Certificate Info


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Awarded through the UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health (CGIH) in the Fielding School of Public Health (FSPH), the Global Health Certificate (GHC) program provides the student with broad-based knowledge, professional skills, and cross-cultural understanding of global health issues, policies, and practices. The aim of the GHC is to enhance global health competencies of students to work for organizations providing global or immigrant health services, advocate for global health programs and priorities, and/or to incorporate global health sensibilities in non-global health work settings. In conferring the certificate, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health recognizes a student’s capacity to work as a public health or health care professional with a global health perspective.

To earn the certificate, students must:

  1. Take 16 units of coursework related to global and immigrant health
  2. Complete a 5-page professional reflection essay (the Capstone Essay)
  3. Attend two global health seminars at UCLA, either in person or online
  4. Complete human subjects research CITI training
  5. Complete an international fieldwork experience

Further information about the 5 program requirements are below.

1. Coursework

Complete at least 16 units with global and/or immigrant health content (see global health courses tab for a list of approved courses)

If there is a course you wish to take for credit towards the certificate that is not on this list, email globalhealth@ph.ucla.edu with the syllabus and request a review of the course material.

 

2. Professional Reflection Essay (Capstone Essay)

Complete a 5-page professional reflection essay describing how the GHC program integrates with the student’s graduate studies, how it amplifies their understanding of one or more of the global health competencies, and how these competencies are likely to influence their professional career.

 

3. Global Health Seminars

Attend at least two Global Health seminars. These may be the lunchtime lectures or other lectures sponsored by the UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health, the UCLA School of Public Health, the UCLA Center for World Health, or a virtual event hosted by a global health organization.

For in-person lectures, you will need to complete a lecture form documenting your attendance.

For virtual lectures, you will be asked to provide a screen shot of the event or proof of registration to receive credit for your attendance.

 

4. CITI Training Completion

Complete the Group 1: Human Subjects Research OR GCP – Social and Behavioral Research Best Practices for Clinical Research course through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program.

Students can log on to the CITI Training Portal using their UCLA credentials (https://www.research.ucla.edu/CITIProgram/) add UCLA as their Institutional Affiliation, and add the specific courses using the following instructions:

  1. At the bottom of the UCLA Institution page, under the "Learner Tools for University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)" section click "Add a Course"
  2. Check the first box "I conduct human subjects research/Realizo investigaciones con sujetos humanos "OHRPP" [SECTION TWO]" and click "Next"
  3. Check "Si/Yes" or "no" for the training in Spanish and click "Next"
  4. Check "No" for working with Protected Health Information (PHI) and click "Next"
  5. Check "Yes, please assign the CITI Social/Behavioral Good Clinical Practice Training" and click "Next"
  6. Check "No" for conducting FDA-related research and click "Next"
  7. Check "Yes, and I need to complete the Human Subjects training course because I will not be completing the Good Clinical Practice training" and click "Next"
  8. Both optional courses will now appear in your "Courses Ready to Begin" section
  9. Select which course is most appropriate for you and click "Start Now"
  • For the Group 1: Human Subjects Research option, complete any 8 of the "Elective Modules"
  • For the GCP – Social and Behavioral Research Best Practices for Clinical Research option, complete all 9 required modules

Additional resources and UCLA specific guidance can be found here.

 

5. Fieldwork Experience

Complete a "glocal health" fieldwork experience that amount to at least 10 weeks for a total of at least 400 hours. Students may either accomplish this by working full-time for 10 weeks or by working fewer hours per week for a longer period of time. Fieldwork must be completed within their time as a registered graduate student at UCLA. We will accept any internship that has a global reach to fulfill this requirement. This can include working with refugee or immigrant groups based in the US. We will accept remote-based internships to fulfill this requirement, provided the student submits the Internship Approval Form (found here under "Pre-Application Forms") providing details to CGIH about how the internship has helped or will help them develop skills relevant to global and/or immigrant health.

Students should complete the Internship Approval Form once they identify their fieldwork opportunity so CGIH can confirm that it will meet the requirements of the certificate. 

For Fielding School MPH students: You will need to submit your 400 course paper as your analytical paper.

For non-MPH students: will need to submit a 5-page analytical paper related to the research/project they worked on during their fieldwork experience. This analytical paper is separate from and in addition to the Professional Reflection Essay. This paper can be a manuscript or report that was prepared as part of your internship work. It should showcase the work you achieved during your internship and any relevant global health competencies. For a fieldwork experience to meet the requirements of the Global Health Certificate, students must select a fieldwork opportunity that allows them to develop one or more of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Global Health Competencies (listed below).

CGIH will accept domestic or remote-based internships to fulfill this requirement, provided the student submits and receives approval on the Prospective Internship Interest Form. Generally, any fieldwork experience that will allow the study to develop competencies relevant to global health will be approved. Students are still required to complete 400 hours of work in their internship.

 

Declaring Intent to Pursue the Certificate

In order for CGIH to ensure that all students who wish to earn the Global Health Certificate are making adequate progress in their studies and requirements and receiving the relevant communications from the Center, it is recommended that all students interested in earning the certificate submit the Declaration of Intent form to CGIH. The form may be found in the Forms section of this website.  

Submitting your Certificate Packet

Once you have completed all requirements for the certificate, please submit the following as a single PDF in the listed order:

  1. Completed application form (found under the Global Health Certificate > Forms tab)
  2. Copy of Unofficial UCLA Transcript
  3. Copy of your 5-page Professional Reflection Essay (guidelines for writing the essay found under the Global Health Certificate > Forms tab)
  4. Two proofs of lecture attendance - either the lecture form or a screenshot
  5. Copy of your CITI training certificate of completion
  6. Copy of your final paper/project completed for course credit for your international experience (for FSPH students this will be your 400 report). 

Please submit completed applications for the Global Health Certificate electronically to globalhealth@ph.ucla.edu.

 

Dates

Students who plan to graduate during the Spring quarter:

  • All certificate application materials must be submitted by May 30. 

Students who plan to graduate during the Winter quarter:

  • Please email globalhealth@ph.ucla.edu to arrange a submission date that meets your timeline

 

ALL NECESSARY FORMS MAY BE FOUND AT THE GLOBAL HEALTH CERTIFICATE > FORMS TAB