Valley Stream's Kezia White, 18, lands unique internship at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital

Kezia White, 18, of Valley Stream, a recent graduate of Valley Stream Central High School, is taking a significant step toward her goal of entering the health care field through an internship at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital.

The nine-week internship, which runs until Aug. 9, offers interns a comprehensive look at various hospital departments, providing hands-on experience. White is the first high school student accepted into this internship program.

The Takeaway 

• Kezia White, 18, secures a groundbreaking internship at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital, becoming the first high school student admitted to the program.
• Motivated by family experiences with illness and a medical background, Kezia's passion for health care shines through her journey.
• The internship offers Kezia hands-on exposure to hospital operations, sparking her interest in orthopedics and providing a comprehensive view of health care careers beyond traditional roles.

Her interest in health care stems from personal experiences, particularly her sister’s ongoing battle with leukemia and her family’s strong medical background. Her mother is a social worker, and her father and brother are both nurses. This environment fueled her passion for the medical field.

White’s personal story was one of the many reasons she was accepted into the program, according to the hospital’s CFO, Chris O’Brien.

“I actually shed tears when I was reading the essay, and I looked forward to the week or two lead-up, when we were setting up the interview to meet with her,” O’Brien said. “There was no way, after meeting with her and then hearing the authenticity and the genuineness around that, that we weren’t going to give her a spot.”

White’s experience has been transformative. Initially interested in cardiology, she now wants to pursue a career in orthopedics after witnessing an orthopedic surgery.

“We watched an ankle replacement, which I thought was very cool because they were using hammers and drills on bones,” she said. “And I was like, that’s insane, and then I watched a knee replacement a few days ago, and this morning, actually, so it’s just something that grasped my interest.”

Dr. Aized Imtiaz, one of the physicians the interns shadow, offers them a comprehensive learning experience.

“They came and rotated with us for a week, just to kind of shadow a bunch of the doctors and see patients and there was some learning after that, some teaching, Q and A sessions,” he said. “That was the formal involvement. The informal involvement is chatting with them about career and life after residency and what to expect. Things that I wish I’d been taught as a medical student and a student before that.”

Imtiaz emphasized that shadowing different doctors provides interns with diverse and extensive exposure, enriching their learning experience. White and the other interns were particularly excited by the wide range of opportunities, such as witnessing robotic surgery.

The program also shows interns the various roles within health care, including hospital administration and finance, beyond just doctors and nurses. Each week provides a different perspective, all viewed through the eyes of the patient, allowing students to piece together a holistic understanding of the field.

The program includes interns from various colleges, each with unique aspirations; Darien Ward Jr., of Baldwin, a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, is passionate about becoming a physician. Isabella Matura, of New Hyde Park, attending Adelphi University, dreams of a health care career inspired by her pediatrician. Ellie Yu, of Little Neck, studying at Cornell University, aims to pursue vascular surgery. Raquel Rubio, of the Bronx, studying at NYU, is motivated by an interest in integrating public health and business. Shreyasi Saha, of Hollis, a student at Stony Brook University, was inspired by her physician parents in Bangladesh.

Have an opinion on this article? Send an email to jlasso@liherald.com.