Overview
AHEC stands for Area Health Education Center. Many states and regions have AHECs, and the goal of these organizations is to provide resources for students pursuing careers in healthcare. Hawaii/Pacific Basin AHEC is associated with UH Manoa's John A. Burns School of Medicine, and provides resources to the Hawaii/Pacific Basin region. I was a member of AHEC in my freshman year, and participated in their workshops and programs. In my sophomore year, I started interning with them, helping provide similar resources for other students!
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What I did
Most of the work that I did for AHEC was online. I regularly updated their monthly opportunities newsletter. I also helped monitor townhall meetings and sessions on zoom. However, I also helped host many of AHEC's in-person events, one of which was teen health camp, an 8-hour long intensive health career series for high school students.
AHEC also has a HOSA chapter, which I was the secretary of. HOSA is an organization that allows student to compete in medical-themed competitive events at the regional, state, and international level. HOSA chapters are usually created by high schools, but AHEC created a chapter for students that do not have HOSA chapters at their schools! As a secretary, I organized our chapter meeting and study sessions and took attendance and meeting notes. I also worked with our treasurer on gathering forms from students and organizing funding for airfare and lodging for our state and international conferences. |
Takeaways
From my internship, I learned why AHEC is so committed to helping students interested in healthcare; Hawaii is facing a huge healthcare worker shortage. Hawaii has a statewide shortage of 776 physicians (22%). Additionally the average age of doctors in Hawaii is increasing, meaning that more doctors will be leaving the workforce than coming in. Hawaii needs health professionals that are committed to the state, so it is critical for organizations like AHEC to provide opportunities to local high school students.
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Challenges/what I wish I did better
The biggest thing that I could have worked on in this internship was time management and communication. Because I was juggling many summer activities, including a research program, I had trouble keeping track of all of my tasks and meetings with AHEC. While I was getting things done, I was not doing so in a timely manner. I wish that, from the start, I planned out all of my tasks, big and small, for the week ahead of time.
I also had to learn to be realistic with myself about the amount of things I could get done in a day. I wish I could have recognized my workload ahead of time so that I could delegate my tasks to others if needed. |