Ecosystem Internship
As a foundational part of our mission to center students and young leaders in our work, we began this internship to help to elevate student voices.
Strategy Intern’s with the Ecosystem serve to support and develop organizational strategies and initiatives in coordination with the Ecosystem staff and organization partners. In addition, Strategy Interns receive 1:1 support to create personal development goals and a plan to develop these skills during their internship and beyond.
“This was more than just a job or internship; it was a community of individuals genuinely invested in my success”
History of the Ecosystem Internship
In the Fall of 2020, core Ecosystem leaders coincided to obtain and leverage funds for strategy interns who worked on and led early programmatic and organizational development efforts for the group. The first strategy consultants were funded by the WPMG HCCP program and served as student representatives on the interim board of directors.
With the support of the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Benefit grant and the Career Connect Washington grant, the Ecosystem was able to launch its first formal strategy intern cohort in February of 2023.
Cohort 1
2023
Daniela Ekedede
Emily
Gong
Jadrien Gonzalez
Nathan
Buck
Isabella Camarillo
-
[dan-YEL-lah]
she/her/hers
Daniela graduated from the University of Washington, where she finished her degree in Medical Anthropology and Global Health in 2022. Currently, she is enrolled in the Post-Baccalaureate Studies for Health Professions program at Shoreline Community College. As a Strategy Intern for the BIPOC Health Careers Ecosystem, Daniela's is passionate about sharing her personal experiences as a pre-health student in Washington state to support and empower future URM students in similar situations. As an aspiring Physician Assistant, she eagerly anticipates the opportunity to serve underserved communities in both her current home of Washington state and her hometown of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
-
Daniela led the creation and implementation of the Ecosystem's social media presence on Instagram. Her main objectives were to promote pre-health resources for students, spanning from high school to graduate school, to build strong connections with our audience and expand our community, and to engage with students in order to foster student advocacy.
-
“One of the most significant aspects of this internship experience that has deeply resonated with me is the acknowledgment that my experience and perspective matter. The confidence I have gained can be directly attributed to the support I received during my time at the Ecosystem. At the beginning of the internship I had just graduated from undergrad, and felt uncertain about my next steps. While I knew I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, I was overwhelmed by the complexity of the journey ahead. I was scared that it would be too late for me, that I was severely behind due to the amount of pre-med courses still on my plate. I was nervous that I didn’t have what it took to become a health professional. Essentially, I was paralyzed by imposter syndrome.”
“Engaging in weekly small-group discussions and being encouraged to voice my thoughts, opinions, and suggestions on various projects, as well as advocating for other students of color who were once in my shoes, helped me find my voice. Not only did I gradually become more comfortable speaking up during discussions, but I also began to open up in other situations, whether it was answering questions in class or feeling increasingly at ease during networking events and job interviews.”
-
she/her/hers
Emily is currently studying Public Health at the University of Washington and hopes to attend medical school in the future. She is passionate about equity in healthcare and access to health services, and focuses on these aspects in her studies. As an aspiring healthcare professional, Emily is committed to increasing URM representation in health pathways and is excited to contribute her ideas to the BIPOC Health Careers Ecosystem. In addition to racial equity, Emily is passionate about mental health in vulnerable populations and is interested in learning more about child and maternal health..
-
Emily spearheaded a project aimed at creating toolkits that would enable students to explore careers in nursing, pharmacy, and as a Physician Assistant. These toolkits provided brief overviews of the roles and responsibilities of each type of healthcare provider, as well as the necessary certifications and degrees required for each respective field. Furthermore, the toolkits featured diagrams that illustrated the pathways one could take to pursue a career in these fields, taking into account the different education and program requirements.
-
“One of my main personal development goals was to improve my ability to hold an intentional conversation when networking and engaging with the community. I attended an MPH research symposium and made goals to have conversations with several people at the symposium and discuss their research. I also practiced my networking skills at a research conference in Tokyo -- I definitely felt like I grew in this aspect; I'm now a lot more comfortable with networking and "small-talking" with strangers!”
“The mission/vision of improving representation of URM health professionals and health leaders resonated with me, and prompted me to apply for the internship in the first place. I really enjoyed meeting with the other interns on a weekly basis to learn more about each other and also from each other. I also loved receiving 1:1 support from Nikki on our individual projects and on professional/personal development goals.”
-
[jay-dree-in]
he/him
Jadrien graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S in Psychology in 2019. He is currently a Strategy Intern for the BIPOC Health Careers Ecosystem as well as a Research Coordinator for Bias Reduction in Content Curriculum. Previously he has worked with adolescents with autism as an outpatient Behavior Technician as well as on the inpatient Psychiatry Unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Applying to medical school in 2023, he wants to return to the Yakima Valley to serve his hometown area as a physician. During his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar, piano, video games, and reading.
-
Jadrien led a research project exploring various aspects of the healthcare workforce from multiple stakeholder perspectives (Individual Employees (URM), Industry / Employers, communities that receive care, and Government entities). His research aimed to explore the research and narratives used to discuss diversity in the healthcare workforce. Based on initial findings Jadrien’s project was narrowed down to explore apprenticeship program models that industries (including healthcare) have implemented in the United States and abroad.
-
“I felt that by the end of the internship, I had grown my network and knowledge related to creating and growing a start-up… Going through documents like the Comprehensive Guide and By-laws helped me understand what's been successful and what has been a struggle in terms of progress with creating and growing the Ecosystem.”
“The networking aspect along with the personal project was fantastic. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of great individuals that have different fields of expertise along with being able to independently improve on my research writing skills.“
-
he/him
Nathan Buck is a member of the Wannapum, Ojibwe, and Yakama Nation. He graduated from Wahluke High School in 2017, and then went onto pursue a degree at the University of Washington. Shortly after, he changed paths and pursued a childhood dream to play college basketball at Columbia Basin College where he graduated with an Associate’s degree in general studies. He then got accepted to Heritage University where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in biology.
-
Nathan co-led work in two projects, both aiming to organize resources related to education, healthcare, community and workforce. The first project was to co-create an internal dashboard database housing 160+ organizations/programs working to support URM students interested in healthcare careers.
In addition, Nathan worked on the early stages of partnership development with the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in Western Washington. The partnership with AHEC focuses on the development and utilization of the Northwest Health Career Path (NWHCP) Project website. Nathan attended NWHCP Project Committee meetings, provided feedback on website revisions and lastly identified a school district for the NWHCP Project pilot.
-
1.That everyone has their own unique story
2.There is diversity and there is true diversity.
3.How to really collaborate with my peers and how to be in a space where you can really put your cool card away and be deep in a way that isn't cringe
-
she/her/hers
Bella is studying Physiology with a minor in bioethics and leadership studies at Seattle Pacific University. She is currently the Vice President of Intercultural Affairs at SPU with 3 years of collegiate leadership within multi-ethnic programs. In fact, Bella is a part of a biology underrepresented identifying serving group called BioCore at her university where she was a scholar and is now a peer mentor for the program. In addition, she hopes to attend medical school with the aspiration of becoming a pediatric cardiologist with an emphasis on bioethics. She is passionate about advocating for representation and opportunities for marginalized identities to increase equity and intersectionality in medicine. Moreover, her being raised in Tri-Cities, WA and an aspiring physician, Bella is committed to increasing Eastern WA representation in healthcare pathways and hopes to return to her hometown after becoming a doctor. Overall, she is excited to contribute her ideas and knowledge of leadership and Washington demographics to serve underrepresented communities in her current home of Western, WA and her hometown in Eastern, WA.
-
In-progress
-
In-progress