If you are interested in a rigorous education that prepares you for tackling today’s complex public health challenges without having to pause your career, our Online MPH Degree for Working Professionals was built for you.
You may be wondering, though, if pursuing your MPH degree online means you will miss out on hands-on experiences that in-person programs provide. The short answer is no. Columbia Mailman's Online MPH program requires the same Applied Practice Experience (APEx) as its on-campus counterpart. It is a rigorous, faculty-supervised practicum built around real public health challenges, and every online student completes one before earning their degree.
An Applied Practice Experience is a practicum (or internship) that allows students to apply the knowledge from their online MPH courses (e.g., Determinants of Health and Research Methods & Applications) to a real public health challenge with a partner organization. In other words, the APEx is the bridge between your classes and your public health career.
The MPH APEx is a required, supervised project that all Online MPH students must commit a minimum of 140 hours to. This requirement gives students the opportunity to produce concrete deliverables—such as grant proposals, training curricula, health communication campaigns, data analyses and program assessments—that are reviewed by both a faculty advisor and APEx site supervisor.
When it comes to your public health practicum, you have options. Students are not required to travel to New York. Instead, you can complete your MPH APEx at your current employer, a local organization, or remotely with an NYC-based or national partner working domestically or internationally.
Scheduling happens after Year 2, once students have completed all four semesters of coursework. Most students work roughly 10 to 20 hours per week on their APEx, though the timing is flexible enough to accommodate different work and life situations.
Throughout the process, every student receives guidance from an APEx leadership team and a Columbia Mailman faculty advisor. You will have support every step of the way, from scoping a project and identifying a site to the final evaluation. No matter where you are located, you will receive individual mentorship.
So what does the MPH APEx look like in practice? There are various options you can pursue depending on your interests and career goals. To date, Columbia Mailman students have completed projects across nearly 400 organizations in 33 countries and 26 states, ranging from local nonprofits to the World Health Organization.
Online students have placed at a wide range of sites, including:
Health departments and hospital systems, where projects often focus on operations, equity, or behavioral health initiatives
Nonprofits and community-based organizations working on issues like housing, food security, and access to care
Policy organizations producing briefs that translate research into actionable recommendations
Research environments, including academic medical centers and global health institutes
Community health organizations addressing local needs through programming, outreach, and education
The topics students have zeroed in on are just as varied, including maternal health, health equity, environmental health, chronic disease, health communications, and grief. Plus, students graduate with concrete deliverables that bolster their resumes. For example, past students have created a needs assessment of unhoused individuals, developed an interdisciplinary behavioral health training initiative, and created a policy brief to improve LGBTQIA healthcare access.
Meet Shirish KC - a senior clinical research coordinator at Columbia University's medical center - and see first-hand how an APex project can be completed remotely and with great success.
Briefly describe what public health challenge your APex project addressed.
Postpartum depression affects mothers everywhere, especially in Nepal. The treatment gap is huge. There’s a handful of psychiatrists and psychologists there and millions of people. So, when a mother in rural Nepal is struggling, the question is not which provider should she see, the question is if there is any provider at all. This Stand Strong Project takes a dig at that. It trains lay counselors, who do not have formal mental health degrees, in a brief psychological intervention tool which was developed by the W.H.O. called Problem Management Plus. In this way, where there are shortages of clinicians, we could use those available in the community, train them pretty quickly, and then use them to address problems of people in rural Nepal.
Where were you located when you completed your APEx project?
This this part always amazes me, because I was located in New York, in Brooklyn and my APEx project was based in Nepal - 7,500 miles, 11 time zones away from here. Sometimes I used to wake up in the morning, do a quick call with the team back in Nepal and come to work full day of trial coordination, go back home and do the MPH classes. This was a lot of things, but it never felt like a burden. Because this kind of project, the APEx project, is something that was very close to me. It was mental health, which I was passionate about.
How did the format option affect your level of engagement with your project?
I was working full time doing these classes and I was able to do the APEx full time as well. Domestic, international, local, fully remote, hybrid or in-person. Everything is there, and the APEx leadership is there to support you throughout the process. So, there's no stopping you in that. As for my format, it was fully remote. Engagement is not geographically bound. It's based on ownership. And because my time was scarce, I was able to assign specific time for this project. And whatever time I had specified I gave my all, and it felt more engaging because of that.
How was your faculty advisor helpful in identifying the project and in completing your APEx?
From the start, he knew what I was interested in. And then he introduced me to the right people. And throughout the project as well, whatever report or analysis I presented to him he gave constructive feedback. Not just, “this is great, this is bad,” but how it could be improved. And that was very valuable to me.
Was there a moment when you felt your coursework directly informed how you approached a real world problem?
Absolutely. And I remember this vividly. I was taking the implementation science course and I was also knee deep in the fidelity data analysis. And in one of the classes they were talking about the frameworks. And how the implementation fidelity is a core outcome in many projects. And in that moment, I could see I'm actually living the assignment. So that was that was a very powerful moment for me.
Any advice for prospective students?
My honest advice: Choose a project that you like and you would do even if you were not required to do it. If the work matters to you, the format will take care of itself.
Columbia Mailman’s Online MPH Degree for Working Professionals gives all students the opportunity to complete a public health project with real-world impact through a required faculty-mentored APEx.
While the public health practicum is rigorous, students have the flexibility to choose an APEx site that works best for them, whether that is their current employer, a local organization, or a virtual opportunity. This allows them to bring their learning to where vital public health work is already underway, helping leaders in the field drive change.
By the time students graduate, they leave with more than a degree. They leave with concrete deliverables, demonstrated competencies, and professional relationships built during their practicum that turn their coursework into career momentum.
Interested in learning more about pursuing your MPH degree online without stepping away from your career?