Some Good News To Start the New Year

Welcome back! Dean Lu shared some good news from the school and so we thought we'd reiterate the items that pertain to OOMPH and our faculty:

• Professor Corinne Riddell and a team of faculty and staff from Berkeley Public Health was awarded $1 million in an interagency agreement with the State to upskill California’s public health workforce on data intelligence – how to leverage data science, machine learning, causal inference, predictive analytics, implementation science, etc. to make better decisions for public health in California. It’s yet another example of how Berkeley Public Health is leading transformational change at this pivotal moment in public health. This collaboration will leverage OOMPH's existing curriculum and OOMPH team members will be involved in developing new training opportunities tailored to the needs of the CDPH workforce.

• Professor Jodi Halpern played a major leadership role in the launch of the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public at UC Berkeley. Berkeley was chosen to launch the only US site for the Kavli Center, which will reimagine how scientists (beginning in the fields of neuroscience, genetics, and artificial intelligence) are trained, , with goal of changing the culture of science to become responsive to publics with an emphasis on respect for persons and social justice.

Important Announcements

Important Dates and Deadlines: 



• January 10, Adjustment Period for enrollment begins
• January 11, Spring 1 courses begin
• January 15*, FINAL SPRING SHIP WAIVER DEADLINE (i.e. to avoid the $3,044 fee)
• January 17, Academic & Administrative Holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
• January 18, Spring Full Term courses begin
• January 28, Deadline for all students to drop classes without a fee. $10 fee charged for each class dropped after this date.

*Please note: if you waived out of SHIP during the Fall semester, you do not need to waive again for Spring/Summer (i.e. the Fall waiver extends through the entire academic year). If you have any questions or are unsure of your waiver status, please reach out to oomph_admin@berkeley.edu.

We would like to remind you about the OOMPH refund policy for Spring 2022: 

Refund Policy: An important feature of the policy is the timing of dropping courses and the impact on refunds: dropping any courses after the first day of campus instruction will result in a reduction in refund. For Spring 2022, the first day of instruction for UC Berkeley is January 18, 2022 (OOMPH Spring 1 courses begin on January 11, 2022). Dropping any courses (e.g., Spring 1, Spring  2 or Spring Full Term course) after January 18th will result in a reduction in refund. 

Please review the tables at the link below for the prorated amounts based on calendar days (including weekends and holidays) beginning on the first day of campus instruction. 

These fees are nonrefundable, as of the first day of instruction for OOMPH students.

• Late fees
• Health Insurance 
• Class Pass 
• Document Management 

For more information, please visit the refund Student Hub>>Finances

Our goal is to make sure you have the information needed to plan accordingly. If you have any questions and/or concerns, please reach out to your Program Manager at oomph_prog_mgr@berkeley.edu for further assistance.

OOMPH Student Spotlight

Are you interested in being featured on our public-facing website? Please fill out this form to be featured for our student spotlight!

Link: https://forms.gle/ciEhh8H3VjPyb4e96

Threads of Impact

A student run Podcast series from the School of Public Health, University of California - Berkeley

Episode 4 Description:

We are excited to interview Ms. Sarah Leff, the Title V Director of Children and Youth with Special Healthcare Needs for the State of California. Sarah holds a Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently works for the Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Division within the California Department of Public Health. Sarah has dedicated her career to MCH, demonstrating a strong commitment to promoting and protecting the health of moms, children, adolescents and families in California. In 2018, Sarah transitioned into a leadership role focused on expanding California’s public health systems and strategies aimed at supporting children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN).

If you have any questions or feedback, please email us at podcastquestions_sph@berkeley.edu

Together, let's explore the various dimensions of public health.

Link to Podcast

SPH Events

Get Involved! If you are interested in attending SPH virtual events, please visit the community events calendar at https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/community-building

Monthly Observance

National Mentoring Month

Learn all about Mentoring Month by visiting mentoring.com:

Launched in 2002 by MENTOR National and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, National Mentoring Month focuses national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us—individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities and nonprofits—can work together to increase the number of mentors to help ensure positive outcomes for our young people. This campaign celebrates mentoring and the positive effect it can have on young lives. Its goals are to:

• Raise awareness of mentoring in its various forms
• Recruit individuals to mentor, especially in programs that have waiting lists of young people
• Promote the rapid growth of mentoring by recruiting organizations to engage their constituents in mentoring