The UC Global Health Institute’s Center for Gender and Health Justice is offering internship opportunities to UC students who are interested in issues of gender and health justice.
The Internship Program
Internships have several key benefits and offer students opportunities to gain “real world” perspectives and chances to network, establish relationships with mentors, explore career options and acquire new skills. The CGHJ will coordinate internship opportunities from health-related and non-profit organizations, government agencies, research centers and university departments. The internship program is overseen by Dr. Melissa Smith, Deputy Director of Education and Training for the CGHJ, in collaboration with Taylor Thomas (CGHJ Coordinator), Stephanie Sumstine-Felice (UCGHI Communications Specialist), the Center leadership team, and UC faculty liaisons.
How it works
- Browse internship opportunities by clicking on each internship
- The CGHJ will be awarding up to 5 awards of $1,000 for students working for an unpaid internship, but preference is given to low-income students and historically underrepresented students. Graduate students are encouraged to apply, but preference will be given to undergraduate students.
- When you find an opportunity of interest, submit your application with your resume or CV to this survey.
- If you have interest in more than one opportunity, you can indicate your top 3 ranked choices in your application, we will follow up with you to schedule an interview with you and a CGHJ liaison, who will introduce successful candidates to the host organization.
- Students will be informed of internship placement decisions by early March.
Qualifications
- Students must be a current or past UCGHI Student Ambassador.
- Internship opportunities may have further qualifications set by the host organization that applicants must meet.
About the CGHJ
The CGHJ's mission is to promote justice, equity and scientific advances to reduce gender and health disparities globally. Our core activities focus on assuring safe motherhood, reducing campus-based violence, improving access to family planning and reproductive technologies, advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, preventing HIV/AIDS and reducing environmental threats to health. As a UC-wide center, we support undergraduate students’ involvement in innovative research projects, programs and policy development activities as part of our effort to train the next generation of global health leaders
Application Deadline: Application deadline has passed. Please check back in February 2025 for future opportunities.
Contact: Taylor Thomas, CGHJ Coordinator (taylorlauryne@g.ucla.edu)
SUMMER 2024 INTERNSHIPS
ATN CARES engages youth at high risk of HIV and youth already living with HIV into HIV prevention and treatment services throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Participating youth receive free HIV/STI tests, and receive support for living a healthy lifestyle.
Category: Academic/Research CenterTasks intern will work on: The ATN CARES study has been recently completed and there is a lot of data available on gender and sexual identity, sexual health, and STI/HIV prevention domestically (Los Angeles and New Orleans). Student interns will assist with dissemination efforts by helping analyze data, support social media efforts, and help create and publish research briefs.
Skills required: Highly motivation, attention to detail, must be able to meet via Zoom and respond to email communication regularly and consistently.
Internship Location: Remote (based at UCLA)
Internship time frame: Summer 2024, (June 2024 – September 2024)
Hours per week: 10 hours per week
Financial support: Each student intern will receive a $1,000 stipend for their participation
Organization Contact: Dallas Swendeman, PhD, MPH
The deadline for applications is January 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM.
The organization supports projects in areas such as health education, HIV/STI prevention and treatment, mental health, anti-trafficking, children’s education and sports programs, client care services, educational/vocational training, and economic empowerment through their micro-banking cooperative. Other recent projects have focused on demonstrating feasibility and acceptability for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention with sex workers in Kolkata and harder to reach rural areas, including gay and bisexual men and transgender women. Durbar has also expanded efforts to support other labor sectors that socially marginalized women work in, specifically, domestic workers and construction workers. Durbar places a strong focus on community organizing and community ownership of its projects, leading to sustainable community-based interventions. The current year’s priority topic area will be the impact of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of sex workers and their families from a collaborative mixed-methods study with UCLA. Data collection was planned for spring 2022 with focus of summer 2024 being data analyses and publication/presentation preparation.
Tasks intern will work on: Interns would be involved in analysis of existing data, case study, developing research protocol and project proposal, program evaluation, and capacity building on monitoring and evaluation.
Category: Non-profit Organization
Skills required:
- Appropriate attitude and skill to interact with socially marginalized communities such as sex workers and their family members, as well as peer staff and monitoring and evaluation staff and leaders at Durbar
- Flexibility in availability to meet remotely (typically via WhatsApp, Skype or Zoom) in evenings and early mornings for ~13 hour time zone differences between India and Pacific Time zone
- Experience with or willingness to learn basic survey data cleaning and basic statistical analyses (or more advanced if had coursework), and/or qualitative data coding (using Dedoose online mixed-methods software).
Internship location: Remote, but you will be working with folks in Kolkata, India. Option for in-person work if interested in travel to India. Organization contact, Dr. Ray, can support student in finding low cost room and board.
Language competency: N/A
Internship time frame: Summer 2024, June - September 2024
Hours per week: Flexible
Financial support: Each student intern will receive a $1,000 stipend for their participation
Organization Contact: Protim Ray, PhD
Faculty Liaison: Dallas Swendeman, PhD
The deadline for applications is January 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM.
Exposure to pesticides has been linked with a range of adverse health outcomes for pregnant individuals and their children. Studies have also documented higher levels of pesticide exposure among farmworkers compared to the general public. It is thus pivotal to minimize pesticide exposure among farmworkers during critical periods such as pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Medical providers are uniquely situated to provide recommendations to reduce pesticide exposure or support work accommodations and/or disability leave during pregnancy. However, previous work suggests that many medical providers lack appropriate data to inform recommendations or actions to protect farmworkers from pesticides during the perinatal period. The goals of this project are to 1) survey medical providers on what guidance or work accommodations they provide to pregnant and breastfeeding farmworkers to mitigate pesticide exposure; 2) assess levels of exposure to pesticides among pregnant farmworkers; and 3) develop educational materials for medical providers to counsel farmworkers on exposure reduction recommendations and work restrictions during the perinatal period. This project will address critical data gaps regarding medical providers’ knowledge and practices regarding pesticide exposure during pregnancy and will provide evidence-based recommendations to better protect pregnant and breastfeeding farmworkers from potentially hazardous pesticides.
Tasks intern will work on: The intern will work with Dr. Carly Hyland's research team to recruit farmworkers, schedule study visits, administer surveys to farmworkers in Spanish, collect and transport urine samples back to a laboratory in Richmond/Berkeley area to later be analyzed for pesticide concentrations.
Category: Academic
Skills required:
- Fluent in Spanish
- Ideally have experience in environmental health and/or epidemiology, but not required.
Location: In-person in Berkeley, CA or can be remote if at UC Santa Barbara due to fieldwork in Santa Barbara County. The Center for Gender and Health Justice will offer housing for 6 weeks in Santa Barbara if the student intern does not live in Berkeley or Santa Barbara.
Language competency: Bilingual in Spanish
Internship time frame: Summer 2024, 12 weeks
Hours per week: 20-40 hours per week
Financial support: $1,000 stipend from the Center for Gender and Health Justice. The Principal Investigator of this project will provide additional financial support for hours the student works beyond what is covered by the CGHJ stipend.
Organization contact: Carly Hyland, PhD, MS
Faculty liaison: Melissa Smith, MD
The deadline for applications is January 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM.
Interns will participate in the process of the Cooperative Women's Network for a Culture of Peace, comprised of 24 indigenous, mestizo, and Afro-Mexican promotoras representing approximately 12 community groups (two women per group) in the state of Oaxaca. The promotoras gather for three days every two months in a learning community where tools are shared to help them build a methodological plan according to their own community’s conditions. The goal of these training meetings are to implement actions in coordination with the community-based women's groups to foster women’s economic empowerment. This project includes periodic visits to each community group to offer on-site support and to collaborate with them in designing effective marketing strategies.
Tasks intern will work on:
- Support in the organization of bimonthly meetings
- Attendance at bimonthly meetings
- Participation in community visits
- Translation work
- Support in the preparation of reports
Category: Non-profit organization
Organization needs: Translations and support in the logistics of organizing training sessions
Skills required:
- Speak Spanish
- Knowledge of gender issues
- Basic proficiency in Word processing
Grupos de Estudio Sobre la Mujer Rosario Castellano
Location: Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico (near the center of the city)
Language competency: Bilingual in Spanish (spoken and written)
Internship time frame: Summer 2024, six weeks or more depending on availability of student.
Hours per week: 15-20 hours per week
Financial support: $2,000 stipend
Organization contact: Rosario Martínez Miguel
Faculty liaison: Melissa Smith, MD
Dr. Smith can support the student intern in finding low-cost travel and room & board.
The deadline for applications is January 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM.
UCGHI Center for Gender and Health Justice Associate Director, Dr. Sean Arayasirikul, will host two (2) internship placements for currently enrolled MPH students in any concentration to gain training and education in sexual and gender minoritized population health and HIV prevention science. The MPH interns will attend weekly lectures and seminars and work with Dr. Arayasirikul to analyze data and disseminate findings. They will also provide feedback on the summer experience to inform future training, education, and mentorship opportunities.
Category: Academic
Organization needs: Research and program planning
Tasks interns will work on: The two research interns will work on data analysis, visualization of findings, dissemination of findings, presentations, and contribute to manuscript writing.
Interests and skills of focus (not all are required): Quantitative data analysis; qualitative data analysis; program planning and evaluation; identifying and synthesizing scientific literature; scientific writing; community-engaged research; community organizing for public health; social justice; strong interest in sexual and gender minoritized population health and HIV prevention science.
This opportunity is available to all UC MPH students, but preference will be given to past or current UCGHI Student Ambassadors. Sexual and gender minoritized people, BIPOC people, and other diverse lived experiences are strongly encouraged to apply.
Learn more about Dr. Arayasirikul's research.
Location: Remote (based at UCI)
Internship time frame: Summer 2024, 12 weeks (approximately mid-June to end of August 2024)
Hours per week: 20 hours per week
Language competency: N/A
Financial support: Each MPH intern will receive $5,000 total for their participation
Organization Contact: Sean Arayasirikul, PhD
The deadline for applications is January 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM.
This summer there will be activities across multiple research projects, including the California Home Abortion by Telehealth (CHAT) Study, in dissemination, analysis, and data collection.
Category: Academic
Tasks intern will work on: The intern may be asked to work on creating content for social media (share graphics, carousel posts, etc.) or study recruitment; support with data coding or basic analyses; support with managing data instruments in REDCap or Qualtrics; or research administrative tasks, as needed.
Skills required: Looking for a self-starter and someone who engages in collaboration. Technical skills that may be helpful include: experience with Microsoft/Google Office suite, STATA or other data analysis tools/language, REDCap/Qualtrics, Instagram/TikTok.
Location: Remote position available/preferred (ANSIRH is based in Oakland, CA)
Internship time frame: 2-month commitment in Summer 2024, can be flexible.
Hours per week: Minimum 10 hours per week
Language competency: N/A
Financial support: $1,000 stipend
Organization contact: Jennifer Ko, MPH
Faculty Liaison: Ushma Upadhyay, PhD
The deadline for applications is January 21, 2024 at 11:59 PM.
Need additional funding to support your internship? Check out our list of travel and research funding opportunities!
