Naina Khandelwal (12):

This summer, I interned for Bay Area Community Health and helped them with their outreach as well as running their Teen Clinic. I came across this opportunity from the Service Learning page, where I sent in my resume, got an interview, and completed a bunch of courses for training regarding things like patient privacy and safety. My typical day was around 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., where I’d be checking people in and getting paperwork, and then on other days, I would be helping with outreach and creating posters/flyers. I spent a lot of time talking to community health workers about different things they saw in the clinic, especially because people didn’t have to pay for the Teen Clinic services. 

During this internship, I improved on communication as I had to talk to all different kinds of people and observe passing conversations with doctors and physician assistants to help the team. I learned how they organized stuff like their scheduling and outreach material, and I think the most challenging part was that you have to be independent; you need to be able to figure out how to do things yourself. Of course they’re there for support, but they also have their own tasks such as managing the patients.

While I was there, we made diaper bags for women with newborn children and then also prepared goodie bags and wellness packets for Community Health. We also got to use Epic, which is the health data system, so that was interesting. 

I thought the environment was nice and sort of lax, where people and staff were willing to talk to each other and give suggestions. I enjoyed how everybody was comfortable with each other as well. Through this experience, I got to understand that it’s important to advocate for yourself. This means that if you’re having challenges, it’s better to reach out after you’ve tried a couple of times and just advocate for what you need. Be clear about your expectations and be clear about how much you can do if you’re committing to an internship or any other responsibility.

I think through the internship, I know I want to do something in healthcare, but I’m still unsure if I want to be a doctor, since I’ve also been exposed to other pathways. All the people there were really interesting, and I got to talk to one of the community health workers. She was a teen mom and understood the stigma that happens, and made sure that people in those situations were able to feel supported despite that stigma. Overall, I think the internship would be beneficial if people are trying to get more exposure to healthcare. It definitely gives you a different perspective than a normal pediatric hospital visit. I think it depends on how open people are to different experiences, but I would recommend it for people that are curious.