The HRCC aims to educate the next generation of health, risk, environment, and science communicators.
The Health and Risk Communication M.A. program is designed to educate students in both the theory and practice of health communication. Specifically, students learn to design, write, implement and evaluate evidence-based health communication materials to prevent and address health problems in our society.
Those who graduate from the HRC M.A. program enter a wide-variety of careers and have a strong placement rate, including positions at the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local governmental and non-profit positions. If interested, our students have had great success in applying to Ph.D. programs across the United States.
The Iris Scholars program connects HRCC faculty with talented student creators to produce interpretive materials for their work. These interpretive materials include press releases, presentations, graphics and illustrations, web content, and more.
Established in 2017 to honor the exceptional scholarship and mentorship of former HRCC Director Sandi Smith, the HRCC offers the annual Sandi Smith Research Fellowship. This $1000 fellowship, awarded annually, will assist Health & Risk Communication Master’s students with expenses related to health, environment, science, or risk communication research projects.
The HRCC assists in administration of the Charles J. Strosacker Foundation Research Fund for Health and Risk Communication. This fund provides resources for graduate students to engage in hands-on research, apply theoretical constructs to real-world health practices, and share results and impacts from their projects with their community partners. Priority is placed on projects to be implemented in Michigan, and in mid-Michigan specifically. The Strosacker Foundation endowment will support five $4,000 fellowships awarded annually.
This guide was created to assist graduate students in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences interested in internationalizing their degree, with navigating their program of study. The College of Communication Arts and Sciences has a great tradition of creating global communicators and the goal for this guide is to ensure that students have a place to begin when looking to continue this legacy.