The internship program that has become Health Career Connection was founded in 1990 by a small group of healthcare executives who are deeply committed to empowering young people to pursue health careers and to increasing diversity in the health professions (link to founders and directors). They themselves had the “life changing experience” of having their health careers and graduate education opportunities launched by participation in a summer internship program and wanted to provide others with same opportunity.
The internship program that three of the four founders participated in was called the Fellowship Retention Program in Health Administration. It had originally been sponsored by a professional association called the Health Care Executives of Northern California and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. The goal was increasing diversity in health administration. The funding for the original program ran out in the late 1980’s. In 1990, HCC’s Founders started a small Northern California summer internship program, based on the Fellowship Retention Program Model, and operated it on a volunteer basis until 2000. Each year the program would have a profound impact on the interns and the host organizations, just as it had for the Founders. Each year the interest in the program from undergraduates and organizations increased as did the number of interns who went on to graduate school and were employed by host organizations.
In 2000, Jeff Oxendine, one of the Founders, was working as a health executive at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He found that there were significant needs to support undergraduate students interested in health careers and for increasing the diversity of health leaders and professionals in Boston. He was fortunate to meet and receive mentoring from Jeff Cook, then CEO of the Environmental Careers Organization and Jeff Otten, then CEO of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They encouraged and supported him to launch a Boston version of the internship program and to embark upon developing a national non profit to increase opportunities for students and the impact on health organizations and health workforce diversity.
Jeff Oxendine launched a Boston internship Program and formed Health Career Connection (HCC) in 2001 to become the home for the internship program and the foundation for a national program. With the support of Dr. Mark Smith, President of The California Healthcare Foundation, HCC then launched its Southern California Program in 2002. Based on the demand for and success of the program for students and organizations, HCC launched its New York/New Jersey Program in 2004, its Central California Valley Program in 2008 and its Coachella Valley regional Program in 2010.
In all regions college students from the local region and others who want to work in that region are provided opportunities to gain invaluable exposure, experience and mentoring and to make a difference in their organizations and the local communities. Most, like the HCC Founders long ago, have life changing experiences that launch their careers and empower them to become successful health leaders and professionals.
In 2010, In response to California’s need for 10,000 additional Health IT workers, HCC partnered with the California Health Workforce Alliance and the State of California Department of Health and Human Services to launch an HIT Fellowship Program.
HCC plans to expand to other regions and to increase the scale of its programs in its current regions. Watch for additional regional programs in the coming years to increase opportunity and impact.
