Health, Humanism and Society Scholars Program
Project Sponsor Eligibility

Thank you for considering hosting a HHASS practicum student for the 2020-2021 academic year! This program allows Rice undergraduate students to earn 3 hours course credit and receive valuable experience by assisting Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center, and other health faculty members with their research or formal scholarship projects. In the past, students have conducted literature reviews, summarized articles, helped manage and analyze qualitative or quantitative data, helped with paper writing and preparation of manuscripts for journal submission, and conducted qualitative interviews as appropriate. Some of the students also have a Spanish language skill set, which is great for interviewing or translating. Finally, Rice provides students preparation workshops on literature reviews, professionalism, and scientific writing. For full program details, please click here.

The program begins in late August 2020 (fall semester) and ends in late April 2021 (spring semester). There is also a new option for a 1-semester program should it fit better with your proposed project.

This practicum opportunity is open to organizations willing to commit the staff time and resources to provide a position that meets the following standards:

1. Positions should be designed with the academic rigor of Rice University in mind.
   • Course faculty will have final authority whether a position meets the academic standards of the institution.
     

2. Positions should directly relate to the curricular standards set by course faculty.
   

3. Students are expected to spend 8 contact hours per week on-site.
   

4. Hosts will be provided with the Rice University academic calendar, and the course events schedule, upon position approval, to avoid any conflict of times/dates with student work.
   

5. Hosts agree to provide a mid-semester and final evaluation of their student's professional progress.
   

6. All positions should abide by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Fair Labor Standards Act for unpaid internships, cited below:

   • The extent to which the intern and the employer clearly understand that there is no expectation of compensation. Any promise of compensation, express or implied, suggests that the intern is an employee—and vice versa.

   • The extent to which the internship provides training that would be similar to that which would be given in an educational environment, including the clinical and other hands-on training provided by educational institutions.

   • The extent to which the internship is tied to the intern’s formal education program by integrated coursework or the receipt of academic credit.

   • The extent to which the internship accommodates the intern’s academic commitments by corresponding to the academic calendar.

   • The extent to which the internship’s duration is limited to the period in which the internship provides the intern with beneficial learning.

   • The extent to which the intern’s work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern.

   • The extent to which the intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.

Questions, or interested in hosting a student? Please contact:

Nyeva Agwunobi, MPA
Manager of Student Programs
Rice University, School of Humanities
nyeva@rice.edu | (713) 348-3021
humanities.rice.edu/hedge