Master of Public Health Students Share Insights from 2023 Internships
10/19/2023
Master of Public Health students at Saint Louis University recently made a mark from Nigeria to California and back to St. Louis during their three-month internships.
Students in SLU's program complete an internship, referred to as the Applied Practice Experience (APEx), with a public health organization, domestically or internationally, that matches their practice or research interests. The College for Public Health and Social Justice offers hundreds of internship opportunities, including over 60 in the St. Louis region.
The internships help students apply public health skills gained from the classroom in a community setting. They also allow students to network, building important professional connections that guide students early in their careers.
M.P.H. students can choose to do an internship internationally. SLU M.P.H. students have done internships in Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Guatemala, Switzerland, and other countries across the world.
Meet Recent Interns
Ebenezer Adeoti 鈥�24
Ebenezer Adeoti 鈥�24 is a second-year MPH student with a concentration in epidemiology.
Spending the summer in Lagos, Nigeria, working with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Ebenezer鈥檚 internship combined community participatory methods and innovative strategies in implementation science research for two NIH-funded global health projects. Some of his many responsibilities included facilitating research by assisting in designing a boot camp handbook, data collection, studying instrument validation and being a data liaison.
Ebenezer鈥檚 internship 鈥減rovided [him] the desired valuable skills for the design of a health program, data management and analysis, effective monitoring and evaluation methods of global health programs and research projects ... I was able to draw upon epidemiological and analytical skills from my classroom learning experiences to research work in real-world settings.鈥�
Erinn Miller 鈥�24
Erinn Miller, 鈥�24, is an accelerated M.P.H. student with a concentration in behavioral science and health education.
In the summer of 2023, Erinn worked with Parents as Teachers National Center headquartered in St. Louis. Erinn鈥檚 internship deepened a passion for health communications. It allowed her to review communications strategies and education materials, propose new ideas for resources, and see first-hand how public health theories and concepts translate into real-world practice. Erinn used her time at the internship to speak with many people in the organization to learn about possible career paths, and worked on some unexpected and interesting projects inside and outside of her department.
Emily Wildhaber 鈥�24
Emily Wildhaber 鈥�24 is an M.P.H. student with a dual concentration in epidemiology, and health management and policy.
During the summer of 2023, Emily interned with Navvis Healthcare in St. Louis, supporting the enterprise practice optimization team by developing onboarding materials for new practice optimization team members. The experience broadened Emily鈥檚 areas of interest that she had not seen before.
"Be open to many opportunities within public health because you may become interested in something that you did not expect previously," she tells prospective students.
Pavan Surag Bogisam 鈥�24
Pavan Surag Bogisam 鈥�24 is an M.P.H. student with a concentration in epidemiology. Completing his internship in the summer of 2023, Pavan worked with the Colusa County Department of Health & Human Services in Colusa, California. During the three months of his internship, Pavan worked on projects including a tobacco education program, preparing a qualitative analysis for community health assessment, contributing to a COVID-19 vaccination analysis, and gave a presentation on smoking鈥檚 ill effects to a wellness and recovery center.
鈥淭hese experiences collectively fortified my skills in data analysis, stakeholder engagement, and effective communication, all pivotal for my future career as an epidemiologist.鈥�
College for Public Health and Social Justice
The Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice is the only academic unit of its kind, studying social, environmental and physical influences that together determine the health and well-being of people and communities. It also is the only accredited school or college of public health among nearly 250 Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States. Guided by a mission of social justice and focus on finding innovative and collaborative solutions for complex health problems, the college offers nationally recognized programs in public health and health administration.