MCH Junior Volunteers get introduction to health professions

Medical Center Hospital has been getting some extra help this summer from 56 junior volunteers.

They’re spread throughout the facility offering support in whatever way they can. They’ve also formed a community and learned leadership, responsibility and public speaking skills among other things.

Returners are Avi Mallik, president, and his brother, Ayushman Mallik, a college volunteer, Kanishk Yankarla, vice president, and Juan Campos, historian, and Miguel Campos, special events. The Campos brothers are twins.

Yankarla said he started with the volunteers initially because all his friends were there and his parents kind of forced him into it.

But it turned out he liked it. Yankarla, who attends Odessa High School, especially enjoys going into the physical therapy and rehabilitation area because he wants to be a physical therapist in the future.

“I really enjoyed it here and helping the people and also learning how the hospital works. It’s really interesting,” Yankarla said.

OHS student Avi Mallik said he has enjoyed the community they have built with the volunteers. They gather twice a day to team build by playing games like Concentration and one where someone in the middle of the circle tries to figure out who has a coin.

In Concentration, one person picks a category and everyone tries to offer answers in that category. If someone can’t think of something, they’re out.

Ayushman Mallik is attending Case Western University where he is studying business management, but he is also pre-med.

Ayushman, in his third year as a volunteer, said he also enjoys the community of volunteers they have built and he’s met a lot of new friends.

He added that he likes helping patients, visitors and nurses.

Miguel and Juan have been giving of their time for two years. They both attend Odessa Collegiate Academy.

Juan said he likes how he sees something new and different every day.

“I like how it’s not like every other regular workplace because at any other regular workplace it’s like the same cycle over and over again. Here at the hospital, again, I’m on different floors, different areas of the hospital and actually I feel like I’m making a difference in the community by helping out,” Juan said.

He added that he’s also learned how to step out of his comfort zone. When he started last year, he was anxious about checking on patients and seeing if they needed water, for example.

“I would stand out the door to just like hyping myself up like it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be OK,” Juan said.

Now it’s better and he feels more at ease.

Juan said he would like to pursue engineering, but he has enjoyed acquiring leadership and social skills.

Miguel wants to go into medicine.

“I’ve already seen some procedures (such as a C-section),” Miguel said.

Like a small community. Everyone knows everyone.

Volunteer Coordinator Adina Crain said part of what the Junior Volunteer officers do is bring in the shy kids and the new kids.

“That’s a big part of this group to really make the community,” Crain said.

She has 32 brand-new volunteers and 24 who came back.

At this point everyone knows what they’re doing.

“The majority really do. We’ve had two or three that have just started in July. … We’ve got several with probably over 100 hours this summer, but there’s also some with 20 hours or less. If they don’t put the effort into it like these guys do, they don’t get as much out of it,” Crain said.

She added that it’s amazing to see the growth of the students.

Avi Mallik said working in the hospital forces you to do things you might not normally be comfortable with. For example, if you’re on a nursing floor and you have to interact with patients.

“You have to learn how to talk to them. Also, we have greeters so people will sit at the entrances. That one was a big help for me because we’re having to talk to everyone who comes in. Doing things like that really helped me,” Avi Mallik said.

Juan and Miguel Campos said they have become more sociable, too.

The twins have also found it helps in their school work.

All the volunteers would recommend the experience to anybody, regardless of whether they wanted to pursue medicine.

“I think a lot of people applying, they only have a focus on like medicine,” Yankarla said. “It’s open to anybody. If you wanted to go into engineering, you could do stuff with medicine and engineering, but like you still pick up a lot of skills that colleges would look at. … You get a lot of life skills.”

Crain said there are other non-medical departments people can work in like marketing, IT, accounting and finance.

Avi Mallik said the program overall offers a wide variety of skills and experiences. You can learn about the job application process, including interviews, which will help in the future.

“Then obviously when you get here, you learn all the social things, while also learning medical and communication skills. Then for me, I think public speaking also, for all of us officers, because we had to give a speech. So I know what it’s like to go up in front of a crowd and speak in front of them,” Avi Mallik added.

Miguel Campos said it also prepares for a field of work.

“It gives people an experience on what the workforce could be like, as well as if some people don’t know what they want to do in the future, the hospital gives them an idea of what they want to pursue,” Miguel Campos said.

He added that some of the nurses were junior volunteers before going to work at MCH.

Yankarla said it also teaches kids responsibility.

“Without this program a kid our age really wouldn’t want to go help someone like that, but they’re two amazing role models over there serving the community,” he said of Juan and Miguel Campos who had gone to help a visually impaired man.