American Medical Student Association

Overview

The new AMSA Academy Scholars Program in Public Health will teach AMSA members how to effectively work with their local community, as well as develop, implement, and evaluate a local project. This program will also develop a cohort of content experts in some of the most cutting edge public health topics. The program will include an in-person training session in community engagement for social justice, as well as program planning and evaluation. Students will then be asked to start a year-long community engagement project in their local area. The community could include their medical school class, their academic institution, their local community, or even an issue-based national community. The students will be asked to plan, implement and evaluate this program with guidance from the Public Health Scholars Coordinator. Students will also be required to attend five out of the seven Community Healers Inspiring Tomorrow (CHIT) Chat webinars, which will be once per month starting in September.

Tentative Curriculum

In addition to the community engagement and program development skills, some of the possible topics for the CHIT Chat webinar series include:

• The importance of prevention
• The impact of the gulf oil spill on environmental health
• The “teamlet” model of delivery reform
• Community-based participatory research
• Cultural competency in disaster relief
• Towards a Healthy City: the intersection between public health and city planning
• Doctors who make house calls
• Concierge medicine and effect
• The impact of health reform on primary care

Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, students should be able to:

• Identify and describe one major public health topic and how it impacts their local community
• Define the community that they are working with and identify at least one community partner
• Identify and analyze the race, gender and class dimension of this partnership
• Plan and implement a successful community event with at least 10 attendees
• Evaluate the program with at least two process metrics and two outcome metrics
• Involve community members in as much of the planning, implementation, and evaluation as possible given the time constraints

Program Structure

The Public Health Scholars Program includes four main components:

• Attend the community engagement symposium prior to the fall conference in San Diego. If a student is unable to attend this symposium for financial reasons, they will be required to watch the online version and answer a set of questions relating to the material.
• Attend at least five of the monthly webinars entitled CHIT (Community Healers Inspiring Tomorrow) Chats
• Plan, implement and evaluate a local community capstone project
• Submit a write-up of their project including evaluation materials for AMSA Academy to review for certification

Tentative Schedule

• September
  Scholar applications due September 25, 2011
  Scholar Selection by October 1, 2011
  CHIT Chat #1
  Scholar check-in #1 around September 15
• October
  CHIT Chat #2
  Community Engagement Symposium at Fall Conference
  Evening project planning event at Fall Conference for CEH Scholars
• November
  CHIT Chat #3
  Scholar check-in #2
• December
  CHIT Chat #4
• January
  CHIT Chat #5
  Scholar check-in #3
• February
  CHIT Chat #6
  Final Projects will be due Sunday February 20, 2012
• March
  CHIT Chat #7
  Certificates will be handed out at Convention Scholar’s social event on Friday night of Convention

Participant Expectations

• Attend the community engagement symposium prior to the fall conference in San Diego
• Attend at least five out of the seven monthly webinars
• Plan, implement and evaluate a local community capstone project
• Submit a write-up of their project including evaluation materials for AMSA Academy to review

Who Should Apply?

Medical and premedical students who are interested in topics related to public health, health justice and the social and environmental determinants that underlie health disparities are encouraged to apply.

Each Public Health Scholar must be a member of AMSA at the start of the program. Information about registration and membership is available here.

Application Process

• Application deadline: September 25, 2011
• Program fee: $30