A Different Kind of Experience: MS-CEM’s Fieldwork

Fieldwork in Furman’s Master of Science in Community Engaged Medicine (MS-CEM) program offers students the opportunity to become embedded with a community-based partner working to advance health and well-being across a wide range of sectors. Students join a team in a defined role, gaining hands-on experience while making contributions that benefit both their own growth and the organization.

A central part of the program

Fieldwork is a core part of the MS-CEM program. Community partners do not simply host a student. They thoughtfully and intentionally create an opportunity, providing support along the way by mentoring students and building strong connections and relationships. Because of this, students have rich, robust experiences where they can make an impact. Loretta Crowley, director of education at the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health, provides support for the MS-CEM program’s fieldwork.

“Fieldwork placements give students a unique opportunity to learn firsthand about the remarkable work being done to improve community health,” Crowley explains. “We see this engagement as truly bidirectional; students gain a hands-on, high-impact learning experience while also contributing meaningfully to the capacity of the organizations they serve.”

The program has made a concerted effort to expand fieldwork opportunities, growing the number of placements and deepening its impact on community health through meaningful community partnerships.

How it works

Fieldwork is stretched across three semesters. In the first semester, students attend training and onboarding at their new sites. In the second and third semesters, they spend 12 to 15 hours a week with their partner organizations. Students still take other courses during that time, allowing them to apply what they’re learning in the classroom to real-life application in the field.

Students are placed at sites based on their skills, strengths and abilities. The goal is to give students new experiences, not repeat what they already know. Every placement adds something new to the group’s collective view of community health.

What students actually do

The work varies widely and is a mix between clinical and community-based placements. Students may help with food insecurity referrals with Prisma Health’s Bradshaw Institute for Community Child Health and Advocacy while others may assist with operations at FoodShare, help with homelessness and housing insecurity through placements at Place of Hope or Greenville Together. Students have also been placed on mobile units through Servants for Sight and have worked with community organizations such as Greenville Literacy Association, Soteria Community Development Corporation, Meals on Wheels and Project HOPE.

The placements provide a range of opportunities for students to learn that community health doesn’t all look the same.

“Part of what this program teaches is that health and well-being are shaped not only in clinical settings, but also by the social drivers of health people experience everyday,” Crowley explains. “Through fieldwork placements, students see how community organizations collaborate to address those factors and improve outcomes. No matter their career path, they leave with an understanding of the partnerships needed to support community health.”

What students take home

Students meet clients and patients face-to-face. They see first-hand that many people and organizations shape health, from clinical providers and social workers to teachers and lawyers. They hear the stories behind barriers to care and what facilitates health. Then, they bring those stories back to their cohort discussions to share their knowledge with others.

“Because of that wealth of resources and the diversity of organizations in this community, students learn from each other across those organizations, which adds to the student experience also,” Anna Cass, director of the MS-CEM program, says.

Cass adds that the program informs students’ futures, affecting how they will view patients. The impact can be lasting, with many students continuing their involvement through volunteer roles or by pursuing employment opportunities with their host organizations.

A two-way street

Partners benefit too. Students give nonprofits the capacity to finish projects that might otherwise wait. Partners also can interact with each other to share resources and support each other in a community health network that goes beyond just finding a placement for a student.

The Greenville area is home to a strong network of nonprofit organizations that collaborate closely, providing students with exposure to innovative practices, diverse challenges and valuable resources.

“It’s not observing. It’s not volunteering,” Cass notes. “It’s really becoming a part of what community engaged medicine looks like in Greenville.”