Equity in Action Summer Internship Program (EASI)

Curriculum

Each summer, EASI provides students an understanding of one community’s social determinants of health with a social justice lens.  Students are required to participate in the program from Monday to Friday and spend 3 or 4 days a week at their assigned community agency.  When not at their assigned community agency, the students alternate between New Brunswick and Newark for workshop sessions, skills building trainings, days of service, and / or virtual team sessions.

• Workshops provide insight into the health and wellness of specific populations (LGBTQIA+, formerly incarcerated, disabilities) with an intersectional focus on the role that equity and justice play in social determinants of health. Other workshops discuss the role of health care providers in promoting health equity among historically underserved populations.
• Skills building trainings allow students to obtain new skills such as Mental Health First Aid; racial equality; trauma, resilience, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); safe spaces, and / or trauma-informed care.

Students are expected to write three reflection papers, a final group summary report and a presentation / poster during the six-week session. The reflection papers are written at the beginning, middle and end of the program. The student groups write a summary report as a group, a copy of which is provided to the team’s community agency. The poster is presented at the end of the program to site preceptors, community members, and other students. Students are paid a $3,000 stipend.