Table_6_MPH Capstone experiences: promising practices and lessons learned.docx

To ensure workforce readiness, graduate-level public health training programs must prepare students to collaborate with communities on improving public health practice and tools. The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) requires Master of Public Health (MPH) students to complete an Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) at the end of their program of study that yields a high-quality written product demonstrating synthesis of competencies. CEPH suggests written products ideally be “developed and delivered in a manner that is useful to external stakeholders, such as non-profit or governmental organizations.” However, there are limited examples of the ILE pedagogies and practices most likely to yield mutual benefit for students and community partners. To address this gap, we describe a community-led, year-long, group-based ILE for MPH students, called Capstone. This service-learning course aims to (1) increase capacity of students and partner organizations to address public health issues and promote health equity; (2) create new or improved public health resources, programs, services, and policies that promote health equity; (3) enhance student preparedness and marketability for careers in public health; and (4) strengthen campus-community partnerships. Since 2009, 127 Capstone teams affiliated with the Department of Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have worked with seventy-nine partner organizations to provide over 103,000 h of in-kind service and produce 635 unique products or “deliverables.” This paper describes key promising practices of Capstone, specifically its staffing model; approach to project recruitment, selection, and matching; course format; and assignments. Using course evaluation data, we summarize student and community partner outcomes. Next, we share lessons learned from 13 years of program implementation and future directions for continuing to maximize student and community partner benefits. Finally, we provide recommendations for other programs interested in replicating the Capstone model.

为确保学生具备公共卫生领域的职场适配能力，研究生层次的公共卫生培训项目必须培养学生与社区协作以改进公共卫生实践与工具的能力。美国公共卫生教育委员会（Council on Education for Public Health, CEPH）要求公共卫生硕士（Master of Public Health, MPH）学生在学业结束前完成一项综合学习体验（Integrative Learning Experience, ILE），产出高质量书面成果以展示其对各项专业能力的综合运用。CEPH建议，书面成果理想情况下应“以对非营利组织或政府机构等外部利益相关者具有实用价值的方式开发与交付”。然而，目前能够为学生与社区合作伙伴带来双赢的ILE教学方法与实践案例十分有限。为填补这一研究空白，本文介绍了一项面向MPH学生、由社区主导的为期一年的小组式综合学习体验项目——Capstone。该服务学习课程旨在达成四大目标：（1）提升学生与合作机构应对公共卫生问题、促进健康公平的能力；（2）开发或优化可促进健康公平的新型或改进型公共卫生资源、项目、服务与政策；（3）增强学生在公共卫生领域就业的准备度与职场竞争力；（4）强化校园与社区的伙伴关系。自2009年以来，北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校吉林斯全球公共卫生学院健康行为学系下属的127个Capstone小组，已与79家合作机构合作，累计提供超过10.3万小时的实物服务，并产出635项独特成果或“交付物”。本文详述了Capstone项目的关键可行实践，具体包括其人员配置模式、项目招募、遴选与匹配流程、课程形式以及作业安排。我们借助课程评估数据，总结了学生与社区合作伙伴的项目成效。随后，我们分享了13年项目实施过程中积累的经验教训，以及持续最大化学生与社区合作伙伴收益的未来发展方向。最后，我们为有意复刻Capstone模式的其他项目提供了相关建议。