Every summer, HRSA [Health Resources and Services Administration] offices at Parklawn benefit from the energy and presence of several young Hispanics, brought to the building through the national intern program of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).

During the summer of 2006, HRSA welcomed five HACU interns, a small slice of the 400 HACU interns who were placed in internships throughout the federal government and private corporations.

For the past 12 years, Dario Prieto of HRSA’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights has recruited Hispanic students through the HACU internship program and placed them in summer jobs throughout the agency. During Prieto’s years of managing the intern program at HRSA, the agency has hosted about 60 HACU students.

The HACU internships are structured to give Hispanic students an opportunity to work with federal agencies and corporations seeking to increase diversity in their workforce. “Hispanic Americans are underrepresented in every health profession and in the federal workforce,” says Prieto.

Agencies benefit from HACU internships by increasing the size of their pool of prospective hires. “HACU interns are well-qualified college students who contribute valuable work as interns and who can later be converted to full-time employees,” Prieto says.

Melanie Bujanda, M.P.H., is one such former HACU intern. She joined HRSA as an intern this summer in the Office of Planning and Evaluation and then transitioned into the HRSA Scholar class of 2006.

“I knew from the very beginning of my internship that working for HRSA would be a positive way to contribute to society,” Bujanda said. “Minority groups face huge disparities in accessing healthcare, and I hope to be part of a group that changes that.”

Former HACU intern Angel Seinos, now a project officer in HRSA’s National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, also felt a calling to help underserved Americans.

During his internship in 2000 in the Bureau of Primary Health Care, Seinos worked on a behavioral survey in two migrant farmworker camps.

“I collected data from 48 migrant farmworkers and used Statistical Analysis software to analyze the information,” Seinos explains. “The analysis was used later to create a scope of work for a HRSA-funded HIV prevention program for migrant workers.”

Prieto says he feels great satisfaction in seeing his former interns land permanent jobs at HRSA.

“As the Hispanic population increases, their education and health care needs increase as well,” he says. “These interns are contributing to the way HRSA will provide services and expand access to health care to our community in the future. That’s what motivates my commitment to the HACU program.”

About HHS-HRSA:

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.

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