Field Placement and Culminating Experience
Field Placement, MPHP 698
The field placement is a graduate-level, 200-hour practicum that immerses the student in one or more aspects of public health under the guidance of a site preceptor. This 3-credit practicum is a planned, supervised, and evaluated experience that provides the student with an opportunity to apply the public health concepts and practices learned in the classroom in a professional public health environment. Students must complete or be concurrently enrolled in the pre-requisite courses in order to begin their Field Placement. This is a required course of the CNYMPH Program and cannot be waived. Students with previous or current public health experience are encouraged to focus on an area outside their regular work duties.
The Field Placement may include, but is not limited to: community health education, health promotion, program planning, public policy development, program management, etc. Here are a few examples of assignments/projects in which our students have participated:
Examples of Field Placement assignments
- Increase in STD Clinic Visits: Which populations are involved
(Onondaga County Health Department) - Oneida/Herkimer Regional Community Health Initiative
(Oneida County Health Department and Herkimer County Health Department) - The Smoke-Out Program: Implementation, supervision, and evaluation of interventions and their impact on pregnant women
(Center for Maternal and Child Health) - Syracuse Healthy Start: A valuable overview of programs for infants, children, pregnant women and parents
(Onondaga County Health Department) - Dengue Fever and Public Health in Costa Rica
(Hospital San Rafael de Alajuela, Costa Rica)
*Note: Students may use their Field Placement experience to plan a public health project for their Culminating Experience (see below), but these must be treated as two distinct courses.
Culminating Experience, MPHP 699
The Culminating Experience is also a requirement for graduation for all students in the CNYMPH Program and must be taken in the student's final semester of study. The Culminating Experience includes completion of:
- A Capstone project, and
- A written product, and
- Oral presentation
Designed to synthesize and integrate all of the public health theory, knowledge and skills gained throughout the CNYMPH Program curriculum, this requirement will be used as a means by which faculty judge whether the student has mastered proficiency in the required public health competencies.
Examples of Culminating Experiences
- Exploring the Reasons for Choosing a Public STD Clinic
- Syracuse University Wellness Task Force: Health Risk Appraisal
- Health Disparity in Stroke Care
- An Examination of Low Birthweight within Syracuse Healthy Start: A retrospective research project aimed at identifying potential risk factors.