Education Capstones Around the County: How High School Seniors are Spending Their Two Weeks

BY NANAKI PREET BAWA

Students around Loudoun County have been participating in the Senior Capstone program offered to high school seniors to explore a career path or occupation they find interesting or might want to pursue after high school. The program connects students with mentors and professionals to either shadow their daily jobs or work on specific projects—gaining anywhere from 15 to more than 50 hours of experience.

Briar Woods High School and Academies of Loudoun seniors Maddie Farias and Erin Wheeler are spending their capstone time with Inova Loudoun Hospital President Susan Carroll, shadowing her daily tasks and handling supply chain management as well as security and emergency management and patient support services.

Farias decided to intern with Inova Loudoun Hospital because she has always been interested in the field of business administration and had prior experience with healthcare after also completing “Job for a Day” with Carroll.

“I was sick as a kid, so I knew I always wanted to go into healthcare, but I get very wigged out,” Farias said. She is in a certified nursing assistant program at the Academies, where she has been exposed to the clinical side of medicine, but quickly realized that she loved the business side of the industry.

Wheeler, who is enrolled in the administration of justice program at the Academies, saw this opportunity to shadow Carroll as a way to combine her interests in government, forensics, and ethics, as well as provide insight into a different field that she had not previously considered. She plans on majoring in forensics but decided to complete her capstone experience at Inova Loudoun Hospital to explore her options.

“I really just wanted to take a look and see what else there is out there because I’m just a senior, and I don’t know what it is I want to do with my life just yet. So, I’m using this as an opportunity to look and see what else there is,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler said she has enjoyed learning how Carroll runs operations, uses her leadership skills to take control of situa- tions, and empathizes with her staff. “[I have enjoyed] looking at how Ms. Carroll runs things—the huddle meetings in particular, where she really gets in there and directs people,” Wheeler said.

Farias agreed that shadowing Carroll has taught her how to always connect with everyone “because every single person plays a role no matter how small or big. So, whenever we are walking around, [she] always knows everyone.”

The students, who previously knew each other from high school, have also been able to forge a deeper friendship through working together, which was “purely coincidental,” according to Wheeler.

“Selfishly, we love capstone students coming in because we want to teach people how great it is to work in healthcare and how it’s wonderful to be in an industry where you do give back and really serve the community,” Carroll said.

Carroll, who also is a member of Loudoun’s CEO Cabinet, has encouraged other business leaders to welcome other seniors into their operations.

“It takes a whole village to run a hospital,” Carroll said. “And trying to make sure that people realize that there is almost any job that you can do inside the healthcare setting; there are still a lot of ways to give back and work in a hospital setting.”

‘You Can Use That to Excel in Whatever Career You Want’

Broad Run High School senior Kyle Trost is shadowing his neighbor and Inova Loudoun Hospital Supply Chain Manager Michael Simmons.

Trost decided to capstone with Simmons because he “always wanted to see how a manager functions and how he oversees the people below him.” He assists various workers with inventory and resupplying, assisting workers to help restock supplies around the hospital and organize materials in the warehouse.

Simmons has never worked with a capstone student before but enjoyed having some students come in through the “Job For a Day” program in November. Trost, on the other hand, is shadowing Simmons and his employees for four hours a day for two weeks. Simmons said he plans to show Trost the “importance of what he’s been doing for the first five days.”

Thus far, Trost has enjoyed going to various hospital units and seeing how they function as a whole as well as the important role the supply chain department plays.

“If this department wasn’t here, most of the units wouldn’t have anything,” Trost said.

When the department receives a