Entrepreneurship at Mason

Entrepreneurism in the College of Health and Human Services

The College of Health and Human Services values a sound general education that enables students to develop analytical and creative thinking and to make well-founded ethical decisions. The college embodies a learning community where faculty and students share the responsibility for learning and where education occurs in student and faculty interaction within and beyond the walls of the college. The faculty are actively engaged in research and scholarship, linking the academy and the world through interdisciplinary activities and contributing to the development of knowledge and excellence in professional practice.

Graduates will practice in a variety of roles in settings that are complex, multi-cultural, and international. Our multidisciplinary college is thriving and growing on many fronts and includes the Department of Global and Community Health, the Department of Health Administration and Policy, the Department of Social Work, and the School of Nursing.

Our programs and other academic offerings reflect these values and include innovative, entrepreneurial practices, including the following:

• ISCOPES (Interdisciplinary Student Community Oriented Prevention Enhancement Service) is a "service-learning" program where interdisciplinary teams conduct a health promotion project in an underserved, community-based setting (e.g., Washington Free Clinic, Whitman Walker Clinic, Head Start, etc.).
• The Center for Chronic Illness and Disability is performing state of the art, quality research to study factors that lead to disability, its prevention, or amelioration; and to develop an academic program to train the next leaders in rehabilitation science.
• The Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics has joined a team of organizations dedicated to helping states develop a new public-private approach to long-term health care insurance that focuses on meeting the needs of consumers, private insurers and Medicaid agencies.
• The Assisted Living Program, part of the Department of Health Administration and Policy, signed an agreement in 2006 with the Mature Market Resource Center to establish annual "Nana" technology awards as part of a national competition recognizing the best new products and technologies for the elderly.

Our entrepreneurial spirit pervades the way that we live our core values, opening a multitude of opportunities to work with partners on campus, regionally, state-wide, nationally and internationally.