HASC Workforce Development Program Manager Lisa Mitchell (left) posed for a photo with association Social Media Specialist Anahi Martinez at a Health Career Connection event on Aug. 23. Mitchell holds an HCC certificate of appreciation – Martinez holds a certificate of completion from the group.

Earlier this year, HASC collaborated for the first time with Health Career Connection, a national paid internship program for undergraduates and recent graduates who seek work experience in health care. HCC’s goal is to place diverse students and recent graduates in internships, which allow them to accomplish at least one major meaningful project and also allow them to gain work experience in the health field.

Participation in the program includes four mandatory workshops (an orientation, a two-day conference and a closing ceremony), a site tour, and four mandatory deliverables (an internship plan, a mid-term report, a final report and a video).

HASC’s HCC-workforce initiative effort has been branded as the College to Career Diversity Internship Program, or CDIP for short. This year, HASC hosted one intern at its Los Angeles headquarters to kick off its partnership and motivate member hospitals and affiliates to also host an intern in the near future.

Anahi Martinez, a 2016 public health graduate from UC Berkeley, was the CDIP participant at HASC working on the association’s social media communications. Martinez has had a range of experiences at HASC, learning the association’s culture, advocacy initiatives and education/workforce programs. She also traveled to Sacramento for the CHA Education Coordinating Retreat and to a Ventura County workforce whitepaper discussion.

“The HASC CDIP internship has been a great learning experience,” Martinez said. “I’d been looking for a way to do a slight career change from program coordinating to communications, and I have learned so much.”

Martinez said she is grateful for the opportunity to learn what a social media specialist does and how she can leverage the regional trade association’s voice across multiple platforms. She plans to pursue a master’s degree but is still undecided on her precise career path. She also has a dream of studying to be a physician assistant, but for now, her focus is public health and communications.

To learn more about CDIP, please contact Lisa Mitchell, HASC’s workforce development program manager, at (213) 538-0722 or lmitchell@hasc.org.

Contact: 
Anahi Martinez
(213) 538-0746
amartinez@hasc.org