This minor combines study in the fields of health, hospitality and design.

The Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures and the Department of Human Centered Design offer a minor in Healthy Futures open to all undergraduate students. Most of today’s healthcare spending is on clinical approaches for diagnosing and treating diseases. However, behavioral, social and environmental factors play a large role in determining overall health. Health and wellness professionals of the future must engage in an interdisciplinary effort to successfully compete and contribute to positive change. With its innovative, transdisciplinary focus — the first of its kind — this minor has the potential to change industry practices and professional attitudes by breaking down the silos that often undermine creative solution

This minor may be of particular interest to students enrolled in health, wellness, policy and hospitality related majors, or students interested in applying their education to problem-solving in the population health and wellness space.

Human Centered Design

This program is offered through the Department of Human Centered Design.

group of 5 people examine a floorplan taped out on the floor

Overview

The minor in Healthy Futures is open to all undergraduate students, including DEA majors.

The minor consists of at least 17 credits:

  • DEA/HADM 3055 Health, Hospitality and Design Industry Seminar (1 credit)
  • Required courses distributed across the disciplines of design, healthcare administration and hospitality (9 credits)
  • Elective courses (6 credits)
  • An internship and DEA 4020 Supervised Fieldwork (1 credit)

Contact the CIHF program manager to request required forms for the Minor in Healthy Futures, for detailed course requirements and a list of eligible electives. At least 3 credit-hours of electives should be from outside the student’s major.

Courses must be completed as letter grade with a grade of B- or better.

Interested students should start by taking DEA/HADM 3055 Health, Hospitality and Design Industry Seminar. After completing this course, they will submit the Intention to Minor in Healthy Futures form. Students must submit the form before their junior year.

Students are responsible for planning their minor program of study in conjunction with the advisor in their major. Due to the imperative that students take core courses outside their discipline and the fact that students come from multiple departments, the requirements change across majors. Thus, students should plan carefully.

Completing the minor

During the semester in which the student plans to graduate, the student must submit an Application to Graduate with a Minor in Health Futures form to hf-minor [at] cornell.edu (hf-minor[at]cornell[dot]edu). 

After verification by HCD that all requirements for the minor were completed, the student’s college registrar will be notified and their final transcript will indicate that they earned a Minor in Healthy Futures. If you have questions, please contact CIHF’s program manager, Christine Tanner (ctf43 [at] cornell.edu (ctf43[at]cornell[dot]edu)) in 1413 MVR.