NYU Langone’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry offers an undergraduate minor in child and adolescent mental health studies (CAMS) for students enrolled at other NYU schools or colleges. Our aim is to educate tomorrow’s leaders about child and adolescent emotional and behavioral health issues and to help address the ongoing shortage of pediatric mental health practitioners.

Although it’s now known that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and three quarters by age 24, there are typically long delays, sometimes decades, between when individuals first experience clinically significant symptoms and when they first seek and receive treatment.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Health Workforce has named child and adolescent psychiatry the most underserved of all medical subspecialties. There are approximately 8,300 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists in the United States, but more than 15 million youth in need of their expertise.

To address this gap, we have created a curriculum to encourage college students interested in pursuing careers in social work, education and special education, nursing, public health, psychology, and psychiatry to consider a career in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry.

Program Details

With more than 50 course offerings, the CAMS minor presents opportunities for college students to do the following:

• explore the relationship between human behavior and its biological and environmental bases, as well as build analytic and problem-solving skills
• think critically about the concepts of “normal” or “typical” versus “abnormal” behavior
• analyze the social, historical, and cultural context of mental health, illness, and diagnosis

To learn more about our courses and the CAMS minor please visit the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies (Minor) bulletins.

Summer Internship Program

Matriculated NYU students and visiting students enrolled at NYU for the summer are eligible to apply for the CAMS Summer Internship Program. Clinical, research, educational, and administrative summer internships are available at the Child Study Center, part of Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone, and a variety of affiliated NYU Langone locations. Completing a summer internship (15 to 20 hours a week over a 12-week period) helps you gain practical field experience in child and adolescent mental health.

The CAMS Summer Internship Program must be completed for credit through NYU during both six-week summer sessions. Interns are required to enroll in CAMS-UA 300 Internship I (2 credits) during the first summer session and CAMS-UA 301 Internship II (2 credits) during the second summer session.

As part of your internship experience, you work on specific projects related to child and adolescent mental health with weekly supervision from a mentor. During your internship, you may choose to complete a research project, a clinical assessment or clinical chart review, a health service or administrative report, or develop a business plan or a new clinical service or activity.

Our internships also require you to complete written assignments and take a didactic, half-day seminar each week, which are led by senior practitioners and leaders in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychology. Several internship opportunities are available for each year.

Seminar themes include the following:

• career options in child and adolescent mental health
• key roles and services in research, clinical care, education, and administration
• how to stand out from the competition when applying to graduate schools and jobs
• specific early career guidance

For your written assignments, you complete the following:

• write an academic or professional résumé and cover letter that incorporates your new work experience, which your instructors critique
• research and write a critical review of the current empirical literature related to your field
• design and develop an original poster based on your summer fieldwork experiences and present your poster at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Annual Poster Conference
• write an accompanying paper that expands on the contents of the poster

CAMS on Campus

Our student club, CAMS on Campus, promotes mental health awareness, eliminates shame surrounding mental health issues, and educates undergraduates about professional opportunities and graduate training programs within the child and adolescent mental health field. To learn more about the club or to get involved, contact csc.cams@nyulangone.org.

Contact Us

To learn more about the CAMS minor, contact csc.cams@nyulangone.org.