Community Health Ambassadors Program

College of Health Professions and Sciences

Be a Community Health Ambassador and Make an Impact in Your Community

The Community Health Ambassadors Program engages students with local community organizations to help promote health and wellbeing in our local area. The program supports student development and leadership while achieving better health outcomes for individuals and families in our community.

Starting Fall 2024, the Community Health Ambassadors Program is partnering with the Neighborhood Centers for Families (NCF) in Orange County, Florida

NCFs are one-stop centers made up of non-profit, government, and community groups that provide residents with a variety of education, health and employment services.

Student Community Health Ambassadors from the College of Health Professions and Sciences will promote healthy eating habits and active lifestyles for families in the local community by developing and delivering nutrition and wellbeing workshops to Orange County residents served through selected NCF centers.

Students may apply below to be trained to serve as Community Health Ambassadors and join in delivering these community health engagement and improvement activities.

Program Information

Community Health Ambassadors Program is an interdisciplinary, high impact community health improvement program for pre-health students in all undergraduate majors in CHPS. The program is structured through an interdisciplinary community engagement course (IHS4950) to engage student teams in developing creative health improvement projects that benefit our local community.

This program and course content integrate the principles of service-learning and high impact learning experiences. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, students are trained on the principles of community health education and improvement and are guided through community partnership in developing and delivering a health intervention project. Students are expected to travel and work directly with community members throughout the semester. This community work is outside the scheduled class time.

The IHS4950 course “Interdisciplinary Projects in Health Professions” focuses on identification, design, and implementation of innovative, needs-based health projects by interdisciplinary teams of students pursuing careers in the health professions. This 3 credit course counts as restricted elective for all CHPS undergraduate majors: Health Sciences BS, Communication Sciences and Disorders BS, Kinesiology BS, and Social Work BSW.

Eligibility

Junior or Senior
Be enrolled in one of these CHPS majors: Health Sciences BS, Communication Sciences and Disorders BS, Kinesiology BS, or Social Work BSW.
Availability and commitment to work with community members outside scheduled class time.
Ability to travel to the community engagement site.

Highlights

Gain volunteer and community service hours
3 credits restricted electives for your major
Have a positive impact on the health of your community
Improve your leadership and collaboration skills
Collaborate with local community organizations
Participate in a high-impact learning experience with a focus on service-learning