Practica and Clinical Internships

The Arcadia Genetic Counseling Master’s Program has a wealth of clinical training resources at some of the nation’s premier healthcare facilities. Our proximity to Philadelphia, a city rich in genetics history, and our more than 20 years as an established program provide our students unique opportunities to work with experienced clinical practitioners and true experts in the genetics field.  Access to so many clinical training centers allows students to broaden their educational experience beyond traditional clinics to research in medical subspecialties, health care management, advocacy, industry, and laboratory genetic counseling roles.

Clinical training is one of the program's greatest strengths, with individualized opportunities at clinical genetics sites throughout the Delaware Valley.  Faculty and clinical supervisors work closely with students to ensure their needs are met throughout the clinical placement process.  With so many different options, we can help students tailor their clinical experiences to match their specific interests. None of our 240+ graduates have followed identical clinical paths.

Unique Clinical Internships

Our students participate in both clinical practica and clinical internships for a total of seven clinical experiences. The first-year practica are based at more than 20 different institutions, laboratories and organizations throughout the Philadelphia area and enable new students to observe firsthand the practice of genetic counseling. Practica also provide an opportunity for our students to work in specialty clinics such as the pediatric and adult CF centers and the hemophilia clinics and to interact directly with patients and families living with genetic conditions.

In the second year, internships are available in prenatal, pediatric, cancer, and numerous specialty clinics in the areas of neurogenetics, metabolic genetics, cardiovascular genetics and others. Each second-year student will have four clinical internships: one prenatal, one pediatric, one cancer, and an elective rotation.

In addition to these internship opportunities, students experience several other fieldwork placements such as exome research, industry, and laboratory settings.  All clinical internships are supervised by board-certified genetic counselors and/or board-certified clinical geneticists.  At this time we have over 120 clinical supervisors who supervise and mentor our students in their clinical internships.  Our alumni consistently rank the diversity of our clinical training sites and the wide variety of cases among the most valuable parts of their training. 

Clinical Training Sites

The location of these sites extends from Trenton, New Jersey, to Newark, Delaware, and from Camden, New Jersey, to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  The more distant sites are used to accommodate specific student interests and to reduce commuting time for students who live farther from the campus. 

Clinical placement sites include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Temple University Hospital, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper University Hospital, Fox Chase Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, Capital Health System, Wills Eye Hospital and many more.  A more extensive list of training sites is provided below. 

Cancer Genetics

• Cancer Treatment Centers of America
• Christiana Hospital- Helen Graham Cancer Center
• Doylestown Hospital
• Fox Chase Cancer Center
• Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
• Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center
• Lancaster General Health
• Lankenau Hospital Cancer Center
• Lehigh Valley Hospital
• M.D. Cancer Center at Cooper University Hospital
• Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Paoli Hospital
• Penn Medicine at Virtua Cancer Genetics Program
• Pennsylvania Hospital
• St. Luke's Hospital Bethlehem
• St. Mary's Hospital, Langhorne
• Thomas Jefferson Cancer Center

Pediatric Genetics

• Albert Einstein Medical Center
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Cooper University Hospital
• Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
• Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health, New Brunswick
• St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children

Reproductive Genetics

• Albert Einstein Medical Center
• Capital Health System
• Christiana Hospital
• Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
• Integrated Genetics
• Lehigh Valley Hospital
• Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
• Monmouth Medical Center 
• Pennsylvania Hospital
• Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, New Brunswick
• St. Luke’s Hospital Bethlehem
• Temple University
• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Specialty Clinics

• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Cardiology
  • Cleft Palate/Craniofacial
  • Cystic Fibrosis Center
  • Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics
  • Fetal Surgery
  • Hearing Loss Clinic
  • Hereditary Cancer Predisposition Clinic
  • Individualized Medical Genetics Center (IMGC)
  • Metabolic Clinic
  • Mitochondrial Disorders
  • Neurogenetics
  • Neuromuscular
  • Spina-Bifida Clinic
  • Trisomy 21 Center
  • 22q Clinic
• Wills Eye Hospital - Ocular Genetics