The Columbia University Medical Center is teaming up with the Centers for Disease Control to introduce undergraduates to public health through the lens of different medical fields.
The Summer Health Public Scholars Program combines academic classes and field experience in a 10-week summer internship at CUMC. Students will pursue work with a public health focus in general medicine, dentistry, or nursing. Six students will also travel to Atlanta to work with the CDC during the program.
“It’s a versatile program as far as giving them exposure to public health,” Daniel Carrion, one of the program’s coordinators, said. “If they want to be in nursing, we want to expose them to public health nursing. The internships will be geared towards the students’ interests and strengths.”
To combat the predicted shortage of workers in public health professions—a phenomenon acknowledged by the National Institutes of Health and the Association of Schools of Public Health—epidemiologists are attempting to bring new recruits to the field.
“We want to promote a workforce that is conscious and educated about health disparities that can be integrated into their public health work,” Carrion said. “Hopefully we’ll have a more apt workforce to mitigate these problems.”
Joseph Feisel, SEAS ’14, said he thinks the program could be a great success.
“This would be a great opportunity for me to pursue dentistry with a different approach—one that I haven’t seen in other programs that I’m applying to,” Feisel said.
The medical school’s emphasis on this program could encourage students already thinking of careers in medicine to consider one in public health, said Lexa Koenig, CC ’14 and co-president of the public health club GlobeMed.
“A lot of people don’t necessarily know about public health as a field. When you think about health, a lot of people just think about being a doctor,” Koenig said.
“The CDC is obviously a reputable place and a lot of people in public health do lots of work there eventually,” she said. “It sounds really cool to be able to work hands-on in a lab like that.”
The program is run by the CUMC’s Office of Diversity, which has encouraged minority students in particular to apply.
“There is definitely a need in communities of color and disadvantaged communities to help out,” Program Coordinator Nicole Spruill said. “They need to do something about the clear and glaring health disparities that exist.”
Carrion said that he would also like to see the program attract a geographically diverse group of undergraduates.
“Public health issues in Texas look very different from public health issues in New York. And so students can go back to their home communities and really integrate it into their lives. That’s our dream—that’s what we’re reaching for.”
The program covers travel fees and housing, and offers scholars a stipend for their work. In addition, it will include an orientation period, a GRE prep course, and a mentoring system that will help interns with exposure in the field.
Finn Vigeland contributed reporting.
lauren.chadwick@columbiaspectator.com
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