School of Public Health Self-Study Report > 2.0 Instructional Programs > 2.5 Culminating Experience

2.5 Culminating Experience

• 2.5.a. Identification of the culminating experience
• 2.5.b. This criterion is met.

2.5.a. Identification of the culminating experience

In addition to the field experience, each of the School's professional majors has a culminating experience. In most cases, the culminating experience is a final written and oral presentation of a project appropriate to the field of specialization.

Professional students must complete a master's project and, through it, demonstrate familiarity with the tools of research or scholarship in the major, the capacity to work independently and the ability to present the results of the investigation effectively. The master's project should involve approximately 120 hours (the equivalent of three full-time weeks) of work. Final oral presentations usually focus on how well students have integrated public health training and experience into their projects.
Major faculty specify the nature and extent of the options available to satisfy the culminating experience requirement and determine whether the requirement is to be satisfied in conjunction with - or independent of - coursework in the major. Culminating projects require one of the following options for all students: data collection and analysis appropriate to a research paper, work with a community organization to plan and implement a needs assessment, intervention design for community implementation, or a systematic literature review of a public health issue.

2.5.b. This criterion is met.

• Each professional major requires a culminating experience, typically including a master's project involving 120 hours of work in an area appropriate to the major with written and oral presentation.