At Animas High School, we have an internship program called LINK. We complete our LINK internships at the ned of our Junior year. We have three weeks with no classes so that we get the full internship experience for 30-40 hours per week. These internships allow us to explore a career path that we are interested in, and discover if it is the right path for us. It is a very valuable and fun experience! Learn more about LINK internships here: https://ahsinternships.weebly.com/
Business Description
I ended up doing my internship with San Juan Basin Pubic Health and the ROAR Coalition. SJBPH is the local Public Health Center. Recognizing Opportunities Around Resilience (ROAR) is a La Plata County-wide coalition dedicated to reducing substance misuse among La Plata County youth and young adults by carrying out local data-driven, community designed projects. ROAR is an open group for anyone who lives, plays, or works in La Plata County. I chose to do my internship with SJBPH and ROAR because of my interest in the healthcare field.
Preparation and Anticipation
Fall Preparation and Anticipation- 11/5/19
We are beginning to search for internship opportunities, calling people, emailing people, and deciding what we really want to do for LINK. I have had two meetings with Janae so far, and I have made a lot of progress in looking for internships. I have decided that I definitely want to intern in the medical field because it is very intriguing to me. I researched the different services that are offered at most hospitals, and my highest interests are ER, surgery, cardiology, and orthopedics. I have a contact who is an ER doctor in Farmington, and he has invited me to further explore interning with him at San Juan Regional Medical Center. I have been staying in contact with him, and starting to look into the specifics of interning with him. He has also offered to connect me with doctors in other fields at his hospital. My next step is to contact the hospital and see what I need to do to be allowed in the hospital, and I am very excited to continue this process.
Winter Preparation and Anticipation- 2/13/20
I have just confirmed my LINK Internship. I am interning in the Emergency Room at San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington, New Mexico. My mentor is Dan Erwin, an E.R. doctor. My next step is to go to a training at the hospital to learn about the rules and HIPPA. Then, I am going to go to Farmington and take a tour of the hospital with Dr. Erwin so that I have a general understanding of it before I start my internship. After that, my internship will start at the end of April. I am very excited for this experience I think that it is going to be great!
Spring Preparation and Anticipation- May 2020
My previously planned internship did not work out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am not able to go into the hospital to intern with the E.R. doctor that I was going to do my internship with. SO, I am working on looking for a new internship in the medical field which I think is going to be very difficult because of COVID. I am looking into internships with Mercy Regional Medical Center, and other doctors in the area.
Reflection
My original internship got cancelled because of COVID, and I had to work really hard to find a new internship in the medical field. Finding an internship in the healthcare field during the pandemic was very hard because all of the healthcare facilities were not allowing visitors, and they were very busy. I contacted so many places that were healthcare related, and none of them were willing to host an intern at the time. So, I did not get to do my internship during the regular three week timeframe. instead, I had to do it during the spring semester of my senior year. Even though I waited until almost a year after the pandemic started, it was still very hard to find an internship that was at all healthcare related. But, I ended up finding an internship at SJBPH and the ROAR coalition. This definitely would not have been my first choice because I really wanted to be doing something medical related. But, it was still a very valuable experience, and I learned a lot from it. I enjoyed interning with a nonprofit and experiencing the inner workings of a business. I also got to participate in many community meetings, and grow my professional skills. My amazing mentor also helped me by setting up meetings with various healthcare professionals where I got to interview them and ask them about their different jobs in healthcare. This experience was so amazing and valuable because I got to learn about many different careers in healthcare through one internship, and get a feel for which healthcare jobs I would e most interested in. I also came out of the experience with a couple of really great contacts in the healthcare field that will be very beneficial and helpful later on in my life, and career path. Overall, my LINK experience was great!
My Project
I did not get to do a typical LINK project because of the fact that my internship was fully online, and there wasn't a great opportunity for a personal project. However, I did participate in, and help out with two big projects for the ROAR coalition. These projects were the Forward Together Postcard Project, and the Pro-social involvement ROAR With Us Project. The Postcard Project was implemented in La Plata County, and the goal was to promote connection among youth during the pandemic by providing postcards with prompts to send to each other and connect without actual contact. I helped to design and implement these postcards around Durango. I also helped to design and plan the ROAR with us project which is being put into local news sources to promote activities for youth in Durango and La Plata County. Both of these projects were very beneficial to the Durango community, and I really enjoyed being a part of them.