High School Internship

A unique internship opportunity for a senior student at Heritage Christian School (HCS) in Indianapolis, Indiana was provided by IUPUI’s Tobacco Cessation and Biobehavioral Group (TCBC) at Indiana University School of Dentistry. The titled program, “Tobacco Education, Control, and Cessation” scheduled January 4-8, 2010, was mentored by TCBC’s Research Coordinator, Denise A. Allen. Internship participation included basic HIPAA and Infection Control information; PubMed basics (U.S. Library of Medicine’s search system for health information); poster construction for tobacco research presentation; and field study on patterns of tobacco use among youth.

The Internship Program was implemented as a new aspect of career guidance at HCS for their Juniors and Seniors during the third quarter of the school year to observe and experience a working professional’s life for one week. At the completion of the experience, the intern was required by HCS to provide documentation and an evaluation from the TCBC, in addition to writing a paper that summarized the activities the student performed, and the knowledge gained from this opportunity.