The Interview

1. What is your full name? 
Christina Cornacchia

2. Where are you from (city, state, country)?
Brooklyn, New York, USA

3. Where did you go to college? For how long? Would you like to go back to school?
I attended St. Francis College I was a Political Science major, I have a B.A. I am current in graduate school for Health Care Administrative at the CUNY Center for Professional Studies.

4. (If the interview went to college)... What was your major in college and what kind of degree did you earn? Did you attend graduate school for an advanced degree? If yes, what degree and at which school?
I was a Political Science major, I have a B.A. I am current in graduate school for Health Care Administrative at the CUNY Center for Professional Studies.

5. What made you choose your career you are working in now?
I choose the field of working for a non-profit health care organization because I was able to work for New York City in a way that benefits the public and community.

6. Why did you choose this particular company?
I choose this organization because it is a New York City, non-for-profit agency.

7. Describe the process in which you got your job. Did you interview? With how many people? How many times?
I saw the job posting online and came in person to fill out the application. Do not know how many people applied for the job. I was interviewed twice for my current position.

8.How long have you worked here?
I have worked for Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) for 3 years.

9. What is your job title?
Clerical Associate II

10. What do your duties include? Another way of asking this question is, "What kinds of work does your job involve?"
My duties include:
·       Serves as a receptionist
·       Conducts a wide variety of typing and computer assignments
·       Track all physicals both pre-employment and annual of both adult and youth volunteers for return of uniforms of inactive volunteers
·       Set appointments for drug testing
·       Responsible for submitting work orders and supply orders
·       Perform status reports and letters of recommendations for volunteers
·       Partner with schools and educational centers to facilitate community serve and internship opportunities

11. What are some of the challenges you have faced working here?
Due to New York State budget cuts the funding to HHC has been decreased. This means many services the hospital provides have been reduced or canceled. The Volunteer Department has been reduced to 2 staff members because of this cut we had to temporally stop accepting new volunteers.

12. What is the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is working with students, like yourself. It is extremely rewarding to help interns, students and volunteers. I have seen many high school students go off to college and college interns find a great job.
13. What is something you would like to change about your job?
In the future I would like to expand our internship program to include a larger number of high schools and colleges.

14. Did you work somewhere else before this job? Where? For how long? How was that job similar or different?
Yes. I have previous worked for National Grid. For 1 year. The job was somewhat similar; I worked for the accounting department as receptionist.

15. What do you see as your future with this company? If you plan on changing jobs, what will you do?
 I would like to stay at HHC and one day hopefully become Assistant Director of the Volunteer Department.
16.Do you enjoy the kind of work you do? Why or why not?
Yes, I enjoy my job because there are many different features to my job which make it interesting and helping the public is a plus.

17. How has having an intern helped your company or organization?
Yes, the interns help various departments throughout the hospital. The hospital is always seeking individual such as intern to aid in the everyday more of their department. The intern can help administration with clerical work or work with a nurse and helping the patients. Each intern plays an important role in aiding the hospital function.

18. What advice would you give to teenage interns (such as myself) getting ready for college?
Try not to get overwhelmed by picking the top rated college pick a college you are interested in! And study, study for those SAT's!!! Remember to look and apply for any scholarships.
 
19. What advice would you give to teenage interns (such as myself) preparing to find a career in the real world?
The best advice I can give you is try and pick a major in a field you are interests you that way you’ll be content with your job. And always try to your best… your hard work will pay off!

Midpoint Reflection

The internship has been kind of the same as my expectations and some are different. I has worked in a small place and work with the telephone and printer. The differences are I don't need to use computer and I can see the babies in the pediatric clinic. That's out of my expectation. I have grown as a result of interacting with professional adults, I almost like the little assistant to help my co-workers. I work with them and the feeling as I am a adult. In my internship site, I have learned the new skills that i think can apply at other jobs are communication with the phone, and organized patients' information. I think these skills can become a office lady. I have improved my English since beginning internship because everyday I would call different patients and sometimes learn the new things from my co-workers. I also gain my solved question skills, endurance and patience so far. When the patients have questions, you should know how to solved it in the correct way and patiently listen to them.

The altered schedule have affected me. Everyday only has 2 regular classes and after the internship, I got very tired and still need to do the homework. This period is more hard and challenging for me. I can't study or do homework on my internship way and home way because I only take 15-25 minutes bus to the place. I always sleep one hour after the internship and then get my homework done. And also teachers are extending our homework or assignment time. That's very helpful.

There are six weeks of internship left. I hope I can learn not only make phone call and make the copies, but also other new abilities and skills in my internship site. For example to use the computer to help the patient re-schedule and help the new patients make cards that they can use that card to make the appointments and check up.

My co-workers are very take care of me. At the beginning, our relationship like boss and employee, then as friends. Right now, they love me as their daughters. I am so lucky can work with them. The challenges I have also are talk to the patients on the phone. Our patients are from different countries and not good at speaking English. Sometimes I really want to use body language to show them. That can make them easier to understand what I say. I have a good idea to overcome this problem is slowly to tell them our hospital's name,  room number, time of the appointment and the name of the kids. (My internship site is in pediatric clinic.) The another challenge is how to pronounce patient's name and figure out the gender. I still need to find an useful way to overcome it.