Peek Into the Practica: Hear from Students in Each MPH Track
Vanderbilt’s public health practicum requirement provides MPH students the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in their coursework in a practical, hands-on setting specific to their track and career goals. Over the years, Vanderbilt has developed deep and extensive networks with practicum partners across the United States and around the world, giving our students a wide range of opportunities for their practicum work. Below, hear from a student in each MPH track – epidemiology, global health, and health policy – about their summer 2024 experiences.
Epidemiology: Kaylee Ebner 
One of the most transformative hands-on learning opportunities of the Vanderbilt MPH program is the required public health practicum, a supervised practical field experience designed to help students develop and apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the academic program in a professional public health setting. In summer 2024, Ebner completed her practicum experience with the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) in the Vector-Borne Diseases program (SECVBD). With this project, she has examined the intersection between health, humans, and the environment while conducting research on tick-borne illness. She says the experience has been an incredible chance to practice the skills she learned in the classroom and has deepened her passion for infectious disease epidemiology.
Global Health: Joshua Altura
Before coming to Vanderbilt, second-year Master of Public Health (MPH) student Joshua Atura received his bachelor’s degree in development education from the University for Development in his hometown of Tamale, Ghana, and his master’s in development studies from the University of Ghana, Legon. While working on his master’s thesis on determinants of postnatal care amongst mothers in Ghana, Atura watched the global healthcare landscape change drastically with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Atura completed his 2024 practicum experience with World Bank (WB) in one of its country offices in Accra, Ghana, a role in which he was able dive deeply into his passion for improving health outcomes in developing countries. He says experiences like this one are pivotal in helping him achieve his goal of leading global health governance in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Health Policy: Ishan Basu Ray 
Since as early as the ninth grade, second-year Master of Public Health (MPH) student Ishan Basu Ray has
been working toward a career in health care. However, as he progressed through his undergraduate studies, he realized that his original plan to become a doctor may not be the correct path for him to take in the healthcare field. Instead, he decided he wanted to improve health outcomes on a broader scale. Upon finding Vanderbilt’s MPH program, with its specialized Health Policy track and location in the health care stronghold of the Mid-South, he knew he had discovered the perfect place to further his passion.
Basu Ray says his practicum experience with Horizon Government Affairs, a healthcare consultancy group based in Washington, D.C., not only provided him with a better idea of the direction of his potential future career, but also allowed him to make new professional connections.