Occupational Health Internship Program - Association of Occupational and Health Clinics

Who: Association of Occupational and Health Clinics

What: The Occupational Health Internship Program (OHIP) is a national summer program dedicated to help students learn about the field of occupational safety and health (OSH) from those most at stake: working people. Since 2004, OHIP has played a key role in training, mentoring, and inspiring a new generation of OSH professionals to prevent job injury and disease through partnerships with worker and community-based organizations. A project of the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC), OHIP has training sites across the country including: the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, DC, and New York City. Visit www.OHIPintern.org for new 2020 sites. A sample of our 2019 projects included a hazard assessment of the Las Vegas casino hotel industry, an investigation of sexual harassment and workplace violence in Los Angeles cannabis dispensaries, an assessment of job hazards and pain reported by women housekeepers in the Philadelphia hotel industry, and an investigation of violence and assaults on transit workers in Hartford, CT.


Position Description 

Teams of two students are placed with a union or worker organization to investigate job-related health and safety problems among workers, often employed in an under-served or a high hazard job. Projects are designed to maximize interaction between workers and students. OHIP is an applied research experience, where students learn about the OSH field from the workers’ perspective. Project work emphasizes worker interviews and worksite evaluations. At the end of the project, teams provide a “give back” product to the workers and their host union/worker organization, present their project at a national NIOSH web-conference, and produce a final report. Commitment is full-time, including possible evenings or weekends.

Qualifications

Graduate and undergraduate students can apply; some stipends are restricted to US citizens. Non-US citizens must supply documentation of permission to work in the US. Undergraduates must have completed two years, preferably in a field related to public health, environmental studies, or public policy. Graduate students in public health, medicine, nursing, or a related field are encouraged to apply. Recent graduates cannot be out of school for more than six months prior to the start of OHIP (i.e. students are not eligible if they graduated prior to December of 2019). We are looking for students with experience or interest in working with unions or social justice organizations, are organized and self-starting, have good team skills and ideally speak a second language such as Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, etc. We encourage underrepresented minority students to apply.

Compensation Undergraduate Students = $4,000 stipend Graduate Students = $5,200 stipend

To Apply

For eligibility info, on-line application and program details go to www.OHIPintern.org. Additional questions? Contact administrator coordinator Ingrid Denis (idenis@aoec.org, 1-888-347-2632). For further program information, visit www.OHIPintern.org or email program coordinator Sarah Jacobs (sjacobs@irle.ucla.edu).

Internship Dates: June 15 - August 14, 2020

Deadline to Apply: Friday, February 14, 2020 (Applicants Notified by late March)