Health & Wellbeing Minor

Health and well-being are about much more than the absence of disease. In this one-of-a-kind minor, students are introduced to health and well-being through a wide spectrum of topics involving elements of genetic, biological, psychological, behavioral and social practices and processes.

The courses in this program are designed to assist students in obtaining the scientific knowledge related to health and well-being to promote intelligent decision-making. It also amplifies the curriculum for students who wish to work in the health or mental health professions, or hope to be engaged in public policy related to health and well-being.

Course topics include nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, healthy environment, psychology, public health policy and more. Six schools across the University of Virginia have joined forces to create this minor that helps view this topic from a wide spectrum. UVA students enrolled in this minor have unprecedented access to classes in the following schools:

  • The School of Education and Human Development
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • School of Medicine
  • School of Nursing
  • School of Architecture
  • Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

The Health & Well-being Minor is an organized concentration by which students can gain deeper knowledge and explore links among the various topics within health and wellness across academic units, and be recognized for having completed substantive coursework by obtaining an academic minor.

This is a 19-credit minor program and open to all UVA students. See below for admissions and program details.

Applications for admission into the minor are due each year on October 1st for spring entry and February 1st for fall entry. Applicants accepted into the minor will be notified on October 15th and February 15th respectively.

Program Details

  • Prerequisites and Admission Requirements

    You can start early - you do not have to be officially admitted into the minor to start taking courses. First and second year students are encouraged to start taking courses in the minor as soon as possible. All approved Health and Wellbeing minor courses taken prior to being admitted into the minor will transfer in and will be counted towards the minor when you are officially admitted.

    Students interested in officially being admitted into the Health and Wellbeing minor must have declared a major, have earned at least 60 credits with grades of C or better and a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher.  

    All courses are offered on a space-available basis and acceptance into the Health and Wellbeing minor does not guarantee enrollment in the courses or completion of the minor.

    Courses taken in the minor cannot be counted toward fulfillment of the student’s major or another minor.

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  • Application Due Date

    Applications for admission into the minor are due each year on October 1st for spring entry and February 1st for fall entry. Applicants accepted into the minor will be notified on October 15th and February 15th respectively.

  • Degree Requirements

    The 19-credit undergraduate minor in Health and Wellbeing will include courses distributed across three broad academic domains: 1) Physical Health and Wellbeing; 2) Emotional/Mental Health and Wellbeing; and 3) Health Policy and Healthy Environment. Students will be required to complete one required foundation course under each of these three domains, for a total of nine credits. The foundation courses are designed to engage students in obtaining relevant scientific knowledge related to health and wellbeing to promote intelligent decision-making that can be used to improve their quality of life. For the remaining nine credits needed to complete the minor, students take elective courses within any of the domains to deepen their knowledge base in a specific area of interest.

    Required Culminating Seminar

    Students will enroll and complete a one-credit culminating seminar at the end of the minor or concurrently during the semester they complete the minor coursework. The culminating seminar will be taught by Luke Kelly in the Department of Kinesiology and will be cross-listed in each participating department so that each unit receives credit for their respective students. The culminating seminar will consist of a series of seminars designed to have the students discuss, synthesize, and apply what they have learned from this multidisciplinary minor on health and well-being and then to demonstrate this knowledge via either an individual or small group poster presentation given at an annual spring conference on health and well-being.

  • Course Overview

    Information on courses required for the minor can be found in the Undergraduate Record

The Health & Well-Being Minor allows students to gain knowledge in the full scope of disciplines represented in the integrative concept of health and well-being.

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only. The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found at http://records.ureg.virginia.edu/index.php.