Innovative Practicum Award.

Established in 2024 to recognize the importance of innovation in public health practice, the Career and Practicum Office confers this award annually to one or more MPH graduates who have demonstrated innovation in their required practicum. This annual award includes a monetary prize which was endowed to BUSPH by an anonymous donor and is presented during SPH’s annual awards ceremony.

To be considered for this award, the practicum must meet at least one of the characteristics of public health innovation as described by the Center for Innovation in Public Health:

  • Is novel, new, or creative;
  • Reflects the dynamic state of change inherent in public health transformation;
  • Occurs by internal or cross-sector collaboration;
  • Involves co-production of the process, policy, product, or program with partners, stakeholders, and/or customer;
  • Has the potential to generate a new or improved means to create value;
  • Lends itself to adaptation and adoption/replication and diffusion;
  • Generates real-time information for evaluation and course correction; and
  • If related to technology, uses open source technology (i.e., the technology is in the public domain) so as to facilitate adaption and adoption/replication.

Qualifications & Eligibility

  • Student must have graduated in January, or be graduating in May or August of the current award cycle, and have a fully completed practicum by the end of the Spring semester.
  • All full-time, part-time, and dual-degree MPH students conducting a practicum (not using a dual equivalency) are eligible to apply.
  • The practicum scope of work must meet at least one of the characteristics of innovation as described above. Preference will be given to practicum that touch more than one characteristic.

Nominations

  • A student may self-nominate, be nominated by a staff or faculty member, nominated by a peer, or receive a nomination from their practicum preceptor.
  • Nominations must be emailed to sphpract@bu.edu by end of day on March 3rd, 2025.
  • Nominations must be a one-page letter (in PDF format) detailing why the practicum the nominee conducted was innovative. The letter must include reference to at least one of the characteristics above with detail explaining why that characteristic(s) was demonstrated through the student’s work.
  • All nominations must demonstrate at least one of the above characteristics of innovation as noted above.
  • The Practicum Committee is the awarding body.

Conditions of Award

  • Awardees are expected to write a 500-word reflection for the donor discussing what they learned about public health innovation during their practicum.
  • Awardees may be contacted for story/marketing purposes.

Questions may be directed to sphpract@bu.edu.

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