Texas AHEC East

AHEC Scholars

1. What are the requirements to apply for the AHEC Scholars program?
   • Candidates must either be in a Certified Health Worker course or a minimum 2-year health profession program that culminates in a degree or certificate. Upon completing the program, candidates must be practice ready.
2. What is practice ready?
   • A practice ready student is a student who upon completion of their program is ready to enter the work force using the acquired health profession degree or certification.
3. Does my program qualify?
   •  If your program is a Certified Health Worker course or a minimum 2-year health profession program that culminates in a degree or certificate and you will be practice ready upon competition, then yes.   
4. How long is the commitment?
   • For health professions students, the Scholar Program is a two-year commitment, with 40 hours of didactics and 40 hours of experiential learning required per year. Community Health Worker students must commit for the duration of their course.
5. How do I receive concurrent credit?
   • Many of the AHEC Scholar requirements can be satisfied by the didactic and experiential learning you are already completing for your degree program and in extra-curricular activities.  Be sure to contact AHEC Staff for approval.
6. Do all my course work hours in my degree program count towards didactic and experiential hours?
   • This varies depending on the degree program.  All approved course work hours for didactic learning must address one or more of the eight core topics. For experiential learning, the course work hours must be interprofessional and with either rural and/or underserved populations.
7. What qualifies as didactic experience?
   • Approved coursework, AHEC Scholars course site modules, webinars, seminars, conferences, and lectures that address one or more of the eight core topics.
8. What qualifies as experiential experience?
   • Rotations, clinicals, preceptorship, volunteering, simulations that address one or more of the eight core topics, is interprofessional, and is with a rural and/or underserved population.
9. When will I received a determination on acceptance?
   • Once an application is submitted, it is reviewed by the Scholar Approval Committee who has two weeks to review both the application and essay and grade against the scholar rubric.  Within this two-week time frame applicants will receive notice of determination.
10. What do I need do to apply for Scholars?
    • Applicants need to visit the AHEC website at www.utmb.edu/ahec and click on the AHEC Scholars page to find the application link to fill out and submit.
11. I am CHW student, how do I apply for the Scholars program?
    • Please apply at the same link as above. Upon acceptance, your instructor will provide further details.
12. Want are the Core Topic area?
    • The eight core topics are:
      1. Behavioral Health
      2. Cultural Competency
      3. Current and Emerging Health Issues
      4. Inter-professional Education
      5. Practice Transformation
      6. Social Determinants of Health
      7. Virtual Learning and Telehealth
      8. Connecting Communities and Supporting Health Professionals
13. Is there a cut-off time for applying for scholars?
    • Since the scholar program year runs from July 1 to June 30, scholars may apply throughout the year and back date hours within the program year to count towards required hours for both didactics and experiential.