• Pia D M MacDonald, Meredith K Davis, and Jennifer A Horney.
• Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, USA. pia@email.unc.edu
• Public Health Rep. 2010 Nov 1; 125 Suppl 5: 70-7.

AbstractService learning is one way that academia can contribute to assuring the public's health. The University of North Carolina's Team Epi-Aid service-learning program started in 2003. Since then, 145 graduate student volunteers have contributed 4,275 hours working with the state and local health departments during 57 activities, including outbreak investigations, community health assessments, and emergency preparedness and response. Survey data from student participants and public health partners indicates that the program is successful in meeting its goal of creating effective partnerships among the university, the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness, and state and local health departments; supplying needed surge capacity to health departments; and providing students with applied public health experience and training. In this article, we discuss the programmatic lessons learned around administration, maintaining student interest, program sustainability, and challenges since program implementation.

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