensure that every student at Georgetown develops a baseline vocabulary for discussing racial difference and marginalization. This seminar will provide the foundation for each student’s engagement with other PSJ-attributed “overlay” courses offered across Georgetown’s Main Campus and should be taken in the first year.
In addition to the required one-credit University Seminar in Race, Power, and Justice, the requirement also requires students to take two overlay courses (meaning that these courses may count toward another degree requirement, whether core, major, or minor). Eligible courses have the “Core: PSJ” attribute.
Each course in the Pathways to Social Justice Core works toward at least three of these shared priorities:
- Inclusive Scholarship
- Intersectional Approaches to Identity
- Historical Legacies of Inequality and Their Contemporary Impacts
- National, Regional, and Global Comparisons
- Imagining Justice
