Getting Started Is Simple
There are just a few things to do before you dive in. Set up your account, get familiar with the big picture, and pick the research themes that speak to you. Take your time with each one.
Set Up Your Account
Start by creating your free Voice Up account and joining the DrPH Research Cohort group. This opens up the research materials and datasets you will be working with.
Learn the Big Picture
Take a moment to see why this data matters — how purpose protects health, how writing helps people heal, and what this could mean for public health programs everywhere.
Pick Your Research Themes
When you are ready, look through the five data research workstreams. Choose the two that interest you most, and share a few words about why each one stands out to you.
Voice Up's Official Documentation of Record
This platform is Voice Up's official documentation of record for your Applied Practice Experience. It supports — but does not replace — the larger APE Agreement between you, Mercer University, and Voice Up Publishing. Every action below is saved as a confirmed, time-stamped record that both students and staff can check at any time.
Signed Online
Your agreement is signed here — initials, name, and date saved instantly.
Time-Stamped
Every action — joining, signing, selecting — records the date and time.
Communications Confirmed
Notes, questions, and evaluations are stored — nothing is lost.
Download Official Copies
Print-ready HTML of your signed agreement or evaluation, anytime.
The Applied Purpose Science Research Lab @ Voice Up
When you join, you are automatically opted into this research collaborative group. The lab is the research and evaluation home for your work — it studies how purpose, well-being, participation, leadership, mentoring, and real-world production develop over time.
Purpose Before Prestige
The lab studies purpose as a practice — not a status label.
Ethics & Dignity First
Participant ownership, opt-in publication, and de-identification by default.
Collaborative by Design
Researchers, practitioners, and students work together on real questions.
The lab provides the research framework, the controlled data environment, the organizational questions, and the process for returning findings to practice. It is grounded in the Voice Up University Charter and the emerging field of Applied Purpose Science.
Read the Charter Background
Read the official founding charter and governance framework for the lab, plus the field definition and university charter your work builds on.
Learn the Big Picture of Voice Up
Who Voice Up is, what the project is, and where your research happens.
The Significance of the Data
This is not a textbook exercise. The data is real, the people are real, and what you find can unlock real change.
Voice Up Publishing Inc. is your host organization. The Applied Purpose Science Research Lab is your research setting. Together they have built a living dataset — a real record of how people find purpose, use writing, and grow healthier over time.
The data is already here. What it needs is you. Your analysis can unlock what the numbers are quietly showing: how purpose protects health, how writing helps people heal, and how public health programs can reach more people more effectively. The research backing these questions already lives on this site.
You are not starting from zero. You are joining a research lab that has been running — and your work helps turn what we have collected into proof that can help real communities.
A Living Record of Real People
3,519
Participants
6,201
Participation Records
10
Countries
What the Dataset Holds
The current workbook contains 24 worksheets across the three released workbooks — orientation materials, a codebook, summary statistics, audit metrics, a predictive-model summary, a verified-producer registry, governance tools, and de-identified records from multiple Voice Up instruments.
These figures remain subject to the reconciliation tasks identified in the workbook's issue log.
Purpose, Writing & Public Health
Three areas where your analysis can turn data into impact — each backed by research already on this site.
Explore the Research Already Here
Before you pick your research themes, see the evidence that already backs this work. These pages hold the studies, the stories, and the science your analysis will build on.
A Unique Intervention with a Demonstrated Track Record
Voice Up has discovered and is implementing a unique intervention. It has a demonstrated track record of helping people produce great things in the span of 8 weeks — things that help other communities. It does this simply by having one conversation at a time throughout the course of those 8 weeks.
In addition to providing a personalized 8-week guide for any individual who is seriously interested in a career transition or pursuing their first career pathway, something powerful happens along that journey. Not only do they fulfill whatever requirements are needed for the academic course they are in or their career journey — they end up creating something that benefits others.
That, in itself, improves their own confidence. It accelerates their own confidence in what they have the ability to achieve. They are not just learning. They are building. And what they build is real.
These are not presentations. These are real-world products — real-world things that people can use and do use, because they see the value in them.
One Conversation at a Time
The intervention is simple and human. Over 8 weeks, we have one conversation at a time. No big presentations. No overwhelming modules. Just honest, guided conversations that help a person find their purpose and build something real.
8 Weeks to Something Great
Voice Up has a demonstrated track record of helping people produce great things in the span of 8 weeks — things that help other communities. The 8-week structure is not arbitrary. It is the time it takes to go from an idea to a real-world product.
Personalized to Each Person
Every person gets a personalized 8-week guide built around their own career transition or first career pathway. Whether they are a DrPH student, a career changer, or a young person starting out, the journey fits their life and their goals.
Real-World Products, Not Presentations
These are not presentations. These are real-world products — things people can use and do use because they see the value in them. A children's book. A media network. A Medicaid resource. An autobiography. Things that serve communities.
Requirements Met Along the Way
Along the journey, people fulfill whatever requirements are needed for their academic course or career path. The 8-week guide is built so that the work itself satisfies those requirements — while also creating something that benefits others.
Confidence That Grows
When a person creates something that genuinely helps others, their own confidence grows. They begin to see what they are capable of. That confidence accelerates — and it comes from real work, not from a certificate.
The Five Principles of Voice Up
Everything Voice Up has achieved to date — every module, every fellowship, every real-world product — is built on five principles. They are not slogans. They are the daily habits that make purpose real, make collaboration work, and make impact last.
Collaboration
All are Welcome. The journey towards purpose begins with others that allow you to be the true you.
Humility
We all have much to learn. We can learn and become better with each conversation.
Precision
All the Details Matter. The steps we overlook may be the ones that make us great. There is power in consistency in a collaborative community.
Patience
We All Need Forgiveness. We all make mistakes. The key is to learn from each and become better.
Empathy
We Must Understand Your Why. We help you set a goal to talk to new people every week and share the lessons you learn.
Why These Matter
These five principles are the reason Voice Up's 8-week intervention works. They are practiced in every conversation, every module, and every product. They are the foundation — and the proof is in what people build.
The Projects Students Create — and Communities Adopt
Voice Up is not just a research platform. It is a living ecosystem of real-world projects that students help build and communities help adopt. Each project connects people to purpose across a different age level — from children's books to a 24/7 media network to an autobiography opportunity. As a DrPH student, your research draws on the data these projects generate.
Overcome UK — Behavioral Health Role-Play Studio
A behavioral health role-play practice studio at buildbetterhealth.life — AI client personas, five resistance levels, rubric-anchored feedback, progress analytics, and a Leadership Workshop Series based on Art Fuller’s Learning That Sticks. Session frameworks vetted by licensed clinical social workers worldwide. Student insights flow directly to Overcome UK, shaping how support reaches real communities.
Connecting People to Purpose Across Every Age Level
These projects are adopted in support of one mission: helping people connect to purpose — whether they are five years old reading a children's book, a college student building a media network, or an elder writing their autobiography. The same five principles run through every age.
Young Children
Books, songs, and simple activities
Teens & Students
Fellowships, modules, and media
Adults & Families
Fellowships, writing, and support
Communities & Systems
Public health media and partnerships
How This Work Helps Us Learn About People
Every project is also a data source. As people move through our onboarding, screening, and adoption platforms toward their projects, we learn more about how people actually connect to purpose — what works, for whom, at what age, and why. Your DrPH research is part of this learning loop.
People arrive through free accounts, program intake, and cause submissions. We learn who they are, what they care about, and which age level and track fits them best.
Video interviews, written reflections, and AI-assisted scoring help us understand readiness, strengths, and fit — so the right person meets the right project.
People adopt a project — a children's book, a media fellowship, a purpose group, an autobiography. They create real work that serves real communities.
Every step generates data. Progress, reflections, session time, and outcomes feed back into the platform — so we learn more about how people connect to purpose and improve how we help.
Learn the Data Research Themes & Pick Your Top Two
Read the five workstreams, select your two favorites, and tell us why each one interests you.
Sign in to complete Step 3
You need a free Voice Up account to submit your research theme preferences. Complete Step 1 at the top of this page first.