International Public Health Practicum in Costa Rica and Ecuador
Population-level health work in Spanish, alongside local partner organizations, in communities that asked for the work. February and July every year.
Public health is taught as a population discipline and then, too often, practiced from a distance. This practicum puts you in the community, working in Spanish, on health education that a local organization identified as a need and will continue delivering after you leave.
Who This Is For
MPH and public health students, and professionals working in population health who want to build Spanish for their work. The practicum runs alongside our medical, nursing, PA and pharmacy rotations, so your cohort is interprofessional by design.
There is no Spanish minimum. Instruction is set to your level.
Timing and Length
When
Twice a year, February and July.
Length
Three and four week programs within a four-week block. Start dates and lengths are flexible in most cases, as long as you are still meeting your program’s practicum requirements.
The Work Itself
Community health education
This is the core of the practicum. You work with the immersion team delivering health education in underserved communities, on topics those communities have requested. You prepare the material extensively during pre-departure preparation, in Spanish, with the rest of your cohort. The conditions you will be addressing are the ones these communities actually live with: elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, malnutrition. This is not a hypothetical case study.
Spanish instruction
Roughly 20 hours a week at our partner language school, set to your level and oriented toward health communication.
Working with local partner organizations
We support projects those organizations were already running. You are contributing to continuing work, not to an intervention designed around a student calendar.
Host family lodging
One student per household, so the language practice does not stop when class does.
Why This Practicum Is Structured the Way It Is
Short-term international health work has a bad track record when it is designed around what visitors want to do rather than what communities need. We built this program the other way around.
The community sets the agenda
Education topics come from the communities themselves.
We support existing projects
Local organizations were doing this work before we arrived and will continue after your cohort leaves.
Continuity of care is the measure
Students are asked to evaluate international health work by what happens to the population after the visiting team goes home, which is a habit worth forming early.
Resource-limited practice is understood rather than pitied
Delivering effective public health work with constrained resources is a genuine skill, and it transfers directly to underserved populations in the United States.
We publish our guiding principles for international medical work, and we are glad to walk your program through them.
The Interprofessional Cohort
Your cohort includes medical, nursing, PA, NP and pharmacy students. For public health students specifically, this is unusually useful: you spend the rotation working alongside the clinical professions whose practice your future policy and program work will affect, all of you operating in a second language.
Where You Will Be
Costa Rica
Santo Domingo de Heredia, a residential suburb north of San José, deliberately not a tourist community.
Ecuador
Cuenca, a colonial city in the southern highlands.
Credit and Practicum Requirements
Your institution awards the credit and approves the practicum. We complete the documentation your program requires, including course descriptions and any forms your practicum office needs. Contact us early so we can meet your submission deadlines.
Looking for practicum paperwork for your program? Download and submit this course description to your academic program.
Accreditation and Support
Our medical Spanish immersion programs are CME and CE accredited. Every program includes 24 hour leadership, coordination and support from program leaders in country, with daily on-site mentorship.
For Public Health Programs
If you are placing a group of practicum students or building a recurring placement, see our faculty-led global health rotations and risk management and student safety pages, or request a proposal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Reserve Your Spot
Reserve your spot, or schedule a call. Related programs: medical, nursing, PA and NP rotations, PharmD APPE rotation, and all international rotations.
Hello Rory,
I am an MPH candidate at the University of the West Indies and also a language enthusiast. I would like to mix my both passions of Medicine and Language in my research. I have decided to look at language as a barrier for delivery of best practice in my country. I am quite interested in doing this elective as my practicum for this research. I would really like to seek your advice on planning this further. Can you reach out to me via email: [email protected]?
Hola, Visham, we’ll be in touch!
Great! I just have my practicum and thesis to finish. So, this would be q great opportunity. Hope to hear from you soon.
I have questions about your program. I am a social worker and I work in a hospital. Do you accept social workers in your program.
Yes Mariecia, we would love to have you join us as a social worker! I’ll send you a quick email and invite you to a conversation to answer your other questions as well. Cheers, Rory