Program Overview
The certificate is a 7-credit program offered to Master Card Foundation scholarship program students from all majors. It aims to introduce students to critical thinking, collaboration across various fields, project management, and the cultivation of resilience skills that are essential for professional growth. Through course work, and the experiential learning course, the certificate will build their capacity to create practical and innovative solutions in their jobs, particularly in contexts of uncertainty. By focusing on real-world applications and hands-on experiences, the program ensures that Scholars are not only prepared to face professional challenges but also capable of making transformative contributions to society in times of need.
Program competencies
Students who complete the certificate will be able to:
PLO1: Identify assets, resources, and problems of population groups in fragile, low-resourced and/or settings of uncertainty using participatory approaches.
PLO2: Demonstrate design techniques and entrepreneurial skills to develop, implement, and scale-up appropriate innovations.
PLO3: Incorporate multidisciplinary perspectives to manage complexity while adhering to ethical standards.
PLO4: Reflect critically on how crises impede effective action and, on the skills, and attitudes needed to mitigate challenges.
The Certificate is composed of 7 credits that include:
1. HEHI 301 - “Foundations of Humanitarian Engineering and Public Health Innovations”; 3 cr.
This is a multidisciplinary course that covers the fundamentals of designing solutions for health challenges faced by disadvantaged populations. It introduces tools for identifying humanitarian and/or development needs and designing practical, scalable, and sustainable solutions and interventions. The course is offered to students from all majors. Students will be exposed to health and health system challenges in addition to design fundamentals including participatory needs assessment, formal multidisciplinary design processes, and relevant technologies and tools with real world applications and case studies.
2. HEHI 303 - “Experiential Learning”; 4 cr.
A service-learning graduate course that revolves around managing complex projects while
working in multidisciplinary teams and collaborating closely with community partners within
fragile low-resourced settings. Multidisciplinary teams will conduct background research, develop needs assessments with relevant stakeholders, design and create solutions/interventions that are tested and refined with community partners, and develop a business plan; all under joint supervision of two mentors from two different disciplines. The course will be offered in the winter term. Prerequisites: HEHI 301.