Student Career Enhancement Project

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

ABSTRACT Significant resource and infrastructural disparities hinder Native populations’ access to the health and public health services enjoyed by the general U.S. population. To develop culturally relevant approaches to building healthy communities, more Native health professionals and researchers are needed for Native Nations to exercise their sovereignty and to achieve health equity. Yet, for aspiring health professionals on rural reservations, education and training opportunities are limited. From 2017-2020, the Navajo Native American Research Center for Health (NARCH) Partnership’s SEP built and institutionalized key components of an educational pathway for Navajo students, specifically a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health (BSPH) at Diné College and the Indigenous Health concentration within the Master’s in Public Health (MPH) program at Northern Arizona University (NAU). These programs are foundational to the infrastructure needed to conduct relevant, evidence-based health research and provide essential public health services to the Navajo people. Informed by SEP evaluation, recognizing the need to cultivate a generation of pre-college students to select public health and health research as a profession, and identifying the importance of professional development at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels, the overarching goal of Navajo NARCH SEP (2021-2025) is to build and sustain an “education to profession pathway” pertinent to health research and public health needs of the Navajo Nation. The Navajo NARCH SEP specific aims are to: 1) Expand NARCH collaborations with high schools and related organizations to inform and expose students to the roles and career paths of health-related professions; 2) Expand the Diné College BSPH program by developing additional local research experiences, strengthening academic skills and alignment with graduate programs, and building connections across six campuses on Navajo Nation to better support student learning and development; 3) Adapt the NAU MPH program Indigenous Health (IH) concentration, to align with the practice and research needs of the Navajo Nation Department of Health, Indian Health Service and Diné College and 4) Mentor recent Navajo post-doctoral fellows or Early Stage Investigators to build skills for successful, externally funded research careers focused on health equity for the Navajo Nation. SEP will leverage existing academic and professional partnerships and coordinate with the NARCH Administrative Core and pilot research projects to provide experiential learning and training opportunities with on-going and community-based projects. Engagement with health services and active research allows students to apply their knowledge and build professional contacts. Project impact will be tracked quantitatively, through student enrollment, degrees awarded, accomplishments (job placement, graduate school and grants submitted) and qualitatively, through student voice documenting factors associated with academic success and application of learned skill sets.