Q&A: CHRISTUS Health's Interns #aMilliFuture

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with my summer coworkers for an honest Q&A session.

Our group of 12 interns this summer is an impressive cluster of millennials pursuing distinct career paths, possessing different nationalities and purposely coming together to make a difference.

The group is extensively diverse including aspiring college graduates, many in leadership positions who are finishing their undergrad studies and others finishing graduate school. Also in the group, is a former Navy corman, aspiring nurses and one very impressive Registered Nurse (two full time jobs).   

Besides the various education and career paths, our interns bring worldly healthcare outlooks due to our diverse nationalities from countries such as Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. #whorunstheworld #aMilli

“The Millennial generation is the biggest in US history—even bigger than the Baby Boom.” – GoldmanSachs

Below are some of my favorite highlights from our conversations.

Addison T. Our Ethics Intern, pursuing a degree in Medical Humanities with a minor in Spanish and Philosophy at Baylor University.

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? AT: “Fun fact, is that I went to a really small high school. My graduating class was 18 people including myself. It’s an actual school, I wasn’t home schooled.”

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before? AT: “Probably the future. I look forward to getting a job and doing it… Although there is a lot of school standing in the way… it will be really cool once I get there…”

PV: What is one characteristic you received from your parents that you want to keep and one, which you wish to change? AT: “My parents are both really hard working people, and I would say I am probably really hard working too. My dad owns his own business and my mom just recently switched careers within healthcare… Even on her days off my mom gets up at 5:00 am, and I also do that, too.”

AT: “Something I would like to change about myself… this kind of has to do a little bit with the whole DISC thing, I wish I was probably a little bit more sensitive to other people…I work at a church and I kind of have to be more aware… of people and their feelings. But I definitely acknowledged that I am task oriented. I have to remind myself to be aware of people… I am an introvert and I have pretty good people social skills.”  

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? AT: “Honestly, my life has not been that hard. I’m very blessed. I would say probably most of them have just been like obstacles that I’ve set in front of my own self… Like things with school, where I started pre-med… but I mean, I didn’t beat cancer. I haven’t had anyone big in my life die, so pretty minuscule things in the grand scheme of things.

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? AT: “Just the internship in general, I have already been exposed to so much that it’s kind of overwhelming… I’ve been just really happy to be able to grow in practical knowledge… I think that has been a very positive experience for me. I just look forward to really honing in some skills that are going to prove important… I’ve been enjoying meeting all these different people and learning what it is that they do, and just kind of seeing the life of this company because this place is really, really doing some pretty awesome stuff. I just continue to be impressed the more people it is that I talk to.”

Burhanuddin E. One of our Informatics Management Interns, pursuing a Masters in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Arlington. He holds a Bachelor in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Dallas.

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? BE: “I was born in Fremont California, my family moved to the DFW area at two years old… I have one older brother and one older sister… My dad was born in Tanzania, Africa and grew up there. My mom was also born there but she grew up in Pakistan."

PV: So how did your parents meet? BE: “So actually my mom’s sister and my dad’s brother got married. I think they met like that.”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? BE: “I wanted to be a doctor for a long time, like since I was a kid… so sort of just realizing that wasn’t for me was a big challenge for me and where to go from there. That was a big decision for me… I got to know myself better, you know, who I am and what I liked… [Aside from his brother’s advice~] Some of my professors that I talked to, they gave me career advice and showed me some other options.”

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? BE: “Just to learn more about what it is like to work in the IT field, and learn some more skills to better succeed, and I guess gain some good connections and relationships.”       

PV: What do you think will be the greatest challenges faced in the program? What are you most worried about? BE: “Benetta is really nice so I am not super worried about it. I guess getting the most out of it. Making the most of the opportunity… Three months sounded a lot longer, but I guess three months goes by pretty quick.”  

Asia I. One of our Health Informatics Interns, also an RN at Parkland Hospital. She holds a Bachelors in Nursing from Stephen F. Austin State University.  

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? AI: “After graduating, I moved back home to Arlington, and then I started working at Parkland as a nurse resident at their ICU… Now currently, I realized I wanted to do something different but still kind of in healthcare, so I went back to school. I wanted to gain real life experience, so that is why I went looking and I ran upon CHRISTUS Health’s informatics position, and I am here now.”  

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before? AI: “Being in an internship and actually learning hands on. I find that pretty exciting because being from bed side to doing this is like two different aspects of nursing, and to transfer over things from the textbook to things that I am doing now. That’s pretty exciting for me. Learning something different and be able to be involved.”

PV: What is one characteristic you received from your parents that you want to keep and one, which you wish to change? AI: “I think one thing that I hear about me is that I am easy going and open. I think that is good in order to relate to people. One thing that I would change is that I am introvert. I think that kind of holds me back. I am a good listener but sometimes it is better to be more forward.”  

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? AI: “The first time I took it [nursing board] I actually didn’t pass. That was a really big set back for me because I worked really hard… But I settled down and studied hard for like three months straight. I took it again and I passed, so that was a really big point in my life, overcoming that!”

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? AI: “Mainly just taking everything in, like learning about nurse informatics. What exactly they do, just getting a lot of experience. Another thing is kind of networking. For instance, joining the CPHIMS [Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems] since staring my internship… It is helping me network and meet a lot of people.”

PV: Have you met anyone you look up to? AI: “Oh for sure. Denise, has been a very, very big mentor for me.”

Antonio R. Our other Informatics Management Intern, pursuing a degree in Computer Information Technology at Texas Christian University; Also, a former Navy Corman.

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before? AR: “Having a successful internship definitely keeps me up. Thinking about my projects, what I am going to do.”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? AR: “Probably my naval career. It is definitely hard being away from family but I grew from it. Just being separated and on my own and being independent. It really helped me mature and focus on what I wanted to do in the future.”

PV: Can you tell me more about your experience in the Navy, and how it lead you to a career in healthcare? AR: “They give you a list of job choices and depending on the time and on your scores on an entrance exam… Although I really didn’t want to go into healthcare I was convinced by others to do it. I tried being a nurse but it wasn’t something I saw myself for the rest of my life. And while I was in, I was always the go-to person to fix equipment or computer problems. That is how I figured I needed to do something with computers and technology which lead me to the computer information technology program. I really enjoyed it. I did a lot of programming and stuff like that. I am enjoying it [healthcare] a lot more on this side than patient care.”

PV: What is it that you want to do in the future? AR: “I want to work in development of information security. Leaning more towards information security. It just seems cooler… Information security involves a lot of problem solving and reverse engineering, like testing and I’ve always been good at analytics and puzzles.

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? AR: “I am just excited that I got the opportunity to come here and learn about information management from a healthcare perspective because I have previous experience in healthcare, so it is a stepping stone into the career field I want.”   

PV: What do you think will be the greatest challenges faced in the program? What are you most worried about? AR: “Presentation. I get pretty nervous doing public speaking. That is the one thing that I am kind of dreading, but also, I think it’ll be really good to get the experience because you can’t avoid it.”

PV: Anything else you might like to add that I didn’t ask? AR: “Working with Bennetta and the other people who we are working with is pretty awesome. For the past three weeks, every day, we’ve met with a different system director who has told us about their job and gave us life advice. I think that is really awesome, that we spent 30 minutes with each director of the entire floor.”

PV: What is the best advice you were given? AR: “Don’t marry a career because in IT everything is always changing. That has been very good advice because I was dead set on doing this one thing but they kind of explained to me how that is changing and how it’s always changing...”

Erica A. One of our Nurse Interns, pursuing a Nursing degree at the University of Mary Harding-Baylor.   

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? EA: “I’m originally from Colleyville TX, born and raised in the Texas area, DFW area. I have two older sisters and two parents, obviously. In my free time, I like to read, I am a really big reader. I love to eat and cook. I run in my free time. I actually just ran another half marathon on Sunday, so I like to do that… I enjoy learning which is why nursing has not been super terrible for me. I like watching Marvel movies. Those are my favorite. Oh and I like to swim and just be out during summer time… by the pool.”  

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before? EA: “Ohh.. Let’s see, well, If I am reading a good book and like that will keep me up. If it gets to a really good part I would like sacrifice some sleep and read, read, read... I am excited about my intern project, which just took a change with new program… We plan on going through with it, so I am really excited about that… Let’s see, obviously the night before a race, the night before a long run, a lot of times I will be excited for it and I won’t sleep that well, which is kind of counter-productive. That’s another thing that excites me.”

PV: What is one characteristic you received from your parents that you want to keep and one, which you wish to change? EA: “One that I want to keep is definitely my hard working attitude. Both my parent work full time and they’ve worked full time since I was little. They’ve always strived for the best and strived to do better in their jobs every day. They’ve always had wanted a better life for my sisters and I, and they’ve always provided that, and we’ve never really had to want for anything. We’ve been very very blessed. It’s crazy, my parents, they always talk about where they started from. They got married right out of college and my dads student loans… and both have come really far in their careers. I just love their hard working attitude, both of them… Something I want to change… Maybe.. my dad is very blunt and I am also extremely blunt, which I guess is okay at times. Sometimes people appreciate that at times because they oodn’t have to think about what you are thinking. Sometimes it bites you in the butt because you say things that you maybe shouldn’t say...”

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Cristobal P. Our Business Development Intern, pursing an MBA at the Kellogg School of Managements- Northwestern University; Also holds a degree in Medicine from Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Chile.

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? CP: “I am from Santiago, Chile. I have lived since August 2016 in USA AND I moved to Dallas for my internship this summer. I am married and have 7 year old boy and a 2 year old daughter… I come a family of doctors and since I was young I wanted to help people through health care delivery. While I was studying and practicing medicine I realize through healthcare management I could a have deeper impact.”

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before?CP: “I always sleep like a baby but excited me during the day is my job, my studies, and my family.”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? CP: “It was challenging to making the shift from medical practice to health care management and I believe that defines me because I would to bring new, bold ways to improve health care.”

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? CP: “I have an experience to work in the United States I would like to understand how and in which roles I could have add value to a healthcare company bringing my background and expertise.”

PV: What are you most excited about? CP: “Learning about how an CHRISTUS can extend is mission and ministry to help improve the health in LATAM. (Latin America)”

PV: What do you think will be the greatest challenges faced in the program? What are you most worried about? CP: “I believe the main challenge is how to make a meaningful impact in only 10 weeks- to develop the project.”

Daphne I. Our Accounting Intern, pursuing an MBA from University of Dallas; Also holds a degree in Accounting from Universidad Católica, Caracas, Venezuela. 

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? DI: “I’m going into my third semester of my MBA and I will graduate in May, 2018… I am an accountant. It is a five-year degree in Venezuela…What I like to do for fun is, I work out. I speak Spanish but my school taught me English and I keep practicing my English through my MBA. We are a family of three, two brother and me and parents. We all live in Caracas and my brother has been here (Dallas) for the last 26 years. Also the current situation of my current has brought me to Dallas.”

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before?DI: “Thanks to my work out I sleep good. The days I don’t work out, is kind of hard for me to sleep… Maybe worries about my family in Venezuela keep me up all night. Maybe a hard test will keep up all night, too, but it needs to be very important to keep me awake.”

 PV: What is one characteristic you received from your parents that you want to keep and one, which you wish to change? DI: “I think being humble all the time, honest, and just be who you are anywhere you go. Something I would change… Hmm.. I don’t think I want to change anything. I wouldn’t change anything. I mean, I am thankful of the way I have been raised and I want to raise my kids exactly the same way.”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? DI: “Well coming here, to another country. Leaving my home town, has been a challenge, but I have overcome that challenged. I am here, working and studying. I think for someone that was raised in another country, and you love your country, it is very difficult to move somewhere else and start a new life, but it is something you got to do for a better future.”  

PV: What do you think will be the greatest challenges faced in the program? What are you most worried about? DI: “The thing that I most excited about is learning a lot. I like the company. I like my supervisor, my colleagues that have treated me very very nicely. What I like the most about my internship is that I will be rotating in the accounting department. That is very excited because you will learn little bit about each department, and as an accountant I need that experience in the United States…”   

PV: What do you think will be the greatest challenges faced in the program? What are you most worried about? DI: “I think I was worried in the beginning of not understanding some accounting words in English that I know in Spanish, but I have been trained so much, and they have helped me a lot. If I don’t understand something, I just look it up or just ask someone. Since my supervisor speaks Spanish, he has helped me a lot through this process. I really like my internship so far.”

Cooper H. Our Treasury Intern, pursuing a degree in Finance and Supply Chain at Baylor University.  

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? CH: “I will be a senior next year. I am from Grapevine. At Baylor I am a fiancé and supply chain major and I am in a fraternity, ATO [Alpha Tau Omega].”

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before?CH: “Probably new experiences. Experiences that force me outside of my comfort zone. Meeting new people, starting this internship and learning new things.”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? CH: “For the longest time, I wanted to play college baseball. My senior year of High School I noticed that probably wasn’t going to happen. I wants to go to a great school like Baylor, that wasn’t an experience that really shaped me.”

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? CH: “Through the program I hope to gain hands on experience. I am most excited about forming new relationships and I am excited to learn more about day to day operations.”  

PV: What do you think will be the greatest challenges faced in the program? What are you most worried about? CH: “One of the greatest challenges I would say is communication and making sure you understand what the goals are and what is expected of you.”

PV: Anything else you might like to add that I didn’t ask? CH: “I’m super excited for the rest of the summer at CHRISTUS!”

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Lucy P. Our other Nurse Intern, pursuing a Nursing degree at Belmont University; Also holds a degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders with a minor in Spanish from the University of Mississippi.

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? LP:” I am 25 years old. I am from Macon, GA. I have a younger brother and sister.”

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before?LP: “Traveling the next day. I am often too excited to sleep.”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? LP: “I graduated from Ole Miss in December of 2014. I planned on going to graduate school for Speech Pathology starting in August of 2015, however, soon after I graduated from Ole Miss I learned I did not get into grad school, so I had to regroup… I was very nervous about my future, but I knew God had a wonderful plan ahead for me. Sure enough, in March of 2015 I decided to take a Nursing Assistant class so I could get experience in the hospital setting, hoping it would look good on my resume for grad school. I immediately fell in love with nursing and began to get that “feeling” others tell you will get when your job doesn’t feel like a job because you enjoy it so much. I never felt that way about Speech Pathology- it felt like a job and I didn’t like it. It was difficult being rejected from grad school, however, I learned an important life lesson: to never give up and to keep going because something great is in the works. God closed one door, but He opened another is it is wonderful!”

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? LP: “I want to learn more about the administrative side of healthcare. I have experience with the hands-on side of nursing, so, going into the internship, I was hoping to learn more about the leadership roles. Thus far, I have been extremely pleased and thankful for all the opportunities I have had to help me reach that goal.”

Nicole B. Our other Health Informatics Intern, pursuing a Masters in Healthcare Administration at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Also holds a degree in Human Development and Family Science, also from the University of Arkansas.  

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? NB: “I will graduate in May 2018… I am from Lafayette, Louisiana. I was originally born in New Orleans. We moved after Katrina, and then moved to Lafayette for a year, then they (parent’s jobs) have been trying to get my parents to relocate, and so we went to Houston. I went to school in Houston. I graduated, got a scholarship to go play for University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Went to school for two years there. Then I transferred to University of Arkansas. So that is how I ended up in Arkansas being a Louisiana person. Met my fiancé, so that’s exciting, and that’s me.”    

PV: What is one characteristic you received from your parents that you want to keep and one, which you wish to change? NB: “Good question. My parents are both determined and very hard working individuals and they raised us to be like that, too, so I definitely want to keep that. They are also, both of them, just are the most caring and loving people that you could ever imagine. They always wanted the best for my sister and I, so I hope I can be exactly like them. One thing I would change is that we are worriers. We worry about things, so it’d be nice to not do that. My mom specially, sorry mom, if you ever read this, but shell admit it…”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? NB: “Okay. Well two main ones. The first one is obviously Katrina and moving. It definitely, I guess it has opened my eyes to many many opportunities. Had that never happened, we would of probably never moved out of New Orleans. My life would not have been even remotely close to what it is today. I think for sure that had a huge impact, and because of it I feel much more secure in myself and much more like ready to go face the world… So that, and my whole tennis and college experience has been politics.. it’s one of those environments that if you can survive this four years… I know I can do anything in the work force, and it has helped with my time management, unbelievably.

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? NB: “I think mostly, really, I want the work experience. We learn so much in school all the time and although like I got a good grasp on the knowledge, its hard to truly understand it, unless you can begin implementing it…and how it translates into a benefit to someone else, or to your company… It’s is almost as it is the missing puzzle piece. I need to fissure out how the things in the classroom are working for the bigger picture.”   

PV: What are you most excited about? NB: “I love the company culture here, and one of the things that I would like to do, is you know, I would love to be working for a catholic health system or a children health system, preferably a catholic health system because I am catholic and I love the idea of being able to practice my faith while in a career. You can practice your faith in any career, but specially in a filed like healthcare where there is topics like abortion and ethics behind everything. The fact that you can practice making your profession better while not having to compromise your beliefs.”  

(Olivia speaking at a UN General Assembly: “One of my proudest moments. Once I did that I knew that is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, representing my country.”)

Olivia G. Our Legal Intern, holds a law and finance degree from Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico.

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? OG: “I had the amazing opportunity because I was in the honors international program; I went a year abroad to study my masters at the same time…So I did a dual degree program and I did my LL.M. (masters of laws) in the U.K. for that year abroad. My masters is in international commerce and business law. I studied at university of Essex which is in England. I graduated in December of 2016. Throughout my academic and professional life, I have been focusing in corporate law. That is why I chose that masters. I worked at a microfinance company. Afterwards, in Coca-Cola Mexico, and this is my third formal job which is in CHRISTUS Health. Right now, I’m part of a very interesting program where I worked for three months in CHRISTUS Mexico which is CHRISTUS Muguerza and now I’m working three moths here in CHRISTUS Health. This has been an amazing opportunity because I have been able to understand the business in both countries, but also get familiarized with the whole medical terminology, legal terminology. Also been able to compare both legal frameworks from both countries and see the similarities and differences and which are the key aspects that we have to keep in mind.” 

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before?OG: “I am really passionate for women rights. So I’ve also been really involved in organizations and GOs that do encourage women to go out there and be whatever they want to be, either professionally or academically whatever they want. I was part of the NGO called womerang. The mission of that is to make the connection between young girls that want to excel professionally and connect them with a mentor… My mentor was this really successful, amazing person in Switzerland, a lawyer. When I was in Europe she was nice enough to have me in her home in Geneva. We had informal interviews ..That helped me open up to be a mentor in the future. That is something I really do believe in. I want to give back to my country, and to women to keep that chain of good thoughts and good vibes. I recently went to a forum for that, to connect women to each other.. I stay up at night, thinking of how I can impact a bit, give my grain of salt into my country and into society.”

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? OG: “I think in the most superficial level, is just getting to know the American legal system both legally, and more specifically how the medical concepts are compared to Mexico. But on a more deeper level, it is also more than that. It is getting to know how the company work, how the culture actually does impact… And also how an international company is able to standardize services even though there is cultural barriers. I would need more time to know more.”

Sophia M. Our Mission and Integration Intern, pursuing a degree in Management and Leadership with a minor in Interdisciplinary program (Sophia created herself) at Miami University- Oxford, Ohio.  

PV: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself/ your background? SM: “Because my skills strongly lead me to leadership roles and management roles, I like to organize things and plan strategically, network and connect resources to needs… (Once done with undergrad studies) I will pursue a Masters in healthcare mission integration, which has become my passionate over the past year. I am a passionate catholic and social justice, activism has always been a strong part of my extra-curricular activity. I always knew that I wanted to apply my talents to something that creates sustainable change in the communities for their betterment and I discovered that healthcare, particularly non-profit healthcare, does this wonderfully, and so because their mission aligns so much with my and there is this great field called mission integration that is literally my job, I have chosen to purse that.”

PV: What excites you so much that it keeps you awake the night before? SM: “I think those are separate things for me. I think what excites me the most is to see manifestation of god in nature and humanity, and seeing opportunities to bring love to spaces to where it hasn’t been before, or bring resources to places of needs. So I think that excites me the most. It is probably those needs and those spaces that are lacking in love that would keep me up at night. So I think the excitement would come from the fulfillment of needs and the restlessness would come from the lacking.”

PV: What challenges have you overcome that have defined you? SM: “I think I often feel like a contrarian. Growing up, like I mentioned, I have very strong leadership tendencies. I like to take charge, I like to speak up and that is not something women are socialized to do. Once I learn what feminism was, I jumped on that train pretty quickly and was a strong advocate for a while, not that I’m not but I certainly toned down my vocalization. I learned a bit more about the integration of being a women and being a strong force in the world. I think often times, going to back to the contrarian nature, I grew up Catholic, and I also grew up with a lot of friends who are Mennonite who taught be a lot about social activism. I learned a lot about political issues about creating social change and leading social justice movements. – And so that kind of put me in both, liberal and conservative communities… - So I typically find that when I am following the passions that lead me to create social change and to plug into communities, and to seek how we can better the conditions of those who are living around us, I am in a more clinical, liberal group of people. - And so my catholic identity is see as outlandish and conservative. Where as I am in a Catholic community, where I am also very passionate about the strong faith and our history, I am see as liberal because of my other passions.- And so I think within my different communities, my passions sometimes conflict with the norm, which is good because it means I get to educate and speak up for what I know and what I believe in, and I get to learn from other people. - But always feeling like a contrarian is certainly a challenge personally.”

PV: What are you looking to gain/ learn from this program? What are you most excited about? MC: “I think really what I want to take away is an understanding of mission leadership as an executive role in a hospital, everything that it entails, everything that is needed in the role at this point in time in healthcare. Aside from getting a holistic understanding of the position itself, I would hope to discern my next steps, and the way that I may fit into this need within healthcare. So certainly, this position has been teaching me a lot and granting me numerous avenues to reach this goal and discernment has already been very fruitful.”

Paula V. I am the Health Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Intern, pursing a Masters in Healthcare Administration at the University of Texas at Dallas. I hold an Associates in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and Advertising.

 “The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation.” – Pearl Buck

In conclusion, getting to talk to all of my peers reminded me why I am proud to be a millennial. We are eager to learn (everything), to earn guidance (sometimes words of encouragement) and ultimately, to help improve healthcare delivery. 

“The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love.” – Bertrand Russell

Thanks for stopping by. Please fell free to share some advice or positive feedback.

Cover Picture: https://flic.kr/p/qMMfrB