Internship Location: Milwaukee WI
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Policy Areas: Public Health & Health Policy
As a 2024 Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Community Health Internship Program (CHIP) member, I interned at Health Connections Incorporated (HCI). AHEC provided educational seminars, speakers, networking opportunities, and access to various host sites. Therefore, interns learn about public health from guest speakers at other organizations, other interns, and their individual projects. This internship has revealed the vast impact of public health and how organizations can co-collaborate to ensure a sustainable future, hence it has inspired me to pursue a Masters of Public Health in the future. The keystones behind healthcare are health access and health equity; two factors that my project aimed to tackle. My host site serves as the intermediary between community members and local government regarding healthcare issues such as education, access, and equity. HCI develops connections with community members at the grassroots level, impacting healthcare in a variety of ways. Our organization could do this only through a strong team, whose staff reflected the authenticity and mission of the organization. The most valuable aspect of this internship was the connections and people you interacted with. As an undergrad one often surrounds themselves in an enclosed circle of like-minded people, however, you can learn so much from people with different perspectives and experiences. The opportunity to create meaningful change is what allows collegiate students to apply their learnings from La Follette and college to local communities and beyond.