It takes a lot of people to run a hospital, including a number of volunteers.
Covenant Health has a volunteer program just for high school students to help them jump start their careers in the medical field.
16-year-old Mia Cantu has big dreams.
“I want to be a pediatric trauma surgeon,” Cantu said. “I’ve always been interested in the medical field and it sounds like a really important field to go into because of how trauma is.”
She’s about to start her junior year at Idalou High School.
But before she hits the books, she’s working hard at the hospital.
“We do a lot of cleaning and we play with a lot of kids,” Cantu said.
Cantu is part of the Junior Volunteer Program at Covenant, a volunteering opportunity for high school students.
She helps child life specialist’s at Covenant Children’s Hospital.
“Since they’re out of school and our normal volunteers who are college students are gone, they supplement our program a little bit,” explained Nikki Blalock, a certified child life specialist who is in charge of the volunteering program.
Blalock says it’s a great way for these teens to learn what it takes to work in the hospital.
“It helps with personal skills that they’ll need later in life and gets their foot in the door into a medical career,” Blalock said.
A win win for volunteers like Cantu and the hospital.
“It’s a very good experience to have, especially for college resumes,” said Cantu.
“We only have so many hours in the day and so many needs that our patients have so they really are a huge part in helping make sure that each patients gets the best care that they need,” Blalock explained.
The program is very competitive and only a handful of people are accepted into the program at a time.
Covenant Health starts taking applications in the springtime.
