Summer vacation is a time to recharge, travel, and spend time with family; however, it gives a great opportunity to students to try something new, learn deeper, and be active in ways that are not possible during the school year. For many Tampa Catholic students, over the break, they found themselves getting involved with professional internship opportunities to broaden their horizons and jumpstart experience within their desired future career.
Grace Mendieta ‘27 was a cancer immunology research intern at Moffitt Cancer Center under the mentorship of Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas.
“During my internship, I observed and participated in harvesting T cells, assisted with flow cytometry sample preparation, recorded experimental data in laboratory notebooks, and attended lab meetings and research presentations discussing ongoing cancer immunology studies,” she said. “Working alongside researchers gave me firsthand exposure to the research process behind developing T-cell-based immunotherapies for cancer and reinforced my passion for pursuing a career in medicine and biomedical research.”
While Tampa Catholic’s Guidance Department lists many internship opportunities for students to apply for, this in-depth research internship was received by Grace taking action to reach out to doctors herself to get into the lab.
“This actually wasn’t an official internship program,” she shared. “I was really interested in cancer immunology research, so I reached out directly to researchers whose work I found interesting and asked if they would be willing to let me learn from their lab over the summer. In my email, I mentioned that I had taken AP Research and that my research project focused on vaccine hesitancy. Because my project explored immunology and public perceptions of vaccines, I explained that I was especially interested in the work being done in Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas’s lab. I emailed around 15 different labs, and Dr. Pilon-Thomas graciously offered me the opportunity to join her team at Moffitt Cancer Center.”
Her summer internship is a testament to how Crusader students are steadfast in their passions and pursue excellence at every opportunity; taking their futures into their own hands!
Like Grace, many others took time to professionally develop as soon-to-be college students. Sofia Do Espirito Santo ‘27 was active in two internships this summer; one at the Community Food Pantry and the other in St. Joseph Hospital’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.
Sofia greatly enjoys the ministry work that came with interning at the food pantry, and will continue working with them through the academic year.
“This commitment consists of directly serving our underprivileged friends in the [food-pickup] carline on the weekend, organizing and managing pantry inventory on weekdays, and preparing strategies and plans to best help the pantry’s dependents,” she said. “I have the rest of the year to spend with this amazing organization!”
Through the Medical Pathfinders club at TC, Sofia was recommended for a volunteering internship in the Baycare Healthcare system, specifically at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
I have shifts every week, and I am stationed in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, or CCT4,” she said. “I am exposed to nurses, doctors, technicians, and physicians, and I get to join them in a day in their life, learning loads about the medical field and patient care in general.”
Sara Gonzalez ‘27 also worked at Community Food Pantry over the summer.
“My job is usually checking in people receiving food on the system with the iPads,” she said. “If not on iPad duty, they have a job for me somewhere else; whether it’s making sure the meat and deli is properly packaged, or even translating for others. On the days we don’t distribute food, we prepare the food for future distribution days.”
Many other students excelled through service-based opportunities within the Tampa community.
Andrea Doe ‘27 had a paid internship last summer with Rebuild Tampa and got into the program again for this year as a mentee.
“I work at the Dream Center of Tampa with the Elementary Day Program. I mostly work with them for art,” she said.
Bryce Doyle ‘27 followed in the footsteps of his older siblings to be a counselor at the YMCA camp. All summer long, he served the youth through outdoor adventure.
“I worked with Waterfront, so I took kids out on a lake where they fished and rode canoes and kayaks,” he said. “It was a lot of fun and definitely a maturing experience for me as I kept them safe and happy all day.”
Junior, Yael Arroyo ‘28, also lended his services to the YMCA towards an enriching experience this summer in the Family Programming Center.
Tampa Catholic High School is incredibly proud of the work these students did to grow professionally, spiritually, and academically. The initiative shown gives light to the great leaps and bounds Catholic education makes towards the confidence of students to go out into the world and discover their passions and strive for excellence.