The summer intern cohort at NYP HVH.
Photos courtesy of NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital
On top of all the economic fallout from many industries closing up shop this summer, one more is the unhappy fact that many teenagers and college students simply couldn’t get jobs or internships this summer. NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) came up with a creative solution.
The hospital network opened paid internship applications to employees’ children who were potentially interested in careers in the medical field, ultimately taking on 153 paid positions across its hospitals this season, including 11 right here at Westchester’s NYP Hudson Valley Hospital in Cortlandt.
Timothy Hynan, an upcoming junior at Lakeland School District’s Walter Panas High School, is just wrapping up a month of full-time shifts at the hospital’s Critical Care Department, learning about patient care and hospital operations.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was very fortunate to be selected,” Hynan says of his time in nursing administration. “I try to speak with as many people as possible — doctors, nurses, and patient-care technicians — to learn about what they do on a day to day basis. I’ve learned so much over the past five weeks.”
Having a mother working at the same hospital, Hynan was always interested in a medical profession, but now is more clearly focused: he’d like to become a nurse practitioner. “For the past several years I was sure that I wanted to become a doctor. Now that I’ve had this opportunity at NYP HVH, I really think that I will pursue nursing instead. I’m excited to start looking at BSN programs this fall.”
“The Summer Youth Employment Program started because it became very apparent to us that there was another victim of the pandemic — summer youth employment,” says NYP HVH President Stacey Petrower. “We had the ability give summer job opportunities to young people to give them exposure to careers in medicine, explore new areas, and at the same time earn some money. For us it has been very successful, a true win-win.”
