2-3 months before your field experience

1. Meet with your faculty advisor during the semester prior to placement to receive permission to begin the process and to determine the type of placement of interest to you. Be prepared to discuss your career goals, areas of interest, professional strengths and weaknesses, skills you wish to develop, preference for organization or agency, geographical location, educational needs and review your resume.

2. Review the field experience opportunities that are e-mailed to the COPH student listserv and posted in the COPH student lounge.

3. Review the list of previous field experience sites (http://publichealth.usf.edu/academicaffairs/fe/pdf/Former%20Sites.pdf).  Narrow your selection of preferred sites and then contact the field experience coordinator for more information on your choices. 

4. Make a final site selection, submit a letter of interest and resume, and request an interview with the site supervisor.  Be sure to identify projects that you would like to work on at that particular site in your letter of interest.

5. Review the Association of Schools of Public Health Core Competencies for MPH students (http://www.asph.org/userfiles/Version2.3.pdf, page 12). Incorporate as many interdisciplinary and discipline-specific competencies into your field experience as possible.

6. Take your resume and writing/work samples to the interview. Use this time to determine the scope of potential field experiences and activities available at the site. Discuss goals, objectives, possible projects and outcomes.

7. Once the interview is complete, notify the field experience coordinator and your faculty advisor as to the outcome. If the field site does not meet your expectations, be prepared to discuss alternate sites.

1 month before your field experience

8. If you are accepted by the field site and the placement seems satisfactory, then develop a Field Experience Plan in consultation with your site supervisor and faculty advisor.

9. Complete the Supervised Field Experience Application and Agreement and the Roles and Responsibilities forms. Sign both forms and get original signatures from your faculty advisor and your site supervisor.

10. The faculty advisor determines the number of credit hours based on his/her knowledge of your prior academic and professional background in public health, as well as the College and Department guidelines for field experience.

11. Submit the completed and signed Supervised Field Experience Application and Agreement and the Roles and Responsibilities forms with original signatures, along with a current resume and Field Experience Plan to the field experience coordinator.  Also, submit a copy of the Field Experience Plan to the faculty advisor.

12. Complete the COPH Registration Worksheet (http://publichealth.usf.edu/forms.html) for the field experience class.  It must approved and signed by the faculty advisor.

13. Submit the completed and signed COPH Registration Worksheet to Academic and Student Affairs.  The field experience coordinator will submit a copy of the Supervised Field Experience Application and Agreement form on your behalf.  Academic and Student Affairs will issue a permit for registration within 24 business hours.

14. Go to OASIS on the USF website (http://usfonline.admin.usf.edu/) to complete your registration. Because the field experience has variable credit hours (from 1 to 12), the number of credit hours on OASIS must match the number of credit hours on your Supervised Field Experience Application and Agreement form. When registering for a variable credit course, consult registration experts in Academic and Student Affairs about changing the number of credits.

15. Attend the field experience orientation at the beginning of the semester.

During your field experience

16. Submit two reflective reports to the field experience coordinator and faculty advisor.  See the Field Experience Reports Packet for more details.  Failure to submit reports in a timely manner will affect your grade.

17. The supervisor at the agency with which you are affiliated has primary supervision during the field experience.  Periodic contact by your faculty advisor and the field experience coordinator will likely occur along with a possible site visit.  The student is encouraged to assist with scheduling the site visit.

18. Maintain a time log documenting field experience activities and submit it to the field experience coordinator at the conclusion of the semester.  The time log must be signed by the site supervisor.

At the conclusion of your field experience

19. Arrange for an exit interview with the site supervisor to discuss the overall experience.

20. Attend the field experience debriefing at the end of the semester.  Public Health Practice students are exempt from attending the debriefing program. 

21. Submit an abstract of your field experience.

22. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that all of the final documentation—time log, evaluations, reports, abstract—are submitted to the field experience coordinator.

23. After all requirements have been met, the faculty advisor will assign a final grade at the end of the semester. Failure to complete all requirements in a timely fashion jeopardizes your academic credit for the field experience.