Child Health Advocacy

This course serves as an introduction to advocacy and policy as they relate to child health. At the onset of the course, students will identify several key advocacy interests that they wish to better understand. During the elective, they will then be given the opportunity to meet (in-person or virtually) with faculty and staff in these subject areas and discuss careers in child health advocacy with faculty and content experts. Students will also be able to further these interests by developing several health advocacy deliverables including an op-ed draft and a policy brief, all of which will be discussed with the course director. In addition, the student will attend health-related legislative hearings and meetings with government officials and relevant organizations, including some with contrasting points-of-view. Depending on availability, students may be able to participate in advocacy activities at Children's National.

Course Learning Objectives:

By the end of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Apply principles of child health advocacy to develop specific policy deliverables.
2. Demonstrate how different backgrounds and viewpoints may impact the advocacy and policy process.
3. Describe career paths in child health advocacy.