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Pathways

Become a Host Site

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The California Pathways into Public Health (Pathways) Program places interns and fellows into participating local health departments within California. Local health department host sites are integral to the Pathways program and are valued partners in training the next generation of public health professionals.

Pathways internships occur every Fall and Spring semester. Current community college, bachelor's degree or graduate degree students are placed in their host sites for approximately 14–15 weeks.

The Pathways fellowship is a 13-month fellowship and job training program where fellows work full-time, in person at their local health department host sites. Fellows can be high school (GED) graduates, associate degree graduates or bachelor's degree graduates.

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Host an Intern

Host a Fellow

Host Site Benefits

The Pathways program provides interns and/or fellows to local health department host sites to gain public health experience and increase host agency capacity.

Local health departments can host both interns and fellows at the same time (and in the same program if the need exists).
Host site preceptors receive ongoing support and communication from the Pathways program.
Interns and fellows are funded by CDPH so they are provided at no-cost to participating local health departments.
Interns and fellows have official Pathways supervisors so host site preceptors are not responsible for human resources-related tasks.
Ongoing professional development and continuing education is provided by Pathways.

Preceptor Testimonials

“The Pathways program has been instrumental in empowering our department by providing access to diverse staff starting their public health career. Thanks to this collaboration, we have been able to significantly expand our capacities, efficiently tackling various challenges, and enhancing our overall effectiveness in serving the community's health needs. This program has truly been a game-changer for us, and we highly recommend it to other organizations seeking to strengthen their workforce and make a positive impact.”

“We are committed to building the future public health workforce. We need to mentor those early in their careers and life and expose them to public health in hopes they will choose this as a career. Our experience was very successful as our fellow will be starting an MPH program in the next month [after their time in the Pathways program ends]. This is a big success story!”

“Being a local health jurisdiction [host site] was not only an opportunity to help develop future public health leaders, but also a workforce capacity-building opportunity. I found being a preceptor [to be] rewarding as I witnessed the fellow's growth and also provided the opportunity to reflect on my management and mentoring skills.”