Hutchison students receive real-life training
Since its inception in summer 2010, the Hutchison Leads internship program has experienced dramatic growth. For the past two years, girls have engaged in real-world career opportunities in locations as near as Downtown Memphis and as far away as Shanghai, China.
Working closely with knowledgeable mentors, many of whom are often leaders in their fields, the girls are supported and challenged each step of the way. While girls complete their internships during their senior year, they work on their applications with Hutchison Leads director Caroline Blatti during their junior year.
The semesterlong internship requirements include at least 40 hours of onsite work, regular meetings with a Hutchison mentor, and weekly written reflections of experiences — often maintained as an interactive blog. Internships culminate with a capstone
presentation delivered to a panel comprising Hutchison administrators, faculty and staff.
This year, the internship program has evolved to include a fellowship component that requires an 80-plus-hour commitment and the creation of a final project that ref lects each girl’s unique experience. Acceptance into the fellowship program, which is overseen by a faculty advisory committee, represents a significant milestone in a girl’s academic and leadership journey and results in an earned academic credit on her high school transcript.
Participation in the program has increased from 20 percent in 2010-11 to almost 50 percent of this year’s senior class.
Baptist Women’s Hospital has become an important partner in the program. This year, seniors Sophie Cox, Llewellyn Hall, Catherine Hayes, Wilson Helmhout, Caroline Hughes, Natalie Kuehn, Lucy Lancaster, Hannah Mims and Amelia Sims explored the diverse opportunities available at a major medical center designed especially for women, interacting with doctors and nurses in gynecology, labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care, pharmacy, postanesthesia care and surgery.
Fellow senior Rebecca Maury completed an internship in the spring with Dr. James Eason at Methodist University Hospital’s Transplant Institute. Rebecca joined doctors on rounds and attended presurgery strategy meetings. She was able to scrub in for liver and kidney transplant procedures. One of the most unique aspects of Rebecca’s internship was when she joined a transplant team on a flight to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for an organ harvest.
Wilson Helmhout’s dual fellowship at Baptist Women’s Hospital in Memphis and Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford reflects an extraordinary combination — the sensitive heart and head of a future doctor and the talent and grace of a gifted writer. In “The Art of Repair,” a memoir submitted as her final project, Helmhout shares her understanding of both the visceral nature of surgery and the profound responsibility that comes with a job that often places one at the intersection of life and death.
Through her fellowship at 4Memphis magazine and Downtown gallery Art Under a Hot Tin Roof, Bonner Williams harnessed her passion for photography and scholarship to create a canvas of beauty and vision, as well as her own new business.
Mary Elizabeth Kakales’ fellowship focused on education. Over the course of her fellowship, she worked in four unique schools: Collegiate School of Memphis, Cornerstone Preparatory School, Power Center Academy and Veritas College Preparatory Charter School.
Other placements proved equally exciting. Ellen Cohen took her talent and passion for the stage to the Orpheum, where she interned in the education program. At the same time, Somer Greene served under the vice president of operations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Memphis, researching and drafting grant proposals. Elizabeth Jones found her placement at Southwind Animal Hospital so rewarding that she plans pursue the study of veterinary science after graduation, and Alex Lenshau, who interned at Physiotherapy Associates, came to better understand the complex factors involved in physical therapy and rehabilitation by assisting injured athletes.
Kelley Guinn McArtor worked at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the international outreach department. The first high school student in the hospital’s history to serve in such a capacity, McArtor wrote, directed, and produced a video on skin cancer. Neely Leavell also blazed a new trail in media by becoming the first high school intern to work as a meteorological intern under WMC-TV meteorologist Ron Childers, and Shelby Black completed an internship at The Commercial Appeal.
Gracie Lee interned at Justine Magazine, a national publication for young women.
Hutchison Leads was established in 2010 through a generous gift from alumna Abbie Ware Williams ’89 and her husband, Duncan.
S teve O’Dell is community relations coordinator for Hutchison School.