Service Learning Internship
MACCP students engage in a service-learning internship throughout their first academic year. Engagement in the internship supports our program’s commitment to community-based, participatory research. The primary purpose of this internship is to:
- Involve students in a service-learning experience that will afford them the chance to learn about, and give back to, the larger community/ies surrounding the medical campus and Boston University.
- Create an opportunity to identify, explore, and establish a potential field-site(s) and/or community-based partnership(s) for ongoing participant-observation and later data collection.
Students who have participated in an internship preceding formal data collection in other master’s programs describe the internship component as a particularly valuable aspect of their anthropological and health research training. This part of our program is undoubtedly one of the most valuable parts of the training students receive.
Schedule
Internships will consist of an average of one-day/eight-hour per week (approximately 120 hours per semester) of volunteer service in an approved setting. Students will be expected to begin their internship by the beginning of October and continue through the fall and spring semesters.
By spending the academic year at their internship site, followed by a summer of intensive fieldwork, students spend close to a year in relationship with the site community or group. Such internships facilitate a longer period of ethnographic fieldwork, which results in a richer body of data, stronger relationships within which to develop ongoing research and potential future employment prospects, and the opportunity to become more fully involved in the local community.
Internship Placement
The ideal placement will enable a student to begin establishing rapport with potential participants and/or community partners, refine their research question(s), following a model of community-based participatory research, and explore and evaluate potential fieldwork site(s).
During the summer prior to starting the program, the student’s adviser, other MACCP faculty, and/or affiliated staff at BUMC will work with the student to develop a list of resources, sites, and ideas for setting up an internship. Internships may be based at, or be affiliated with, Boston Medical Center, a local community health center, a non-profit organization, or a public agency or group. With the support of the internship director and other MACCP faculty, students will reach out prospective sites to set up their internship.
Examples of Internship Placements