Students at the Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business learn early in their college career the added value of having an internship before graduation.
This summer, Ivy students were engaged in a wide range of internships to add real-world experience before they graduate. Meet Karley Smith, who shared why a summer internship added valuable experience during her college career.
Business students like Karley Smith who want real-world experience in healthcare management can get that now, thanks to the partnerships between the Ivy College of Business and area healthcare organizations.
The first intern at UnityPoint Health – Des Moines, as a result of this partnership, is Karley Smith, a senior majoring in healthcare management.
Smith had a unique path to healthcare management. She started at Iowa State University as an engineering student, but she decided to pursue a major in business. There have always been many ties to healthcare in Smith’s family, and she worked in a nursing home in high school and loved it. After hearing all of the positive experiences her friends had through the Ivy College of Business, she found healthcare management a great opportunity to get involved with both aspects that have always intrigued her, business and healthcare.
A requirement of the healthcare management curriculum is an internship. To assist students in meeting this requirement, the Ivy College of Business fosters valuable partnerships with nationally recognized healthcare organizations, including UnityPoint Health – Des Moines.
“The advantage of the partnership is that we have a future talent that hopefully gravitates back to not just UnityPoint Health, but back to the profession,” said Mitchell Spivey, the regional human resources director for UnityPoint Health – Des Moines and Smith’s manager. “We hope that past interns come back to UnityPoint Health, but anytime we can increase someone’s knowledge of a healthcare environment in which they’re interested I think everyone wins.”
The partnership is beneficial to UnityPoint Health as well. Interns provide a fresh perspective on things that full-time employees may take for granted because they see it every day.
This summer, Smith was the first Iowa State healthcare management student to intern with UnityPoint as a result of this partnership. In her position, Smith rotated each week through various areas, including human resources, medical education, and clinic administration. She shadowed and attended meetings with her supervisor in each area, and worked on small projects.
Smith highlighted the great culture of UnityPoint Health, “Something on the business side that has really stood out to me is UnityPoint Health picks projects and improvements based on what is really best for the community and not just for money reasons. Healthcare is a business, but it never feels like it’s a greedy business here. Everyone truly wants what is best for the patients.”
Her favorite experience during the internship was when she was with the Blank Clinic administrator at the STAR Development Center. Smith was able to put the topics she learned in the classroom into an actual project when she did a time study on the nurses for efficiency.
Internships are experiential learning opportunities for students allowing them to gain real-world experience in the industry prior to starting full-time careers. For Smith, working at UnityPoint Health opened her eyes to many careers she didn’t know existed. Each week she was put into different scenarios where she was exposed to people in career paths that she didn’t know existed for healthcare managers.
“My biggest takeaway from this experience was learning how healthcare connects in such a large organization. I have been able to see how each area I work in connects together.”
Smith encourages other students to pursue an internship because of all the professional development skills interns gain. Being around professionals in the industry and getting comfortable in the professional environment is very important and a great way to network with a lot of other professionals in the field.
“A piece of advice I would give to future interns would be to get as much experience as you can early on,” said Smith. “Building up your resume will open a lot of doors as you get closer to graduation.”
Following graduation next spring, Smith plans to further her education, focusing on following her passion for healthcare.
To connect with Karley Smith or follow her collegiate and professional journey, visit her LinkedIn profile.
