Name: Andrea Moreno
Class Year: 2020
Major: Undecided
Hometown: Saugus, Massachusetts

Internship Placement: Tufts Medical Center
Job Title: Intern
Location: Boston, Mass.

What’s happening at your internship?

In my internship, I am shadowing a child and adolescent psychiatrist name Dr. Neha Sharma. My schedule is different each week because it depends when the doctor has patients coming in: on Mondays and Tuesdays I usually go in at 11 a.m. and on Wednesdays I go in at 9 a.m. and stay there until 5 p.m. Then on Thursdays it varies because there are some patients who come in early and others who come in late. With each patient that is seen, I am able to be part of the session, if they are comfortable with having me, and I take notes on what the patient can have and how we can proceed to help the patient. I have been able to see many different patients and a few multiple times already. It has been amazing to hear all various kinds of stories because everyone has their own story and have many things going in their lives. I sometimes am able to interact in the sessions if the patient asks me something, and I think that is truly rewarding for me because I feel like the patient is comfortable talking to me. I do not feel like I am only shadowing but that I can ask questions and say my opinions when I can.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship because I thought it was the perfect opportunity to figure out if this could be a possibility of it being my future career. And with confidence, I can say this has been such a wonderful experience so far because the doctor is an amazing person who I can see loves her job. It makes me feel like this could be it for me. This could be what I would like to continue to study for and what my major could be. I am not only learning information from books but I also am seeing real-life experience and I am able to get a sneak peak of what it would be like to be psychiatrist.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

The biggest challenge I have faced at my internship has been hearing the experiences of other people. It is quite overwhelming to hear what people actually go through and that sometimes we are too scared to accept ourselves. I have heard stories that makes me think about not being scared about feeling all kinds of emotions. I have had some moments where I wanted to show my emotions but I knew I had to be strong for the patients. I may not be able to fully understand what all patients are going through and there are definitely some patients who point that out, but I know that they need someone to let all of their feelings out on.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

The most rewarding about my internship is that I am able to be part of the therapy sessions and even though I cannot say much about the actual sessions because of doctor and patient confidentiality, it is a unique experience. Not many people at my age could say that they have been able to shadow a doctor if they are not in graduate school or medical school. I feel honored to have been able to see patients and get the experience of helping them to take steps to making them feel better. These eight weeks of my internship has taught me that everyone goes through life but sometimes some people need someone to help them along the way, and I want to be that person in the future.