What is APLE?
The Applied Learning Experience (APLE) is an opportunity for undergraduate public health students to gain experience in a public health or healthcare field. Experiences are either research or service-learning based, or may be a hybrid of both, and are a minimum of 100 hours.
The APLE helps students to gain practical experience to add to their CV before entering the workforce or applying to grad school. These experiences allow the student to use their knowledge and skills learned as a public health major toward a personalized project experience.
How does the mentor support the student?
- Assigning the student a duty/job/role
- Training the student (depending on task)
- Completing forms
- Mentor Agreement Form (to begin experience)
- Evaluation Survey (at completion of experience)
- Being available as a resource – Able to regularly communicate with student
How does the student support the mentor?
- Completing work- 100 hours of service-learning or research support
- Examples of entry level work- data entry, transcription, staff support, research assistance, event coordination/support, community outreach, take minutes at meetings, submit legislative testimony
- May include any professional work the student is qualified to complete
- Other options- Student could write a complementary paper and/or literature review relevant for your research/work.
- Promoting your program/community/research efforts to university audience
- Student completes a poster and final paper about APLE
What is the student responsible for?
- Tracking hours
- Completing deliverables
- Communicating with mentor
- Paying for liability insurance
- Monthly blogs/check-in with course instructor
FAQ
What are some examples of APLE student work?
- Program staff duties
- Attending meetings
- Research support: literature review, transcription, data entry, recruitment, survey, etc.
- Health communication: create flyers/brochures, participating in outreach and health fairs, social media coordination
- Completing IRB application
What is the Mentor Agreement Form?
- A one page signed document between you and your student
- It outlines the student’s objectives and deliverables
What is the evaluation survey?
- Online survey sent to mentor at the end of the APLE
- It allows mentors to report and rate student performance
Who can I contact for further questions?