Occupational Health Internship Program – Apply Now for Summer 2017

Posted on by Robert Harrison, MD, and Sarah Jacobs, MPH

The Occupational Health Internship Program (OHIP) is dedicated to helping students learn about the field of occupational safety and health (OSH) from the perspective of working people. OHIP has played a crucial role in training, mentoring, and inspiring a new generation of OSH professionals as well as providing worker community based organizations the resources to strengthen their health and safety efforts. As highlighted in the 2011 NIOSH needs assessment report, OHIP is helping to prepare a new generation of specialists to meet the ongoing need for trained, dedicated talent in occupational safety and health.

OHIP is housed within the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC) and in 2016 had training sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York City, New Orleans, Metro Washington, DC area, Lincoln, NE, Medford, OR, and Tulsa, OK. The summer program is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Ongoing training grant support has been provided by NIOSH since 2008. Many other organizations have provided financial support for the program, including the California Wellness Foundation, the California Department of Public Health Occupational Health Branch, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences – Worker Education and Training Program, CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, the University of California, Berkeley Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, The Kazan Foundation, and the Steve M Levin Scholarship Fund.

Students are placed with a worker or community based organization on projects that investigate job-related health and safety problems among workers, often of new immigrant groups, employed in an under-served or a high hazard job. Projects are designed to maximize contact between workers and students. Through this process, students gain a better understanding of the complexity of the work environment from the workers’ perspective. At the same time, the program empowers workers and strengthens their investigative and technical skills. As a relationship of trust is built between students and workers, both gain a better understanding of the underlying political and economic forces that contribute to job conditions.

At the end of the project, teams provide a “give back” product to the workers and their “host” worker or community based organization, present their summer project at a NIOSH national videoconference, and produce a final report. Selected projects are presented each fall at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.

The 2016 projects included:

  • Improving working conditions for Latino Forest Workers in Southern Oregon (National Forest Worker Center, Medford Oregon)
  • Hazards of working with a jackleg drill in mining and tunneling (UC Ergonomics Program & CA Department of Public Health Occupational Health Branch, San Francisco Bay area)
  • Assess workplace experiences of retail employees and educate them about their rights in the workplace
  • (Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco Bay area
  • Investigate employer safety practices in temporary, low- wage work (The Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, Chicago, IL)
  • Working with immigrant Latino day laborer workers centers to improve the effectiveness of peer OSH training (BCCHE of Queens College, USW, NDLON & MRNY, New York, NY)
  • Development of a comparative health and safety survey for private and public transit workers (Amalgamated Transit Union, DC Area Locals, Washington, DC)
  • Occupational safety and health issues of hotel housekeeping workers (UNITE-HERE Local 26, Boston, MA)
  • Assess workplace exposures and health concerns among stylists, salon owners and cosmetology students (Black Women for Wellness Healthy Hair Initiative, Los Angeles, CA)
  • Documenting the injury experiences of day laborers in Southern California (National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Los Angeles, CA)
  • Labor conditions of seafood workers in Louisiana (National Guestworker Alliance, New Orleans, LA)
  • Work experiences and satisfaction among Latino adolescent farmworkers (Center for Family Resilience at Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK)
  • Examining musculoskeletal injuries and other health and safety risks among meatpacking workers
  • (Nebraska Appleseed, Lincoln, NE)

To apply for the 2017 program, visit the OHIP website. The deadline for applications is Friday, February 17, 2017.

Robert Harrison, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at UC San Francisco and Chief of the Occupational Health Surveillance and Evaluation Program at the California Department of Public Health. 

Sarah Jacobs, MPH, is a Program Coordinator at the UCLA-Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program (LOSH) and the National Program Coordinator for the Occupational Health Internship Program (OHIP).

 

Posted on by Robert Harrison, MD, and Sarah Jacobs, MPH
Categories Student Training, Training

25 comments on “Occupational Health Internship Program – Apply Now for Summer 2017”

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    Thanks very much, I was thinking if this internship can be offer to student in Africa to broaden the mindset

    Thank you for your comment. OHIP accepts international students, however they must be able to obtain permission to work in the US and they must also be a current student in a degree program. Please review the information at http://aoec.org/ohip/faq-eligibility/ for further details.

    Dear Sir/Madam,
    Information given by your blog seems very nice and helpful. We are glad to inform you about the Postdoctoral scholarship program named as, “The Zuckerman Institute Postdoctoral Scholars Program” which is available for the Ph.D. students who are citizens of the United States or Canada or have a documented status that allows them to study and work in the US.
    Scholarship Deadline: February 15, 2017
    Applicants can get more information about the scholarship through the given link: http://usascholarships.com/the-zuckerman-institute-postdoctoral-scholars-program/
    If you want to read articles related to scholarships like, how to apply for scholarship, how to get scholarship, Scholarship thank you letter etc. Then go through the given link: http://usascholarships.com/category/article/

    The internship is a total of 9 weeks (June 19-August 18, 2017). We try to offer some flexibility if students need to miss 1-2 days toward the beginning of the internship, but given the demands of the projects and the need for students to work together in teams, the internship cannot be ended early.

    OHIP provides undergraduates with a $4,000 stipend and graduate students receive a $5,200 stipend for the summer.

    I appreciate all of the helpful information.
    I understand there are a plethora of different opportunities for undergrads. Are these internships paid? I see that there is a $4,000 stipend for undergrads, which is where I am right now. What is the likelihood of obtaining a paid internship for the summer? What may the payscale look like?

    Due to funding constraints, especially this year, OHIP does not have a plethora of opportunities. All OHIP students receive stipends — undergraduates receive a $4,000 stipend. As in prior years, we anticipate that we will receive over 400 applications and we only have 16-20 positions this summer.

    Thank you for offering this great internship opportunity again. You mentioned the “Occupational safety and health issues of hotel housekeeping workers” project from last year. Will there be an opportunity to learn more from companies that provide hotel security, safety materials, or security technology?

    Our recent hotel housekeeping projects with UNITE HERE did not explore hotel security and security technology from companies. Most of our efforts have focused on ergonomic issues with hotel housekeepers. For additional information about our projects, please visit the OHIP projects page of the our website (www.aoec.org/ohip).

    OHIP provides undergraduates with a $4,000 stipend and graduate students receive a $5,200 stipend for the summer.

    hello sir once i get admitted will i come there. on cost or the company will arrange for the flight and accommodation? i am in Africa.

    OHIP does not provide transportation/travel to OHIP sites however, OHIP will cover travel to the required national OHIP Orientation. During the internship, interns are expected to pay their own daily commuting expenses to their assigned place of work however, OHIP can reimburse for travel costs when travel is needed to another location to interview workers, tour a worksite, attend meetings, etc.

    am a Nigerian .. please is this program extended to those of us around africa ? I need an urgent reply please. thank you.

    OHIP accepts international students, however they must be able to obtain permission to work in the US and they must also be a current student in a degree program. Please review the information at http://aoec.org/ohip/faq-eligibility/ for further details.

    The internship is 9 weeks long. In 2017, the dates were June 19-August 18, 2017.

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Page last updated: August 17, 2022
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