July 17 – Austin High senior Erica Tornez-Garduno not only witnessed the miracle of childbirth twice last month, but also helped Decatur Morgan Hospital nurses with those births in a unique internship program with the Decatur City Schools Foundation released last month.
Tornez-Garduno was one of four Decatur students who participated in the program this year, and each student gave a presentation to the public detailing their internship experiences at the Cook Museum of Natural Science on Monday.
“I want to be a labor and delivery nurse one day, and this internship program confirmed that for me,” Tornez-Garduno said.
Two prospective seniors from Decatur High and two from Austin High were selected for the four-week internships and received a total of $4,000, or $25 per hour.
The idea for the program, known as Launch 2024, was the brainchild of Decatur native Derica Rice, and he said that instead of showing a student a specific role at a company, he wanted to show them the entire workings of the company.
“My kids play college basketball and I’ve been talking to their teammates since they were in fourth grade,” Rice said. “Everybody wanted to play for a team; they said I want to play for this pro team or that pro team. One day when they were in ninth grade, I asked them, ‘Would you like to own a team?’ Owners are not negotiated.”
Rice, a graduate of Austin High, served as executive vice president of global services and chief financial officer at Eli Lilly and Co. from 2006 to 2017 and later served as executive vice president of CVS Health and president of its benefits management business pharmacists, CVS Care Brand. He currently serves on the board of directors of The Walt Disney Co., Target Corp. and the Carlyle group.
Students began their first day of work around the end of May and beginning of June and worked 40 hours a week for four weeks at local companies that partnered with the DCS Foundation this year.
Tornez-Garduno said the experience of giving birth was unlike any other and taught her many facts about the female anatomy during labor. She worked a total of three 12-hour shifts in the labor and delivery unit during her four weeks.
“With the first baby I saw, every time the mother stopped the contractions, the baby came back,” Tornez-Garduno said. “It would be frustrating, but Dr. Warren explained perfectly what was happening and I got to see a placenta for the first time.”
Tornez-Garduno said she was also able to serve as a translator for some mothers in the birthing unit who did not speak English, establishing herself as a liaison between patients and medical staff.
Decatur High senior Claire Stewart completed her internship at the Cook Museum on Friday, where she helped with the museum’s animal care facilities and educational outreach for area elementary school students and even discussed administrative work with the Director Executive Scott Mayo.
Stewart said that after graduating high school, she hopes to attend Emory University in Atlanta and major in biochemistry. She told the crowd Monday about her plans to enter academic medicine and conduct genetic research in pediatrics.
“I learned that not everything the museum has is on display,” Stewart said. “It was interesting to see everything they had, from rocks and shells to geodes, fossils and taxidermy.”
Stewart said she was impressed with the museum’s educational programs for elementary school children and was able to witness a squid dissection and had the opportunity to participate in a shark dissection.
“This (internship) program is incredible. I was able to see all kinds of careers that I had never thought of,” Stewart said. “You don’t think about the people who farm jellyfish, and that was really cool to learn about, too.”
Other interns for Launch 2024 included Decatur High senior Dane Ard, who completed his internship with the Pryor Field Airport Authority, and McKenzie Brown, who completed his internship with the Alabama Farmers Cooperative.
Rice and Stevi Price, executive director of the DCS foundation, said they hope to partner with more area companies given the success of the Launch program in its first year. With Decatur Career Academies opening next month as the district’s third high school, the foundation hopes to include even more students.
“I was there (at Career Academies of Decatur) this morning, going through the nursing and medical program and they were telling me about the students they were graduating and the question was, ‘How can we create a pipeline of future talent for facilities like the own hospital?'” Rice said. “You watch these students and hopefully you can bring that talent back to the area and retain them.”
– wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442.
