This summer, I got my foot in the door in public health and medicine by becoming an intern for the Montgomery County Health Department. Most of my internship was spent partnered with the Mobile Integrate Health (MIH) Unit of Crawfordsville, an experimental paramedicine program that is one of the firsts of its kind in the country. The bulk of this work was research for the Division Chief of EMS, Paul Miller. I collaborated with him to develop strategies that were working for other organizations that were doing similar work that we were, and seeing how it could be adjusted to benefit the Crawfordsville community and surrounding county. This was fascinating, as I learned a great deal about the blood transfusion process, a topic that was heavily focused upon. This was the main goal of the MIH, as they were working to figure out how to administer whole blood in the field to improve survival rates of traumatic injuries, such as severe car crashes.
Besides this, I was also able to experience the inner workings of the health department, which especially interested me as I grew up and have lived in Crawfordsville for most of my life. I was able to inspect both homes and restaurants, as well as see the process for determining whether they need to be shut down or not. I also sat in on a myriad of different meetings with community partners and stakeholders, which certainly contributed to my growth as an individual. I am much more confident in my people skills due to my supervisor pushing me to do interviews and participate in meetings. The amount of reaching out to individuals that I had to do due to my involvement in MIH also contributed toward this. I am incredibly grateful to have been given the opportunity to be an intern at the MCHD, as it has bolstered my interest in public health and medicine.
Additionally, I would like to thank Connor Craig ’25, Keegan Abney ’25, Carl Suba ’25, and Kayden Beatty ’25 for being great people to work alongside the duration of our internship. I would also like to think Diamond Teague, the community health educator, and Dr. Scott Douglas ’84, the chief health officer, for their support and guidance.
