One of the signature offerings in the Department of Languages is the Language and International Health B.S. for those students interested in pursuing health-related careers. This program is jointly administered with the Department of Public Health Sciences in the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences.
The L&IH major pairs a modern language concentration with coursework in public health theory and practice. The language component emphasizes linguistic and cultural proficiency in the target language by studying specific peoples, cultures, literatures, technical language, health environments, and multicultural issues. The public health component includes the history and philosophy of public health and medicine; the organization, management, and financing of health services; and the social and behavioral aspects of health, epidemiology, health evaluation methods, and health communications. Students choose an emphasis area in either Health Administration or Community Development.
Spring 2018 marks the first semester that a French track is available in addition to the Spanish and Chinese tracks. As with the other tracks, L&IH-French students must study abroad for at least one semester and complete an internship in a French-speaking health-care setting. However, any student who has completed intermediate French can also enroll in L&IH-French courses even if they are not pursuing the major.
Lecturer of French Anne-Carole Salces y Nedeo teaches the new French for Health Professionals courses. “Learning a foreign language is not only beneficial to those who want to work abroad,” she says. “Learning a foreign language is opening one’s mind to something new; it’s seeing the world through somebody else’s eyes. This is a priceless skill which has become increasingly necessary to acquire in our modern world. I am glad to see Clemson University taking steps in that direction, by trying to become more internationally oriented, and I am proud to be part of it! I hope to see more and more students seize this opportunity which, without a doubt, will make them better healthcare providers and administrators.”