Internship Dates: June 15 – August 14, 2015
Deadline to Apply: Friday, February 20, 2015
Organization Description
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 core training sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, Chicago, and Boston. Additional sites will be announced for 2015. Our 2014 projects included the investigation of hazards and the impact on Latino temp workers in manufacturing, the examination of chemicals of concern in black hair products at black hair salons, the improvement of worker health and safety through safer alternatives to toxic paint removers, and the examination of the workplace health and safety issues among immigrant workers in dairy agriculture.
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 videoconference, 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. 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.aoec.org/ohip. Additional questions? Contact administrator coordinator Ingrid Denis (idenis@aoec.org, 1-888-347-2632). For further program information, visit www.aoec.org/ohip or email program coordinator Sarah Jacobs (sjacobs@irle.ucla.edu).