Institute for the Study of Integrative Healthcare launches new Student Affiliate Program

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Institute for the Study of Integrative Healthcare launches new Student Affiliate Program

Mortar and Pestle with medicinal flowers.

The Student Affiliate Program gives undergraduate students the opportunity to explore integrative healthcare, connect with professionals and other students, gain hands-on experience, and earn recognition from the Institute while working toward a digital badge to showcase on their resume and professional profiles.

A new program launched by the Institute for the Study of Integrative Healthcare hopes to engage students from all areas with digital bragging rights that the Institute hopes become a staple of future resumes.

Open to all Utica University undergraduate students, participants earn points through activities like attending educational events, following social media pages or the Institute’s newsletter, going to conferences, or even conducting projects and research.

“As the students level-up, they become more acquainted with the Institute, what we do, and what integrative healthcare is. It gives extra intention to advertising our events and research to students,” said Bethany VanBenschoten, Program Manager for the Institute. “The affiliate levels identify how connected their experiences have made them, so the more they interact with the activities we've designated, the better they will understand integrative care. If they want to continue to learn more, they can continue interacting with our content and events, then choose to take a foundations course [currently in development] and achieve a digital badge in integrative healthcare.”

The Institute partners with integrative healthcare organizations, certified/licensed wellness practitioners and other educational institutions to advance systems change in healthcare; uplift traditional world medicines and indigenous healing systems; expand access and equity in integrative healthcare modalities for under resourced and vulnerable populations and innovate in education, research and healthcare delivery to enhance opportunities for students and faculty and enrich campus life.

Made possible through the largest single gift for endowment in the University's history, the anonymous donors sought to invest in Utica University's longstanding record of innovation and responsiveness to the changing landscape of the healthcare delivery system.

The idea for the affiliate program came about as a way to increase interaction with students and get them engaged with the Institute and how it can benefit them personally and professionally.

“We wanted to be able to include them more,” VanBenschoten said. “The outline of the program came from the leadership team's past experiences with student involvement and inspiration from a previous university digital badge program, so we started writing down ideas and it evolved into what we have today.”

Students can join the program based on their personal interests or professional interests, and the program is not restricted to any specific major.

“The personal benefits are the extra education and exposure they can get from learning about and experiencing new modalities to keep themselves healthy,” VanBenschoten says. “Natural medicine and other non-western techniques are becoming more popular among the community and are gaining support in the healthcare industry, so the benefits of learning about them can extend into their professional lives by making their healthcare education more well-rounded and creating exposure and experience with more than just what their programs and clinicals are teaching them in classrooms and medical facilities.”

She hopes students involved in the affiliate program will continue with it to its end, earning the digital badge to display on their resumes or online profiles like LinkedIn or Handshake.

“We’d like it to be an exciting talking point they can share in interviews.”

Likewise, the program helps the Institute expand its purpose and create interest in its goals of advancing research and spreading education about integrative health methods.

“We hope the students who participate will encourage others to explore what this kind of healthcare could look like in their own lives, and for those who go into the medical fields, we hope they develop an interest in contributing to the research these modalities need, or at least an appreciation for creative ways people are looking at their own healthcare to be more understanding of their future patients.”