Health Careers Internship Workforce Development Project

Grantee Information

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)
8415 Datapoint #400, San Antonio, TX 78229
(210) 692-3805

HACU was established in 1986 to represent accredited, non-profit colleges and universities. Its mission is to improve the development of member colleges and universities, improve the access to and quality of post-secondary education opportunities for Hispanic students, and meet the needs of business, industry and government, through the development and sharing of information, resources and expertise.

Grant Project Information

Health Careers Internship Workforce Development Project
$50,000
René A. González
(210) 692-3805
Ragonzalez@hacu.net

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to address the underrepresentation of Hispanics in the health fields, academic health science areas and federal government and increase the diversity of the health-related workforce through the efforts of its model program: the HACU National Internship Program (HNIP). This project targets Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, HACU Associate Member and Partner Institutions and other colleges and universities. The grantee will:

Recruit and amass an intern applicant pool of at least 4000 students per year,
Place 160 students on internship opportunities at DHHS agencies per year,
Provide the selected students a ten week internship experience that in addition to relevant career experience at DHHS agencies will include opportunities to attend seminars, meetings with key Congressional, Federal, and Executive Branch representatives, HACU's Annual Conference and Capitol Forum and other career development activities',
Implement a refined, internet-based application system that will allow for online application of candidates and for the tracking of participants during and after completion of their program activities and
Effectively manage the Cooperative Agreement funding mechanism, working with OMH, federal agencies, and funded organizational grantees to receive, award and manage OMH pass-through grants.

As a result of the project, it is expected that there would be an increase in the likelihood that the internship participants will seek and obtain jobs in the health-related fields. The outcome measures include the extent of the education obtained, the extent of the education obtained in the health-related field, the employment at an internship site, and the employment in a health-related field. The grantee will conduct both process and outcome evaluation. All interns will complete periodic on-line surveys, an exit interview at the end of the internship designed to provide a qualitative account of their internship placement, and a satisfaction form that examines issues related to the quality of the program administration. The key processes will be measured before the internship and immediately after the internship to determine any advancement in the interns' career outlooks, knowledge, skills, motivation and social networking. The key outcomes will be measured one year after the internship and three years after the internship and will focus on the educational achievements and the professional achievements, especially career choices of the interns in the years following their internship experience.

OMH objective(s) toward which the project's results most contribute (check all that apply):

Improved access to, and appropriate utilization of, health and other community-based services and systems through user-centered design for racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., health IT, culturally/ linguistically appropriate services, service provider education/ training, workforce diversity)

Key (not more than five) Healthy People 2010 objectives or subobjectives (by number and name) towards which your project's results most contribute (see Appendix 3 of OMH's Evaluation Planning Guidelines).

PHI-4: Increase the proportion of four-year colleges and universities that offer public health or related majors and/or minors.
PHI-6: Increase the proportion of two-year colleges that offer public health or related associate degrees and/or certificate programs.
HC/HIT-13.3: Increase the proportion of schools of public health and accredited MPH programs that offer workforce development activities in social marketing for public health.

Content Last Modified: 12/8/2011 2:46:00 PM

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