The Yale School of Public Health gave me this incredible toolbox of public health skills and I was like, ‘How can I not do something?’ I just had to pitch in.
Real World Application of Public Health Skills and Training
When you enroll at the Yale School of Public Health, you'll hear a lot about the internship and applied practice experience practicum requirements. These immersive experiences are carefully planned, supported and evaluated by our practice and career management staff. Both experiences provide robust opportunities for the real-world application of public health knowledge and skills and support your career goals. Many students report inspiring, life changing experiences from their time around the world and in local settings. Your internship may fulfill the applied practice experience requirement, but if not, there are multiple practicum courses from which you can choose that will provide the hands-on public health practice training required for your MPH degree.
Applied Practice Experience and the Internship
Sample practicum projects
- Strategize and advocate with the CT Oral Health Initiative for the inclusion of dental health in the Connecticut Health Information Exchange through identifying key barriers while increasing access to advocacy materials.
- Conduct a cost Effectiveness Analysis of the Essential Package of Health Services for the Malawi Ministry of Health. Information gathered is also used in the micro-planning and costing for the Ministry of Health’s Emergency and Critical Care services.
- Develop workplace safety protocols for COVID-19 while supporting a needs assessment to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on All Our Kin. The information gathered is being used to address ongoing equity issues, as well those issues that have become apparent due to the impact of COVID-19.
Recent internships
- URU The Right to Be, Inc: Our Humanity, Building Bridges & COVID 19 Learning Hubs
- Beirut, Lebanon/American University of Beirut: Mapping Stakeholders to Assess Cancer Care Policy Landscape in Lebanon
- United Health Group Contact Tracer (NYDHMH): COVID-19 Contact Monitor for NYC
- Yale Global Health Leadership Initiative: The Expanded Program on Immunization Leadership and Management Programme
- Maryland Department of Health: DSMES & Maryland Medicaid (Preparing evidence to have Diabetes Self-Management Education and Supports covered by Maryland Medicaid)
rev. 8.10.2021
Illustrative Topics for HPM Theses and Capstone Projects
In HPM, students have the option to complete a masters thesis, if there is a project of sufficient depth and complexity to merit an extended project of this scale. All policy students participate in the capstone seminar, which culminates in a project (15-20 page policy brief, with associated media strategy and implementation plan) on a topic of their choice that addresses health or health care related concerns and aspires to produce some transformational change in health/social policies.
Thesis Topics (selected)
- Effects of Substance Use Disorder Section 1115 Waivers on Medicaid Population Utilization of Buprenorphine and Naltrexone
- Health Care Utilization and Costs for Dementia Patients in China
- Global Routine Immunization Policies for Refugees
- Overseen and Overlooked: Knowledge Production and Care in Public Health Surveillance
- Reducing Health Care Expenditures: A Roadmap
- Creation of a New Agency to Regulate Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
- A Hub and Spoke Model of Care to Address Access and Quality Disparities in Rural Health
- Promoting Fundamental Shifts in Health Policymaking: National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program
- The ABC’s of Equitable Public Education Financing in the United States
- Transforming Maternity Care Act
- Consolidation of Global Health Agencies into a Single Entity Under the Department of State
- Every Child, Every Home, Every Community: A Strategy for Addressing, Health, Education and Housing
- Transforming the Organ Donation and Transplantation System
- On Deescalating Gun Violence in America
- Addressing Infertility in America
- Convincing the Trump Administration to Support a “True Medicare For All” Policy
- Effects of Donor Proliferation in Health Sector Aid on Health Program Performance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
- Professional Societies and Physician Behavior: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statements
- Consequences of Health Shocks Among Older Adults with Risky Behaviors
- The Impact of an Innovative Global Health Delivery Model in Kenya
- Examining the Effects of Tailoring Smoking Cessation Messages
- An Assessment of State Efforts to Combat Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities
- Managing the Effects of Healthcare Worker Migration
- The Securitization of Global Health by the American Foreign Policy Community
- Weight Loss Advertisements on Teen Magazine Websites
Capstone Project Titles (selected from past several years)
- Reshaping Access to Essential Medicines: The TRIPS Agreement and the Role of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
- School Based Mental Health Screening and Treatment
- Innovations in Combating the Opioid Epidemic: Access to Treatment for Incarcerated Individuals
- Disrupting the School-To-Prison Pipeline
- The Color Of the Mind: Mental Health, Inequity and Ethnicity
- Reducing Physician Burnout in Healthcare
- Fighting Back: A Strategy for Winning the Battle Against the U.S. Opioid Crisis
- Mainstreaming Birth Centers to Reduce the High Cesarean Section Rate in the United States
- Preserve Our Future Act: The Guiding Principles for Antibiotic Resistance Stewardship
- National Overhaul to Reform Medical Marijuana, Decriminalize Marijuana and Set National Safety Standards for State Recreational Use Laws
- A 15-Year Plan to Tackle Childhood Obesity in Mexico Through School-Based Policies
- Safeguarding the Future of State Innovation & Healthcare Pricing Transparency
- Addressing America’s Perceptions of Refugees and Reducing Stigma
- Cost Control in Health Care Reform: The Case for an All Payer System
- Smart Justice: Diversion from Incarceration into Treatment for the Mentally Ill
- Improving the Incentive Structure of High-Deductible Health Plans in the U.S.
- A Transformative International Family Planning/Reproductive Health Initiative
- A New Approach to Tackling Incidents of Sexual Assault and Harassment on College Campuses