Internships

NHPHA participates in a Health Equity Student Internship Stipend Program annually. The cycle restarts on July 1 of each year. Information is disseminated on NHPHA’s listserv.

What Is the Health Equity Student Internship Stipend Program?

The Health Equity Student Internship Stipend Program allows public health students to gain practical experience working on projects to improve health equity at agencies providing public health and primary care services. The program is funded through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) New England Public Health Training Center (NEPHTC). A total of 3 – 4 internships are funded annually in New Hampshire.

Application and Selection Process

Agencies submit an application for either student project or faculty student collaboration to the New Hampshire Public Health Association. Projects must focus on health equity and involve medically underserved areas and populations. NHPHA reviews the applications to ensure they meet all criteria. Priority is given to NHPHA organizational members. The application is then forwarded to the NEPHTC for approval. Following project approval, NHPHA works with academic partners and placement sites to recruit students who meet project criteria and are a good match for the project. Selected students will be required to complete an application with the NEPHTC.

What Is the Financial Award?

In 2018-2019, students received a $3,500 stipend upon completion of the internship and submission of a final report and presentation to HRSA. Students are expected to work 200 hours or the number of hours that fulfills the degree requirement for an internship/practicum at their academic institution, if the internship will be used to meet academic requirements.

Who Is Eligible?

Priority is given to master’s or doctoral students in public health. Graduate students in other health professions and 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students in public health may also apply. Students must be a U.S. citizen, a non-citizen U.S. national, or a foreign national with a visa permitting permanent residence in the U.S.

Past Projects

In 2018, we had two students participate in the first cycle. An intern from Rivier University worked for the UNH Center on Aging and Community Living on “Identifying and Describing Age Friendly Initiatives in NH,” and an intern from SNHU worked for NHPHA as a “Communications Intern.”

The next cycle started in summer 2018, and NHPHA was able to fill three internship stipend positions: “Video Collaborative Learning for Social Determinants of Health,” a student from George Washington University who partnered with NHPHA to conduct this research; “Promoting access to harm reduction services for Upper Valley injection drug users,” a student from Dartmouth College; and “Mental Health Toolkit,” a student from UNH. NHPHA also hosted a Gun Violence Prevention intern.

Lyz Best, an NHPHA intern, posed with Executive Director Joan Ascheim, MSN, following her
presentation on her social determinants of health research during an NHPHA board meeting.

A student presents her poster at one of NHPHA's annual events.

Stay Work Play

We have a partnership with Stay Work Play as part of our Rising Stars Program. Stay Work Play is an organization that encourages young professionals to stay or move to New Hampshire. 

Stay Work Play provides a database that advertises internships and open positions. Through our partnership, there is a category for public health internships and employment opportunities. This will be a great resource for professionals to post jobs or internship opportunities in the public health field as well as for students or graduates to find an internship or employment.