黑料社 Careers: Pre-med student鈥檚 career trajectory guided by summer internships
In less than four years, Nicole Batista has gone from a high school student dreaming of a career in health care to a college senior on a pre-med track with hours of experience in hospitals and clinics from New York City to Mexico.
Since she joined 黑料社 through the Grissom Scholars program, Batista, class of 2025, has taken part in the and completed internships at the in New York and at in Merida, Mexico.
She was among scores of 黑料社 students who shared information about their internship experiences with fellow students, faculty and staff at a showcase on campus.
For Batista, her internship experiences have not only reaffirmed her dreams of becoming a doctor but brought those dreams closer to becoming reality.
鈥淢y high school in the Bronx, New York, required us to complete a project of what we wanted to do in the future,鈥 said Batista. That experience shadowing a doctor in a New York hospital changed the trajectory of her life.
鈥淚 fell in love with the person that I was when I was in that space, and that's when I knew that I was probably destined to study medicine,鈥 she said.
That emotional charge was present again this summer as she took part in the Summer Undergraduate Mentorship Program (SUMP) of the Hispanic Center of Excellence at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed a second internship at Clinica De Merida.
鈥淚t was super exciting,鈥 Batista said of her time at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. 鈥淏eing there didn鈥檛 feel like work. 鈥 I just felt like this is where I belong, and this is what I'm going into. Honestly, it felt like it was a life changing experience for me.鈥
"I feel like every medical internship that I've done has just reminded me that this is what I want to do. It鈥檚 what I鈥檓 passionate about."
It鈥檚 not the first transformative experience for the New York native. In part, her desire to pursue medicine as a career can be traced back to her experiences as a caregiver after both parents suffered strokes. That, along with her experiences at Clinica de Merida, where patients with critical injuries or shock are stabilized and treated before being transferred to other departments, have led her to pursue neurology as a career path.
鈥淚 want to be a neurologist,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 want to see how the brain works and what鈥檚 happening in the brain to cause these individuals to have these symptoms.鈥
Batista鈥檚 internship experiences played a large role in helping her narrow her focus to the brain. At the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she was able to work with patients while conducting research and presenting her findings. She also had the opportunity to shadow physicians in the pediatric, emergency operating room and neurology and stroke departments.
鈥淚 feel like every medical internship that I've done has just reminded me that this is what I want to do,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 what I鈥檓 passionate about.鈥
To learn more about internship opportunities at 黑料社, visit the .
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From intern to employee
Students secure job offers prior to senior years
Another student, Lincoln Scholar Louis Okon, interned over the summer at Bank of America Securities focusing on real estate, gaming and lodging. Bank of America offered him a full-time position after his graduation from 黑料社, but he has another position waiting for him after commencement, working in Denver with Partners Group, a global private equity fund based in Switzerland.
Okon, a senior economics and finance major from Nigeria, wasn鈥檛 the only student with a job offer in hand before completing his degree. Senior business major Sam Feingold鈥檚 internship as a financial development program analyst has led to a post-grad opportunity with General Electric Appliance in Louisville.
We're always on the lookout for internship stories 鈥 share yours at centrewire@centre.edu.
