Practicum Experience

The Applied Practice Experience (APE) is a required component of the Master of Public Health program. The APE provides students with a hands-on opportunity to translate principles and skills learned in the classroom and to acquire competencies in public health in a field setting of their choosing. Students work in collaboration with a defined site, organization, or program to develop a health or healthcare-related project that will hone and refine the skills and competencies the MPH program seeks to develop. Students apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design or implementation of public health policies or programs, propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes, select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors, and perform effectively on inter-professional teams.

Students have opportunities to pursue internships with a broad variety of organizations related to community/population health, healthcare delivery, health policy, and research. These hands-on learning experiences allow students to translate and apply skills and knowledge gained in the classroom and acquire competencies at a public health field site, including governmental, non-profit, industrial, for-profit, or appropriate university sites. Internships are designed as service-learning opportunities, achieving mutually beneficial goals for the student and the host site. Students receive mentoring and supervision from a host site preceptor and a faculty advisor throughout their internship.

The Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) project allows Master of Public Health students to immerse themselves in a public health project of their choosing in depth, demonstrating their understanding of foundational and specialization competencies gained during the program. During this culminating experience, students develop their own individual projects with faculty support, employing systems thinking, qualitative and quantitative methods, and effective inquiry to develop actional insights and feasible recommendations. The ILE includes a high-quality written product that students submit at or near the end of the program.