Site Visit to Future Focused Education’s X3 Internship Program
At YTFG’s Fall Meeting in Albuquerque, several of us got to see the work of one of our meeting presenters, Future Focused Education, a local nonprofit that provides paid internships and coaching for high school and college students through their X3 Internship Program. We visited one of FFE’s largest internship placement sites, University of New Mexico (UNM) Hospital. UNM, a major employer in the region, is New Mexico’s only Level 1 trauma hospital, academic teaching hospital, children’s hospital, and stroke center; it also serves as a critical safety net for New Mexico’s low-income and uninsured residents.
Nicolette Garcia (X3 NeXt Program Coordinator) and Alex Walker (talent acquisition project coordinator at UNM Hospital) led the visit. They work together with supervisors across the massive hospital campus to coordinate internships for young people. Among the 25 FFE UNM hospital internship placements, interns work on food access projects, specialized podiatry and limb preservation for diabetes patients (UNM’s CHILE & Podiatry Clinic), and supporting a pulmonary lab that uses cutting-edge technology to treat lung disease.
Here are some key insights from our time with FFE program leaders at the University of New Mexico Hospital:
Partnering with a major regional employer like UNM hospital provides key benefits for interns, such as:
Exposure to hundreds of specialized industry jobs.
Exploratory opportunities early in an intern’s career, in a supportive environment.
Access to highly specialized – and likely high demand -- fields and technology.
Increased likelihood for continued employment at placement sites, and work experience that makes them competitive candidates for future employment.
HR gymnastics needed to make internships are substantial – and worth it.
Having a program ally inside the employer’s HR department is critical to ensure interns have appropriate onboarding, ongoing support, job codes, building access, and that mentor/supervisors have a clear understanding of an intern’s roles and how to support them.
Mentors/supervisors play a key role in interns’ experiences, and report benefits of participation beyond the intern’s work product.
The experience of hosting interns can bring a staff team together. Kyla LeSuer-Thomas, UNM respiratory therapist, observed higher motivation and greater camaraderie among her staff as they worked together to support their intern, Mayra, in her placement at the pulmonary lab.
Supervising interns provides valuable information as placement organizations seek to attract and retain future employees – such as what younger workers want and need from their employers..
For more information visit Future Focused Education.