Summary
We are willing to provide students who enroll into our internship with a meaningful educational experience. Specifically, these students will enroll in our Health Disparities and Health Promotion Research (HDHP) Internship. This internship involves assisting in the conduct of culturally sensitive, intervention-focused, community-based participatory research (CBPR) and patient-centered research aimed at (a) reducing physical and mental health disparities that have a disproportionately negative impact in minority, low-income, and/or medically underserved communities, and (b) promoting health and wellness/wellbeing in these communities. The student interns who participate in this internship will learn how to conduct the aforementioned research through readings,virtual discussions and learning activities as well as through the implementation of virtual interventions targeting individuals living in minority, low-income, and/or medically underserved communities.
This internship is novel in that it addresses the need for students to develop the knowledge, awareness, and skills to conduct research in health disparity communities (i.e., racial/ethnic minority, LGBTQ+, low-income, and medically underserved communities), and even more importantly, to conduct such research using culturally sensitive, community engaged research approaches/models (i.e., the community based participatory research model and the patient-centered culturally sensitive health care model). Both types of models foster community/patient empowerment and involve members of the target communities in every step of the research process. These models are recognized nationally as best suited for research aimed at reducing health disparities.
Notably, this internship will also give students the novel experience of conducting culturally sensitive research under the conditions of social distancing due to COVID-19. They will learn howto adapt in-person interventions so that they can be implemented virtually in communities where the use of technology is limited. We will provide students with training in tele-mental health, telehealth, and telemedicine—interventions fostered by COVID-19 but are here to stay. Additionally, we will involve them in learning how to write research articles for publication and provide them with the opportunity to earn co-authorship of an article that is submitted for publication. Such training will help prepare our interns for graduate school in counseling and clinical psychology and for medical school.
Students will be able to register for 2 internship credits (6 hours per week) or 3 internship credits (9 hours per week). All students who register for 2 credits or 3 credits will learn and then experience all of the aforementioned learning activities/interventions.
Students who register for 3 credit hours will additionally experience (a) mentoring and co-training of new interns, (b) participation in trainings designed to teach how to lead culturally sensitive health disparities and health promotion research and then assume research leadership roles in this research, and (c) learning how to write research grant proposals and research articles through reviewing and/or editing these documents. These learning experiences (a –c) are particularly helpful for any student who desires to be a faculty member at a major university where research and training student researchers are highly valued.
For a full description of the internship in Fall 2022, please click here.