This fall, Health & Medicine welcomed our seventh cohort of our Equity Intern Program. As their internships come to an end, Nadine, Mayra, and Patrick reflect on their time with Health & Medicine, share their knowledge and experiences, and continue to inspire us with their passion for health equity:
“I loved my time with Health & Medicine’s communications team,” Nadine Cabo Chan (University of Chicago Jane Addams School of Social Work, Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health) shares. “I have been building my skills with social media marketing and management, outreach, and media relations. I am learning how nonprofit organizations work and getting the exposure and experience working with technical software and programs that will help my career as a social worker and changemaker. I am learning so much from this opportunity, especially as my first professional experience in the field of public health and policy. It’s amazing to see all the things that Health & Medicine is doing to promote health equity and social justice in the Chicago area and throughout Illinois.”
“As an Equity Intern, I have gained valuable experiences and have felt included, supported, and encouraged to share ideas. I appreciate the commitment of Health & Medicine towards supporting the work of interns by providing me with an accessible and paid internship. I have gained confidence and have strengthened my writing, communication, and policy skills, which will apply to my future work in public health. I am incredibly grateful for my preceptor’s support, continual feedback, and the welcoming environment Health & Medicine has provided. It has been a privilege to contribute to Health & Medicine’s incredible work, and I look forward to supporting and collaborating with Health & Medicine through my journey working in public health.”
“As my first non-profit work experience, Health & Medicine was extremely accommodating and taught me so much that I never would have learned outside of it. My preceptor, who both gave me space to learn and watched enough to guide me, pushed me to effectively utilize the policy software and techniques I had been taught in my education and also gave me the opportunity to expand on areas adjacent to that knowledge with independent projects,” Patrick Ronan (Loyola University of Chicago, Master’s in Public Policy) shares.
“I was able to develop an understanding of the tools involved in the crafting of public policy initiatives and the administrative levers that function behind them, leading to a much deeper understanding of not just health care policy, but policy work in general. I feel that my work and knowledge from this internship will be vital for the rest of my career in public policy. It has been a privilege and an honor to work for Health &Medicine as an equity intern.”
In 2018, Health & Medicine created an Internship Equity Committee charged with developing a new model for internships, called the Equity Intern Program, in which unpaid intern labor is replaced with a paid internship model, and for which we established a “one door” application process so that opportunities are not limited to the well-connected. Providing paid internships is an important step toward creating and sustaining a diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive workforce.
A successful internship can be an integral part of a person’s education and professional development. Our internship program supports the next generation of professionals who share the belief in our mission of health equity and social justice. Our interns are largely graduate students in the Chicagoland area interested in gaining experience in public health. Health & Medicine supports three cohorts of three interns per year, for a total of nine interns.