Summer Internship Take-Aways
Carolina Perez Ramirez is a fourth-year sociology and psychology double major. She wrote:
"During the Summer of 2018, I interned with Kaiser Permanente as a KP LAUNCH Program Coordinator at a San Rafael hospital. I was exposed to what a non-clinical healthcare career can look like. My responsibility was to plan and execute the summer internship experience for ten high school interns alongside my two supervisors. I led professional development days, assigned projects, planned the closing ceremony, and much more! My daily work involved having one-on-one meetings with the interns to make sure they were working on their assigned projects as well as helping them in any way that I could. I gained both project management and leadership skills, but most importantly, I was able to connect with the ten interns on a professional and personal level.
Being a sociology major, I have learned that people come with different backgrounds and experiences that shape who they are. Understanding that everyone has an intersectional identity helped me to see that each intern had different needs and entered the program with varying levels of experience. It also enabled me to ensure that I was including everyone in the conversations and workshops. For example, I knew that this internship was the first professional role some had been in. As a result, I tailored a workshop so that we all talked about professionalism and what that looks like in an office-like setting. Furthermore, I also did a workshop around intercultural competency, something that is talked about in sociology, to make sure the interns understood that everyone brings unique perspectives and skills to a team. After my supervisors saw that I had these critical thinking skills and an intersectional way of thinking about work, they allowed me to have more responsibilities as they knew I was capable of leading the interns. As my internship came to an end, I spent a lot of time reflecting on the amazing relationships I had built as well as how my experience at SCU helped me succeed in this role. I truly believe that my background in sociology has given me the skills to be successful in any type of environment because it has expanded my way of viewing the world."