CPCA summer intern program a huge success
This summer, CPCA hosted four health professions students through our annual Summer Intern Program. CPCA’s Summer Intern Program was developed to provide real life work experience and opportunities for students wishing to enter the public health and health care delivery space, with a special emphasis on exposing students to primary care and community health center workforce opportunities. The goals of our intern program are simple - to increase the diversity of public health and health care leaders working within community health professions, and to further expand the potential leadership pipeline for the Association.
Each year, CPCA actively recruits three-five interns to join our summer student cohort from approximately May thru September, and this year was no exception. The summer 2018 intern cohort included:
Alicia Cuevas
Alicia worked within the Health Center Operations (HCO) department and her focus was to create an Emergency Preparedness resource database and design an accompanying webpage. Alicia graduated this spring with a Sociology degree from UC Berkeley, and was one of two Health Career Connections interns working at CPCA this summer.
Bryan Vuong
Bryan also came to CPCA through the Health Career Connections student program, and also worked within the HCO team. Bryan’s intern assignments focused on primary care workforce issues, including research around developing a potential student support initiative at CPCA. Bryan also recently graduated from UC Berkeley and earned both a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis on Immunology & Pathogenesis, as well as a B.A. in Public Health.
MaryEllen Mathis
MaryEllen’s intern assignments resided with the Development & External Relations (DER) department, and focused around the development of social media campaigns for both CPCA and CaliforniaHealth+ Advocates, including efforts specific to National Health Center Week. MaryEllen studied at Sacramento State, earning both her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Communication Studies with emphasis on Public Relations and Health Communication respectively.
Natalie Warren
Natalie worked within our Government Affairs department and worked to draft a report that aggregated results from a member Behavioral Health Survey, which will inform potential gaps that policy solutions might address. Natalie will be headed back to UC Berkeley School of Public Health this fall to finish her Master of Public Health program, with an emphasis in Epidemiology & Biostatistics.
The students this year have made a tremendous impact on CPCA staff and members, and we hope CPCA has reciprocated the sentiment. As one intern offered with their parting comments to staff, “My deepest thanks to you all for hosting the other interns and me at CPCA this summer. At least for myself, these past 10 weeks have been extremely formative and informative! I am inspired to continue down my path towards primary care with renewed excitement and a greater sense of advocacy for community health centers. While I could go on much more, what I wanted to say is thank you for being part of my CPCA experience.”