>> So this is Amanda Garcia-Williams and I am the moderator for this final session. The session includes an overview of CDC's evaluation fellowship program. Fellowship program's housed in CDC's division of scientific education and professional development, and the United States Public Health Service. So please feel free to use the chat box to ask questions at the end of the session -- and at the end of the session, and time permitting, I will read those questions for response by the presenters. After this session, Ken Quintana will give some final remarks to close out the event. As an aside, we want to encourage each of you to take the time to respond to our survey following the career expo so that we can use your feedback to improve future events. >> Thanks, Amanda. Hi, everyone. My name is Linda Vo. I am the evaluation lead in the program performance and evaluation office. We are situated within one of the Office of Director offices at CDC, and my role involves more than just the fellowship. I actually work on a lot of agency-wide evaluation capacity-building efforts, and one of those includes leading the CDC evaluation fellowship program. Next slide, please. It's not showing the correct slide. There you go. Thank you. So a lot of people might not know what "evaluation" is. The recent act called Foundation for Evidence-based Policymaking Act of 2018, which was enacted in 2019, also known as the Evidence Act, has really urged the federal government to really recognize evaluation as a critical agency function using a learning and proving orientation to be able to build evidence and use evidence for policy-making. An evaluation is quite multi-disciplinary, for those who aren't familiar, and a lot of it involves applying research-type methods to the -- working with programs in practice, and incorporating diverse perspective from different people. So what is evaluation? So the official definition here from the Evidence Act defines it as an assessment using systematic data collection and analysis of one or more programs, policies, or organizations intended to assess their effectiveness and efficiency. In layman's term, what that means is that program evaluation really helps -- program understand what works, how, and for whom it works. Next slide, please. While the act was recently enacted, we have been an adopter of evaluation for a very long time now. We published the CDC's Framework for Program Evaluation back in 1999, and that actually guides a lot of the approach that we work on evaluation, as well as our recipients and partners who work on evaluation. And we're actually going through to refresh this framework now in order to publish it for 2024. The other aspect is that we've been having a chief evaluation officer for the agency since 2010, and then one of the ways that we really build capacity for this agency to do evaluation is through the CDC Evaluation Fellowship program. I actually came in in the second cohort, and obviously have been here since 2012. And then we do a number of other things, including having that official position description -- program evaluation as well. >> Yes, hi. My name is Donjanea Williams, and I -- as Linda said, I am on detail with PPEO, or the Program Performance Evaluation Office until the middle of June. I am in a health sciences role, and what I'm going to talk about today is a little bit about our fellowship and demographics of our fellows who are in the program. So the fellowship started in 2011, and it started off with about five fellows, and has grown over the years. We're now in the process of finalizing our selection of fellows for our 12th cohort, which will start in a few months in August. Our CDC fellows represent really a wide range of various disciplines, and most have a master's degree, as you can see here on the slide. Our fellowship cohort is generally diverse, but we continue to work to increase diversity of our program. The fellowship has also become a pathway to CDC careers, as you can see here in the final bullet point, that we have about -- after graduation,a bout half of our fellows remain at the agency. And you can see the breakdown there, 50% who have jobs at CDC, versus those who are outside of our agency. So, definitely, this program has become a pathway to keeping fellows within the agency, and also a pathway to them finding jobs in other areas of public health, and in some cases, academia and non-profit. Next slide, please. So the fellowship is really a full two-year program, with the second year being contingent on satisfactory performance and available funds within their host program. This fellowship does provide on-the-job training to really enhance and apply these fellows' evaluation skills, often collaboration with and bridging many topic and functional areas. Our fellows receive substantial professional development throughout their two years in the program. They receive mentorship and support from their host programs, and from our office, PPEO. We also require that the host programs provide substantial funds allocated exclusively for the fellows' professional development. One other thing to note is that the fellowship program is designed for training and performance requirements, and is really guided by the six steps in the evaluation framework that Linda mentioned earlier, as well as the American Evaluation Association's evaluator competencies for the evaluation field. Those competencies include professional practice, methodology, context, planning and management, and interpersonal. While we have a common set of competencies that we have in place for the fellows and their performance, this fellowship really does emphasize professional development tailored to each fellow's individual needs, while requiring achievement of a common set of competencies that are based on AEA, or the American Evaluation Association's evaluator competencies. Our office provides training to the fellows to help them really learn CDC's approach to evaluation in coordinating trainings from outside expertise. Particularly, we do place emphasis on leadership and facilitation skills, really interpersonal skills for the fellows to really help them collaborate and navigate complex and diverse public health issues, and it helps them to bring a lens of appreciative inquiry in guiding groups through learning and interpreting findings to improve their programs. With programs being under the CDC's chief evaluation offices, the fellows really do get an exposure and visibility across the CDC. Our office really does try to coordinate small evaluation projects as well, so these small evaluation projects are in addition to the host program where they're assigned for two years. They have a chance to do these small evaluation projects in a different CDC CIO, and this is where programs -- they work with these programs really for a limited-duration project or limited time. And this really provides the fellow with exposure outside of their regular placement, or their host program where they are for two years. Next slide, please. So this slide -- if you could go -- this doesn't look like the correct slide. Yeah, could you go back one? Sorry. Okay, never mind. Okay. So these projects that the fellows take on, they really do range -- they really do range the gamut. There's a wide range of projects, all the way from project-level evaluation, or evaluation-specific projects, to providing technical assistance to capacity-building. The specific work which each fellowship position focuses on really depends on where the fellow is placed through their host program or CIO. So it really just matters based on the subject area, their CIO, and also one last thing to note, that the fellows have, you know, a wide range of skills that they can apply to these fellowship projects. And now, I will pass over the presentation to Linda. She'll talk a little bit more about benefits and some compensation parts of the fellowship. Thank you. >> Thanks, Donjanea. So each fellowship is quite different, in terms of where -- what is eligible, in terms of degree and salaries, and whatnot. So what I'm sharing here today is specific to our fellowship. So under the CDC evaluation fellowship, folks come in -- because it's multidisciplinary, we're able to bring in a lot of wide variety of disciplines in concentration area and degree areas, and everyone under this fellowship actually receives CDC employee benefits and pay. So it's a little different than, for example, ORISE fellowship, where you're receiving stipends. Salary is based on the qualifying degree and experience level for this fellowship. It is non-negotiable, since this is a training fellowship program, and so, it's equivalent to the GS levels. I'm sure we've talked about this earlier today, is that fellows who come in with a master's level, with no work experience will have a GS-9 level equivalent salary. For those with at least one year of full-time relevant work experience -- here, it would be scientific, not administrative -- would come in at GS-11. And then, those who have doctorates would come in at GS-12. And because for our fellowship every fellow starts at one of the GS level, and then their year two of the fellowship, the fellows would be eligible for a step increase in the year two if they perform well in the fellowship. Next slide, please. To be eligible for the fellowship program, unfortunately, at this time, we can only accept those who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents with a green card that's valid for the duration of the fellowship program. Of course, you'll see in the chat other fellowship program may be able to accept those who are international or are needing a visa. But that's not the case for our fellowship at this time. The other thing we look for is really significant applied program evaluation experience that can be transferable to be able to do evaluation work, and so, as part of this process, we ask that the applicants be able to document three projects that demonstrate depth and breadth of the experience. And some of our fellows come in with, for example, their experience mainly in school, working on projects that are with clients, for example, as part of practicum. And again, fellows that come in can be either having a doctoral or a master-level degree from an accredited academic institution. Next slide, please. Right now, we're actually closing out our application process, but you can see the timeline here. Every year, we operate on a very similar time frame, where applications would be due late February, and there's a long process, since there's several layers of review. We would review and select a pool of finalists to narrow -- and usually, we get about two or 300 applicants. And we narrow in about 50 finalists, and then we would then provide that list to host programs, so meaning different CDC programs would be able to look at this who are wanting to host an evaluation fellow. And they use their own process to interview, identify, and then we conduct match by getting ranked-order lists from both finalist and host program. And we complete the class in May, and then there's just a whole lot of paperwork, obviously, to be able to onboard around mid-August. So this is the timeline that you can see, and this is also on our website. And you'll see right now it's showing the current cycle, but we're finished for now. So feel free to reach out to us early. We're happy to chat about our fellowship in particular, and pay attention to the timeline. This usually gets released -- the application usually get released in the fall, around, like, November. Next slide, please. And to close out, really, the fellowship provides on-the-job training, is what it is. It's a full-time job with a lot of training and professional development opportunities, where you're exposed to work at the federal level. And then, because of our fellowship has now -- now we're operating on the 12th cohort, we have a wide net of former fellows who have been also hired, or current fellows, as well as a large network of evaluators at CDC and in the larger community. So we provide a lot of substantial professional development, mentorship, and visibility for those who are interested in this type of work. For the next speaker, I think we're going to Wences. >> Thank you, Amanda, and good afternoon, everyone. My name is Wences Arvelo. I work as a senior epidemiologist here at the CDC, and it is my great pleasure to talk to you today about our fellowship and training opportunities. But before I do that, I would like to just tell you a little bit about me, and sort of my path in public health. I am from Puerto Rico. I did my undergraduate or my medical school at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, and I also got a master's in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Afterwards, I completed a master's -- I completed a clinical residency in internal medicine in Boston, and then I did two CDC fellowships, the epidemic intelligence surveys and the equivalent of the preventive medicine residency, both of which I will talk to you a little bit more about today. Over the past 17 years, I've had a very rewarding career at CDC. I've been able to do actually -- be stationed twice overseas, once in the Guatemala office, the Central America office in Guatemala, and another one -- and another in Kenya, as well as many other adventures, and met a lot of great people. So I definitely encourage you to include public health as a career path for each of you, and obviously welcome you to CDC as a potential stepping stone into that path. Next slide, please. Great. So today, I'm going to start with -- you could -- today, I'm going to start with a brief description of how fellowships at the CDC can support your training needs, and I will briefly mention how to explore available CDC fellowships and training opportunities. And finally, I'm going to sort of dive a little bit more into a number of public health detective fellowships that might be of interest to you. Hopefully, by the end of this session, we'll get you a little more interested in one of these fellowships, and you'll want to consider them as you sort of lay your public health path. Next slide. Great, so pretty much every fellowship at CDC sort of follows this sort of training through service model. And in this model, fellows basically learn through a combination of didactic and experiential on the job training with most, if not all of the training really happening on the experiential side. So as a fellow you could be either placed at the CDC or sometimes at a state or local health department, where you're basically going to be supervised by and supported by an expert, as you conduct your investigations, as you analyze your data, and eventually as you provide recommendations. So in this training through service model, you'll be learning, and acquiring, and enhancing your public health skills and competencies while simultaneously serving and protecting the health of the public. Next slide. Please make sure to visit our fellowship and training opportunities webpage. I -- I think Chandra Jennings, just recently posted the -- the address at cdc.gov/fellowships. It's a great fellowship, it's kept up to date and on this webpage, you can find very detailed information on the various training opportunities that are being offered currently at CDC. You will find both short term internships as well as full time one to two year fellowships that are available, as well as all the detailed information that you would need to sort of make a decision including eligibility requirements, timelines for application, application instruction and requirements, frequently asked questions, contact information, loan repayment information, and so on. So I definitely encourage you to go through, visit the webpages and sort of look around, though, you can't see it here because it's a little bit cut off on the right hand corner of this page, there's a subscribe function. And you can go there and get our quarterly emails with a lot of some of the updated information on what's -- on what's going on with our fellowship. So if you are interested, please definitely go to the web page and sign up for that quarterly newsletter. Next slide, please. Okay, so now the fellowships I'm going to be talking about today. This is what we call sort of our public health detective series. And these are just a number of fellowships at CDC, not all of them, but a number of them that are run under the division that I work for, which is the Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development. So I'm going to sort of talk a little bit about each of these programs and fellowship, so you get a flavor, but at the end, I really just want you to go into the website, so you could really dive into the detailed information for each of those. Next slide. So the first of the -- of the ones I want to talk to you today about is the Epidemiology Elective Program. This is a program that trains medical and veterinary students on the principles of public health through sort of short term rotations, usually about four to six weeks. And this is a great introduction to public health for -- for these groups, and a really nice segue to pretty much any of the following public health fellowship policies I'm going to be talking about which are usually one but most likely two years long. Next slide. So among -- I'm sorry, this is --- this is what I covered. So next slide, please. Okay, so among this is the very well known Epidemic Intelligence Service, and I'm sure many of you have already heard a lot about. Next slide. So EIS has, as we commonly refer to Epidemic Intelligence Service, EIS, has been training physicians, veterinarians, doctoral scientists, nurses and other healthcare professionals in applied epidemiology and outbreak investigation and response for over 70 years now. This is -- this is a very well established fellowship at CDC. And this is a great option if you're really interested in serving public health as an epidemiologist, sort of working on outbreak investigations doing surveillance type of work, et cetera. But EIS is not the only path to become a public health detective, especially one of the CDC. And depending on your background and your specific interest, you may want to also consider looking into one of the other public health detective career fellowships that I'm going to talk about next. Next slide. So, for example, we have the Laboratory Leadership Service. Next slide, please. So the Laboratory Leadership Service is a well suited fellowship for those that have more of a background in laboratory sciences and those that are also interested in bolstering their knowledge of laboratory quality management as well as their leadership skills. So that will be a great fit for those individuals. Next slide. We also have the Preventative Medicine Residency and Fellowship offered at the CDC. Next slide, please. And the Preventive Medicine Residency and Fellowship is ideal for those of you who are more leaning, more than the epidemiology, more interested in sort of learning about the leadership and management aspects to address population health issues, as well as issues related to policy and public health evaluations. Next slide. Next is our Public Health Informatics Fellowship. Next. And this is a great pathway for any of you that are looking for skills in public health informatics, to solve complex public health problems, that would be the Public Health Informatics Fellowship Program. Next slide. Another option available is the Prevention Effectiveness Fellowship. Next slide. And this fellowship is really best geared to those that are interested in the economics and the quantitative methods, and using these tools to sort of maximize public health impact. Next slide. And finally, we have the Presidential Management Fellowship. Next. And PMF is a very solid path for those of you that are interested in pursuing more of a management track and in government leadership positions within CDC and outside of CDC, you know, other federal agencies. Next slide. Great, so, though many of these fellowships are for professionals or recent doctoral graduates, many candidates like -- that, probably, in our audience are thinking about these fellowships and pathways in public health where we are in undergraduates -- undergraduate students. So if you're an undergraduate, again, we want you -- we encourage you to visit our fellowship website so you can learn more about training opportunities that we have for you. There's two in particular, there's the CDC Undergraduate Public Health Scholars Program or CUPS, and the Dr. James A. Ferguson Emerging Infectious Disease Fellowship. So these are great programs for those that are kind of on the undergrad -- undergraduate level versus the programs that I just talked about that are really more geared towards professionals and recent graduates of doctoral level programs. Next slide, please. Great. So on that note of pathways, I want to end with this sort of -- it's a busy looking slide. But as you can see here, the CDC Director, Dr. Walensky has a number of leadership staff that support all aspects of our agency. And many of these individuals have completed one or more of our public health detective fellowships, as you can see from the fellowship logos next to their names. And this is not just among our CDC leadership, but it really is also the case of public health practitioners working at every level of public health, highlighting how our fellowship programs serve as a pathway for public health professionals and leaders at CDC, as well as state and local health departments and also international. Next slide. Once again, I want to encourage you again to visit our fellowships and funding opportunities webpage at CDC. So you could learn a little bit more about each of these opportunities that I just talked about and many others that we have the CDC. So with that, I'm going to stop and thank you for your time today. >> Thank you so much, Wences. So the final speaker is Lieutenant Smith. >> Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Lieutenant Darion Smith. I am the recruitment officer here for the CDC, for the United States Public Health Service in the Commission Corps liaisons office. Thank you so much for your time and attendance today. What we'll do, we'll end up going through this presentation. I know you all have heard the different, you know, avenues and pathways that you can join, you know, government service, a federal service. And so one of the other ways you could do that is actually in uniform as well. And so we'll kind of go through some of that, and I'll explain to you what that -- what that means kind of what it looks like. Next slide. So, as I mentioned, I'm in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. So we'll talk about who we are, what we do, where we work at, who qualifies, professional categories, things like that, benefits. And then for those who are either in school now, or, you know, you have family and friends that are in school that are, you know, kind of on that healthcare track as they progress through their education, towards health care, there's a cool program called COSTEP, and I'll talk to you about what that is as well. Next slide. So the United States Public Health Service, so we're one of the eight branches. We all know about the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and even Space Force, right, we call that the armed forces. But there are two other branches as well. Another one is NOAA, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association, they do a lot of the weather. And then you have us, the United States Public Health Service. So there's eight branches total, and we're one of them. So we're just under about 6000 officers or so. But we're the only pro -- the only branch that's dedicated specifically to protecting America's public health. And ultimately, what we're trying to get to kind of like I said, around a little less than 6000 strong now, the goal is to get up to about 8000 officers. And then there's a Ready Reserve component as well. So there's going to be plenty of room as you progress in your career, and if this is something that you may be interested in. Next slide. So, you know, we do practice under missions and core values. And our particular mission is to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of the nation. Like I said, we're the only one that's specifically dedicated to actual public health. And we operate under the core values of leadership, integrity, service and excellence. So you know, one of the things that I like to mention to people is you may have all heard of the Surgeon General may see him in uniform. But many people don't know exactly what branch he's in. And so that's in the branch of Public Health Service. And these are the core values and the mission, which we operate under. Next slide. And what do we do? So, as I mentioned, you know, we -- we're dedicated to protecting the public's health. So we tend to go to a lot of places where many may not go, serving the vulnerable and underserved populations. We'll talk a little bit more about that here in the next slide. And again, with that particular mission of protecting, promoting and advancing the health and safety of the nation, you see us there also in uniform, you know, we serve on the frontline of public health emergencies, especially like now with COVID, we've --- that's been our largest deployment yet. So just like in other branches, when things arise, and it reaches that level, you know, there's a cadre of individuals that are able to go out the door, and attend to those, you know, emergent needs, and we do the same thing, you know, on a normal day where get up, go to work nine to five, and we're performing whatever our healthcare related duty is, and at any given time, you know, we can be called upon to go out of the door to serve and, you know, national and international disasters. You know, even humanitarian efforts, we actually go out and we perform in that capacity as well. We also lead a lot of public health programs, you know, many of us are stationed here at the CDC. Again, we'll talk about that here in the next slide, but a lot of leadership roles and just the opportunity to kind of grow skills kind of across the different -- the different agencies that are out there. You also kind of advanced innovation and science and different things like that kind of on the forefront of a lot of what's taking place with COVID, COVID research, and -- and also the opioid crisis as well. Next slide. So where we work, this kind of touches on the different agencies. So what happens is you apply and you get commissioned as an officer in the United States Public Health Service, and then you go off and you serve at a particular agency. So of course, I'm in the CDC at this particular time. I used to serve at the Bureau of Prisons. You might find a PHS officer with the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, even at the VA, the Veterans Administration. So there's a multitude of agencies in which we go forth and serve. Even at state and local government agencies, we also serve there as well, in many, many different capacities. And so there's -- there's a lot of room for growth, and, you know, just the ability to kind of change, you know, agencies and what you serve it, you know, within your particular profession. Next slide. And so who qualifies? So, as I mentioned, you know, you do have to apply, it's a process that you kind of have to go through, and I encourage you to visit our website, upshs.gov, there's actually an eligibility tracker on there as well. So you can go in and kind of answer a few questions just to see if you qualify. But amongst some of the basic ones, you do have to be a US citizen, you have to be less than 44 years of age. And that can be offset for those who may have already had -- who have prior service, as long as you have eight years or less, you know, we can kind of offset your -- that 44 year of age threshold with the number of years you've served. But there's a few processes you have to go through. So this is uniform, this is uniformed service. So similar to the other branches, you know, you have to kind of go through and get evaluated to see if you qualify to be in uniform. And so like every job, there's a board interview, so you will get boarded, that's one of the processes, a medical exam, you will have to go you know, to the doctor, get a -- a full head to toe examination, with lab work and things like that to check and make sure that you physically fit to be able to be in uniform and in Public Health Service, security background, right, we're dealing with the federal government. So there's going to be a federal background check that you would have to -- that you would have to pass. And then finally a presidential appointment. All officers are appointed by the President. And so it's one of the main processes that takes place. And so once you go through those four stages, then you essentially become a PHS officer. And you'll be -- you'll be assigned to whatever agency in which you actually end up applying for. Next slide. And so, when you -- when you apply, you're actually getting commissioned in one of these particular categories, one of the 11 categories. So you can -- you know, if you're on a track with your career right now, to be a physician or dentist, veterinarian, pharmacists, we got different, you know, categories in which you will serve in. One of them that's kind of broad is health services like myself, I'm a dental hygienist by training. And the Public Health Service is actually the only branch that will commission a dental hygienist, as an officer, as long as you have at least a bachelor's degree. And so that health services category is pretty broad. We have dental hygienists, we have licensed clinical social workers, physician assistants, it's a pretty broad, you know, category. So there's a lot of room for the different professions in which many of you maybe already have or might be on a career track to possess at any given time. But you will be a part of one of these categories. And what's cool is like, I'm a dental hygienist, and I've done that on the government side for about six years. And now I'm a recruitment officer. So there's many different ways of career growth that you can transition to under the umbrella of the United States Public Health Service. Next slide. So what are the benefits? I did mention, you know, we're uniformed services, the armed forces, and the other two branches that I mentioned, NOAA and the United States Public Health Service all fall under the same umbrella of uniformed service. So you'll get the same benefits that any other military personnel receives, you'll also get the career diversity. As I mentioned, I'm a dental hygienist by training. And I've done that, I've served in that capacity for a number of years and now I'm a recruitment officer with the CDC. So you kind of get the ability to create your own career path, you know, and it's focused either on, you know, health services, practices, policy, different programs. And we already talked about the many different agencies in which you can serve, you might want to serve, you know, at the Bureau of Prisons, you might want to serve with the CDC, or the Indian Health Service, or even the FDA. So you have a lot of different agencies where you can serve under the same umbrella of uniformed services, to kind of advance your career. So there's a lot of options available for you. Professional development, as I mentioned, you know, when you go to these different agencies, they all themselves have their own individual trainings that you could take, you know, that you can, you know, have opportunities to participate in, you know, through leadership and just different career development opportunities that you can participate in under the same umbrella. This is a big one for me, work life balance. So, you know, because we're uniform services, you will get those same benefits. So you get 30 days of paid leave per year. That accumulates at about two and a half days per month. And that's, you know, starting the first month in which you commission. And so that's -- that's pretty awesome. Also on maternity leave, you know, for those that are in that -- on that side of the fence, you get 84 consecutive days of maternity leave. And we also have paternity leave as well. So you get 10 days of consecutive leave to be with your newborn, and kind of get acquainted, you know, within those -- those early stages of life, and you automatically qualify for that from day one. And like I said, you know, that work life balance, the ability to kind of take off, even sick leave, same thing. You know, if you get sick, you just go to the doctor, and you take the leave that you need, and you come back to work after you feel healthy. So a lot of great benefits in that regard. Again, being uniformed service, you will get those non taxable housing benefits, as well as a subsistence allowance. So both of those will also be tax free. And there's a slide coming up soon, we'll talk a little bit more about that. And then all of that pay is kind of in addition to your basic pay, and we'll go over that here in a little bit. You'll also get a comprehensive health care package. So again, under the same umbrella of uniformed services, you know, we usually utilize TRICARE as the health care contractor for all of our health care needs. And so, you know, it'll either be low to no cost health care. Like I said, if you get sick, you just go to the doctor and you have that peace of mind in knowing that your family, as well, is taken care of as well. So really, really great opportunity when you serve in the United States Public Health Service, retirement as well. 401k package, you know, you're eligible to retire at 20 years of service, you can have the 401k like as well, they call it the Blended Retirement System. And we also utilize TSP. That's the actual 401k style package that we use, but you have access to that day one, that you will actually be able to go ahead and start making contributions to. The 9-11 GI Bill is awesome. I graduated with a bachelor's and then that's how I kind of joined the United States Public Health Service. And recently I was able to -- just graduated with my master's in MBA in December. And I didn't pay for that -- pay a dime of it, because of the GI bill as well. So, you know, with one of the things that's on the minds of many people in this country is student loan debt. And I'm thankful and grateful to say that I don't have any as it relates to my master's because I was able to get that paid and covered by the 9-11 GI Bill. So a lot of really different cool benefits, that you can participate in some loan repayment options as well, if you already have the debt, that's agency specific. And then loan forgiveness, things like that. And even something that's also called the Service Members Civil Relief Act, a lot of different benefits that are under that umbrella that are available to you from day one, just for joining. Next slide. And so for those who are, as I mentioned, that are on that track or maybe you're already in school, and you're looking for an option, another way to kind of get some, you know, an in kind of into the United States Public Health Service, or if you know somebody, we do have a pretty cool program called -- what's called COSTEP and that's the Commission Officer Student Training Externship Program. It kind of has two different components as a junior and a senior. And the junior part is actually an internship. So what will happen is, is if you are on a track to one of those categories in a profession that we mentioned earlier, if that's where your degree track is kind of heading, you can get the opportunity to kind of commission early in an internship type of capacity, and come serve at one of the different agencies that would be willing to sponsor, it's kind of like a partnership. And basically what will happen is, is during your summer -- summer year break, you will commission as a PHS officer, and anywhere from 31 to about 120 days, you'll come inside under leadership and guidance, you'll be able to participate in an internship and learn a little bit more about the federal government, PHS, and you kind of serve in that capacity. There's no obligations after that, once it's over when you return back to school, and there's no obligations on either side, you there's no commitment or anything like that. So it's a really cool opportunity. And you will also get paid you know as a PHS officer, what's called an 01-Ensign, you get a guaranteed paycheck every month that you're in. Senior COSTEP kind of similar, but a little bit different. So it too is a training program. It's an externship. So in your last year of school, of any of those categories that we mentioned, you know, what happened is you'll apply and then you become a PHS officer. And your job is to go to school, you go to school, you train in your profession. And, you know, once you graduate, you do that final step of becoming a full blown PHS officer coming on board and you will actually serve back to the agency up to two years in whatever you know, profession that you're in to the agency in which that sponsored you while he was in. So pretty cool programs that you can participate in if it's -- if you're eligible or even if you know family or friends, they might want to participate in that as well. Next slide. So here's a cool little breakdown. I did mention the different pay packages. So your -- your base -- your -- your paycheck is kind of split in some categories, you got a regular base pay, that's taxable. There's a BAS, that's a subsistence allowance that is non taxable. And then you have BAH, which is like to cover housing, you know, your mortgage or your rent. And both BAS and BAH are non taxable. So there's definitely going to be some savings there. But the base pay is taxable. And your housing is based off of the zip code where your duty station is located. And so here's just a quick example of what that would look like if you participated in COSTEP, that's paid out at 01 rank. So you'd be an 01-Ensign officer. And, you know, this is just a quick reference. So we took the zip code kind of here in the Atlanta area. And that's kind of where the data comes from. So, it also splits off to whether you have dependents or whether you do not have dependents. So if you can see there, you know, your base pay with dependents 3477.30. Without, I'd still be the same. So that part doesn't doesn't change on the base pay side, we've dropped down to the BAS side, same thing, all officers are paid the same BAS rate, this part here is non taxable, it's 2080.29. And then where the difference kind of comes in is that the BAH level whether you have dependents or don't have dependents, as you can see, if you did have dependents, you're looking at $2,088 there, and if you do not have dependents 1980. So that kind of totals together. And again, this is all kind of before taxes, you got to kind of factor that in and any other deductions you might have. But 5845.59 I mean, I can remember when I was you know, in my last year of school, I had to work part time job while I was in school, and it would have been really, really great to have almost, you know, $6,000 in my paycheck every month, or maybe under that with taxes. And all I had to do was just really focus on school. So it's a really, really cool program, really cool benefit. And you too can kind of serve back at the agency, the CDC or any of those other agencies that you heard me mentioned earlier. Next slide. So if that is something you're interested in, if it -- if it works for you, or you have family and friends, the application window is actually getting ready to open up. It typically opens up on the first of June, all the way through the end of September, that's your application window. And kind of the way it works, it's a few years out for senior COSTEP because you have to actually as I mentioned, you got to go through the commissioning process to get qualified. So if you are eligible, or you know anybody that -- that is interested, if they're interested in the senior COSTEP part, it would be for somebody who's expected to graduate in those categories in 2024. Junior COSTEP, this application window that's opening, if you are participating in you know, and again, any of those categories that I mentioned, then it will be for somebody who's expected to kind of graduate in 2023, or at least participate in the program in 2023. You can go to our website, like I mentioned usphs.gov. A lot, a lot of cool material on there great resources, you can actually go and click on Apply Now and start application if that's something that you're interested in, for either the junior COSTEP, senior COSTEP program, or if you're beyond that, and you're out and about in the field working already. And you know, you qualify and you're just interested in serving the country in uniform in one of these particular capacities, you still go to the same website, click Apply Now. And then you can actually go in and put your application in that way. Next slide. That does conclude our presentation. Thank you so much for your time, this is my email address as well. And again, the website there, so please feel free, please take that down and feel free to connect with me offline. I'm willing to answer any of your questions that you may have, and -- and hopefully, we may be serving together at some point in the future. So with that, I'll turn it back over to you. >> Great, thanks so much. And I've been monitoring the questions. It looks like a lot of the questions have been answered and they're just two that haven't been. >> Okay. >> And these are actually both related to -- to commission corps. So, the first question is, do you think that the US Public Health Service will open again to public health professional and not only to medical degree candidates, >> They will. They will. PHS is in a transition right now. That was actually some guidance that was -- that was posted and it was effective in August of last year. It was supposed to run through December of last year as well. But we since then have kind of gone through -- going through a leadership change. So anytime you kind of going through Leadership changes, you got to kind of give them time to get in and get acclimated with what's going on. So as soon as they get in and kind of get up to speed, they're going to revisit the website, revisit what's going on, and you'll see the websites update with who can qualify and what particular categories and things like that. So I encourage you to take my email down, and let's stay connected. Because when I noticed -- when I noticed that these changes take place, I'll send out an email blast and try to bring everybody up to speed that I'm connected with. >> Great, and we have one last question before I hand it over to Ken. So this is related to junior COSTEP, we have someone who's an undergrad, a senior level and they have a bachelor's degree in psychology. And they also have a double major in rehabilitation and recreation -- or and I don't know what REC therapy stands for, but something in that space. >> Okay. >> Done by spring of 2023. Do you think that they might be eligible for junior COSTEP? >> Take my email down and let's connect offline. If it -- if you -- it kind of depends, I have to see exactly when your classes start and what your program is, I don't want to guide you in the wrong way. There's a lot of different components as to whether you qualify and things like that. And I want to make sure I'm giving you the right information. So if you would please take my email down and kind of connect with me offline. That way I can actually go through your specific circumstance and give you, you know, some accurate information as to whether junior COSTEP is actually appropriate for you at all. Or if you just should kind of wait till you're completely finished school. And then, you know, come on board, you know, as a general duty after the fact. So, if we can please connect offline, I'd be more than happy to kind of dive deeper into that specifically for you. >> Great, thank you so much. And I'll hand it off to Ken Quintana, who's going to close us out. >> All right, thank you. My name is Ken Quintana again, and I want to thank you so much for attending today's career expo. As a final reminder, reminder, please complete our -- our survey event or event survey. We do use this information for decision making around future events. And also please remember the website is available for resources and additional information regarding careers at CDC. Have a great day. Thank you.