Students gain hands-on experience in healthcare at Cottage Health internship program

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Adrian Leon has big dreams.

"I attend Westmont college and I’ll be a sophomore next year and I hope to one day because I hope to become a doctor," said intern Leon of Cottage Health.

Not only that, Leon hopes to eventually work at Cottage Health in Santa Barbara.

So he joined the hospital’s 10-week student intern program this summer.

"What stands out to me Is the communication that goes on around here … You just see the different departments different teams working together. I feel like it’s very special," said Leon.

Cottage Health is collaborating with local organizations to support first-generation college and college-bound students aspiring to work in healthcare. 

“Focus of the internship is to make sure that we’re providing an opportunity for students who think they’re interested in healthcare who maybe don’t know what is available in healthcare they might know doctors and nurses but they don’t know respiratory therapist or laboratory staff," said workforce developer manager Angeli Mancuso of Cottage Health.

The Cottage Health team said this internship program is very competitive.

For the 17 interns hired, there were 180 applicants.

"Because we are facing a healthcare worker shortage, we have students who don’t know what’s available to them. They don’t know what jobs they could do right out of high school versus going to some college versus going onto grad school and this is an opportunity to get engagement early," said Mancuso.

Local organizations that Cottage Health has partnered with include: Mission Scholars, Partners in Education and the San Marcos High School Health Careers Academy.

As for Leon, his hope is to eventually work for Cottage Health as a neurosurgeon.