Internship Spotlight: Mika and Tiara
Maria (Mika) Vela-Gude completed her internship at the Texas Heart Institute at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, Texas. During her internship she completed various projects, such as launching a REDCap Database, including planning, testing, implementation, and support and creation of a standard operating procedure. Mika also expanded marketing and communications outreach by distributing over 3,000 marketing materials while establishing new relationships with target markets. Most notably, she facilitated the launch of the first Spanish-speaking support group for women living with or at risk of developing heart disease.
During her internship Mika enjoyed new challenges and experiences, as well as working with an inspiring team of co-workers, including the institute’s physicians, researchers, and administrators. She also enjoyed living in the Houston area and being exposed to the Texas Medical Center, which is the largest medical center in the world. Mika hopes to eventually work as a health administrator in a psychiatric facility.
Tiara Culp interned at Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat & Associates (CEENTA). She was a practice management systems intern responsible for assisting the company with its transition to the electronic health record software EPIC. Tiara also assisted the EPIC transition through the deletion of duplicate accounts. In her internship, Tiara enjoyed having the opportunity to observe different sectors of the organization and meet other health professionals in the field.
From her internship with CEENTA, Tiara gained valuable experience in the areas of practice management and electronic health records systems by working closely on a team under a health professional with over 20 years of field experience. She learned a great deal about working in a health care organization and praises CEETNA as being an amazing organization that is worthy of being ranked one of the top places to work in Charlotte. Tiara is unsure about what area of health administration she would like to pursue following graduation. However, she does hope to obtain an administrative fellowship to help her gain additional insight of the health care field.