Read about the PHAST trip to the Gulf Coast
in Findings

The Office of Public Health Practice partners with organizations and agencies to provide training to the future public health workforce. Internships provide public health graduate students with practical public health experiences while providing organizations and agencies an opportunity to assist in training the future public health workforce.

SPH graduate student intern placements benefit the organization/agency and the student through the development and completion of a pre-defined project that assists the organization/agency in addressing an unmet need and assists the student in developing skills related to public health practice.

In furtherance of the mission of the Office of Public Health Practice and to provide "real world" learning experiences for our students, a limited number of competitive paid summer internships are sponsored in governmental and non-governmental public health agencies throughout the state of Michigan that meet the requirement of the EHS, EPID, and HBHE departments.

Listed below are some of the exciting projects that took place at internship placements during the summer of 2009.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture
This summer internship focused on researching various food manufacturing processes, then using an on-line system called the Food and Agriculture Sector Criticality Assessment Tool (FASCAT) to assess which foods and/or processes are at a higher security risk for contamination.

The Washtenaw County Public Health Department - Epidemiology
The summer intern worked on West Nile Virus surveillance – managing the dead bird reporting data base and working on the Washtenaw County Health Improvement Plan survey - methodology, design, and sampling.

Salem Memorial Lutheran Church
The project at this internship placement consisted of developing and implementing weekly nutrition and cooking classes for adults, as well as weekly classes for children during the Summer Youth Program (SYP).

The Monroe County Health Department
The summer intern worked on the development of an evaluation plan for the school health nursing/health education and promotion plan.  Additionally the intern worked on quality improvement plans and prepared a report of the Monroe County Health Department staff emergency preparedness training.

The Michigan Department of Community Health,
Environmental Health Division
The student implemented a survey which identifies asthma triggers and injury hazards in the households of children diagnosed with asthma.

If you have any questions about these or other internship opportunities, please email internshipcoordinator@umich.edu

2009 Summer Interns - taking part in the internship poster session for HBHE, EHS and EPID, October 9, 2009.

(L - R) Devi Sachdeva, Henry Ford Health System, School-based Health; Alex Freiman, MI-CPHP; Karin Teske, Monroe County Health Department

(L - R) Alyse Grossman, MDCH; Katie Xie, Sault Tribe Health Center; Rebecca Coughlin, Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan talking with Renee Bayer

(L - R) HARC Interns- Jamie Bogert and Carrie Rheinghans pose with HARC preceptors- Jimena Loveluck, Leon Gholson; Laura Dean, Monroe County Health Department; Terika McCall, Monroe County Health Department

(L - R) Honor Potvin, Genessee County Mental Health Agency; Robert Kelly, MDCH, Healthy Homes; Christee Staufer, Washtenaw County Public Health Department

(L - R) Kia Sweeney, Packard Health; Rachel Chadderon, MDA

Lauren Shirey, MPH (Genesee County Health Department) with intern Jessica Hagan, at the schoolwide poster session

"Through my internship at the GCHD I also gained a better understanding of how a health department functions and what an epidemiologist's role is within a local health department."

—Jessica Hagan, Genesee County Health Department

"I was able to see first hand, why public health is so important and the impact that it can have on a community."

—Un Ju Kim, Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion