Illinois AHEC Scholars is part of a national program designed to prepare students for the challenges and opportunities facing today’s health professions – and to ensure that they are effectively contributing as up-and-coming health professionals. AHEC Scholars make meaningful connections that can lead to and strengthen future employment. They network with students from a variety of health fields and meet local employers and learn about career opportunities in the area.
THE PROGRAM
AHEC Scholars participate in a mix of enhanced learning – both online and in-person – as well as hands-on activities, including opportunities to shadow working professionals and complete internships. Each year involves 40 hours of classroom training and 40 hours of community-based experiences – all designed to give students in-depth knowledge and a diverse set of skills to ensure success.
Online, self-paced seminars integrate with the experiential training and focus on the program’s core topics:
- Interprofessional Practice – Provides training on working with other health professionals to deliver health care service.
- Practice Transformation – Highlights how team-based care, leadership, and measuring outcomes lead to improved health care delivery.
- Behavioral Health – Emphasizes how the integration of primary care and behavioral health, improve outcomes for individuals living with mental health and substance use disorders.
- Social Determinants of Health – Examines the roles of economic stability, education, social and community context, population health, health care access, neighborhood factors and built environments impact individual and community health.
- Cultural Competency – Helps recognize and address culture, language and health literacy differences and disparities to improve individual and community health.
- Connecting Communities to the Healthcare System – Illustrates the importance of community health workers (CHWs) and other supportive healthcare professionals in providing links to patients and their families to community resources and helping patients navigate the healthcare system.
- Virtual Learning and Telehealth – Demonstrates the ways virtual learning and telehealth has been integrated into healthcare which has allowed increased access to healthcare in rural and underserved communities.
In the community-based portion, AHEC Scholars have the opportunity to network and work closely with health departments, federally qualified health centers and health systems across the state. They take part in:
- Job shadowing
- Career coaching
- One summer institute per year
- Immersion experiences in underserved communities
- A community service learning project
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE
Students join during the last two years of their career preparation. Eligible students are:
- Interested in learning more about rural and underserved communities.
- Currently enrolled in a health professions degree or certificate program.
- In their final two years of career preparation.
- Prepared to make a two-year, 80-hour commitment.
The program is open to students in all health profession disciplines, including but not limited to:
- Advanced Practice Nursing
- Community Health Workers
- Dentistry
- Medicine
- Nurse Midwifery
- Nursing
- Optometry
- Pharmacy
- Physical/Occupational Therapy
- Physician Assistant
- Public/Population Health
- Social Work
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Each of Illinois’ regional AHECs has designed its AHEC Scholars program to meet local needs. You may join a program based on either your school location or your home address. There is no cost to participate.
This work is conducted by the Illinois Area Health Education Centers Network Program, funded by grant No. U77HP26847 from the Health Resources and Services Administration, and administered by the National Center for Rural Health Professions at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine – Rockford.
Illinois Area Health Education Centers