Global Health Systems

Degree Offered

Postbaccalaureate Certificate

Program Description

The Global Health Innovation Certificate is a 12-credit, five course graduate certificate program that takes place during a 10-week living and learning experience in Costa Rica. Although the certificate is considered a semester-long program, the entirety of each course is taught in-person during the 10-week experience in Costa Rica. Some orientation and assignments will take place in an online format (which will be available in Costa Rica).The program offers courses in Intercultural Communication, Conflict Resolution, Global Health and Social Innovation, Innovations for Universal Health Care, and Urban Health, all of which are taught by bilingual Costa Rican faculty from the InterAmerican Center for Global Health (CISG). 

The program is taught by Costa Rican facilitators from the InterAmerican Center for Global Health (CISG) who have faculty appointments at the University of Maryland Baltimore Graduate School. Instruction is in English. While in Costa Rica, field visits are conducted (with interpreters when necessary) to communities, organizations, and important leaders engaged in public health and innovation. The final 4-week practicum project challenges students to identify an innovation in Costa Rica and create a roadmap for scaling the innovation and delivering it to the US and broader contexts. Throughout this process, students work closely with CISG faculty and a local, project-specific preceptor. While studying concepts in innovation, students learn about community development priorities, human rights, health care access challenges, social justice initiatives, environmental sustainability programs and other important elements of innovation aimed at protecting the most vulnerable. 

Certificate Objectives

• Understand practical issues in global health and development, including concepts in the fields of innovation, complexity science, social determinants of health, health care disparities, community engagement, and product development that influence innovation in this dynamic sector. 
• Identify a health (or health care) challenge and describe the process of working with community partners and other stakeholders (e.g. private sector, government institutions, and academia) to define and design a solution to the issues related to the challenge. 
• Describe the economic, technical, political and other systemic factors that pull innovation forward, that push it from behind, and often block its successful implementation and scaling. 
• Apply and develop innovation and entrepreneurial models and processes to resolve challenges and advance global health, particularly in the translation of ideas and interventions across borders. 
• Demonstrate the capacity to engage in ethical and respectful relations and make ethical and responsible decisions that benefit individuals, communities and other stakeholders. 

Program Admission

Applicants for admission must meet the minimum admission requirements of the Graduate School.  The interprofessional program is open to students with diverse academic backgrounds. 

Additionally, admitted students will need a valid passport, airplane ticket, visa (if necessary – not necessary for US passport holders), and CDC-required and recommended vaccinations to participate in the program.  

Admitted students are automatically be enrolled in the UMB Student Health Plan, and will need to process a waiver request if they have proof of alternative insurance.  

Degree Requirements

Students must complete a minimum of 12 credits. Students must maintain a minimum, cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. All courses must be taken for letter grade; courses taken as Pass/Fail (P/F) or Audit (AU) do not count toward the certificate. All requirements for the certificate must be completed within three years after admission and all credits for the certificate must be completed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Complete guideline and requirements for progression and completion are outlined in the Academic Performance and Progress in a Postbaccalaureate Certificate Program section of this catalog. 

The program requires travel to and from Costa Rica and a 10-week intensive study and work experience on the ground in various locations in Costa Rica.  

Much of the program takes place in rural and hard-to-access areas of Costa Rica where certain services and amenities (such as wi-fi and grocery stores) may not be available at all times.  

Required Courses