Lizbeth Hernandez knew she wanted to help people and work in health care after she completed a medical internship in Mexico while in college.
A subsequent internship with KP LAUNCH, the region’s paid professional internship program, helped define her path.
For the past year, she’s been an intern at the Environmental Health and Safety Department in South Sacramento. From this experience, Hernandez realized she wants to pursue a career in environmental health and safety. She’s taken advantage of all the intern offerings by using educational stipends through Kaiser Permanente to complete professional safety certifications.
“I’ve transitioned from college student to a working woman,” said Hernandez, who will start a full-time position in the department soon. “I’ve had a positive experience, and I’m really proud of how far I’ve come.”
In June, a new batch of more than 200 high school and 130 college students began internships as part of KP LAUNCH, now in its 58th year. This experience aims to build leadership skills, teach practical job skills, and encourage young people to pursue higher education and career development, especially in health care.
“The interns come in with new ideas and new ways of thinking,” said Barry Dinkins, supervising consultant who manages KP LAUNCH. “It’s so fascinating to see them grow. They can make a real impact in a short amount of time.”
Through KP LAUNCH, college students and recent graduates work 32 to 40 hours a week, mostly in non-clinical settings for 8 weeks at Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals, and medical and administrative offices. Eight hours a week are devoted to professional development.
High school students in the program support administrative and operational work for 7 weeks. They also can shadow doctors and nurses.
In recent years, specialized internships programs have been added, one dedicated to engineering and the other to mental health. Both fields greatly need to infuse young talent, Dinkins said. Having an internship focused on a particular field also helps interns because it gives them clarity on what aspect of health care they would like to pursue, he said.
Another new option is the year-long internship, which runs from June to June, for recent graduates, such as Hernandez.
“It’s great that they have the degree, but it still hard to find jobs if you lack work experience,” Dinkins said.
Huge payoff
Susan Eisberg, Environmental Safety and Health program director in South Sacramento who is supervising Hernandez, said host departments benefit from interns.
“We always have work,” Eisberg said, noting the department has hosted interns since 2011. “It really helps the department with the workload, especially when we have an intern who is sharp, proactive, and learns quickly like Lizbeth [Hernandez].”
Hernandez took on meaty projects like the hazardous materials inventory and 1,000 respiratory mask fittings. Eisberg also noted that Hernandez taught her some technology tricks, such as using Kahoot! to make meetings on hazardous materials interactive and fun.
“There’s training and investment with interns, but the payoff is huge,” she added.
The hope is also that Kaiser Permanente interns can turn into permanent employees, which is what happened with Yosola Olakunle.
Olakunle, a 2024 University of California, Berkeley, graduate who majored in math and minored in data science, is now a consultant with Community Health. Less than a year ago she was an intern, working on strategy, care delivery, construction, and real estate.
Her internship was valuable to her development.
“I was taught how to speak up,” Olakunle said, noting her growth was due to the help of 2 individuals who worked closely with her. “There were a lot of negotiations and conversations, but as an intern I would listen and only express myself in a smaller setting. They encouraged me to share, and it built my confidence. I learned there is no bad comment, even if you don’t have the experience.”
