Faculty internships in environmental health: planning and implementation

Faculty internships, in which a faculty member works temporarily for a government organization or a private business, are a concept that is becoming popular at universities. This paper discusses how a faculty internship can be developed and implemented, and it reports on the advantages of the internship for academia, the sponsoring institution, and the professor. In addition, suggestions on structuring and implementing the internship are offered. The major objective of the paper is to encourage environmental health educators to seriously consider faculty internships as a means of bridging the gaps between academia and the business world. Faculty internships should be beneficial primarily for two groups of professors. First are those professors who, after earning doctorates, enter the teaching profession without any environmental health practicum experience. Second are those who once worked full time as environmental health practitioners but have been out of the field for a significant number of years with little or no contact with the "real world" of environmental health practice. The information presented is based on the experience of the author, who served as a faculty intern for the environmental health division of a county health department in rural west-central Indiana, Some of the benefits of faculty internships are improved teaching methods, practical experience, community contacts, and increased internship opportunities for students. The experience can enhance classroom theory for students, and the implementation of practice can be clarified for the educator.