From Intern to Med Student: The Impact of the Summer Youth Employment Program
Getting accepted to medical school is not easy for anyone. But where does the journey start for someone who is the first in their family to attend college?
For Bryan Crase, his journey began with one pivotal decision: to apply for an internship through the Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Summer Youth Employment Program run by Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families.
The Summer Youth Employment Program hires Columbus-area residents between the ages of 16 and 21 for paid internships with the hospital. Participants are matched with a Nationwide Children’s department based on their interests and available roles. The internships, lasting four to eight weeks, aren’t exclusively medical in nature.
Wendy Williamson, Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families youth engagement development coach and director of the program, says, “No matter what you want to do, I bet we have a spot for you.”
With over 70 participating departments, students may end up helping unit aides in the hospital, working with engineering or assisting in the dental clinic.
Bryan was part of the first class of interns in the summer of 2021. He had spent the pandemic working at Sage Park, a memory and assisted care facility in Gahanna. The experience affected him deeply and inspired him to pursue a career in health care. When his high school shared information about the hospital’s new internship program, he applied immediately.
Bryan began his internship in June. He was placed with the Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Department’s administrative team and trained by Ally Sibbalds, ENT Admin Lead. Bryan was tasked with completing prior authorizations for surgeries, which involves paperwork, research and calling insurance companies to ensure patients’ procedures would be covered.
“It wasn’t super action-packed, but the work was really important,” Bryan said.
It gave him a unique insight into health insurance and reduced the burden on his new colleagues.
“It felt good – I knew I was making everyone’s lives there a little easier,” Bryan said.
The Summer Youth Employment Program has engaged with over 300 participants over the past four years, and about 30 previous interns now work at Nationwide Children’s.
Today, Bryan is a patient care assistant on the hospital burn unit and works at the Stottmann Lab, where he researches brain development. He balances work with his education at The Ohio State University, where he studies molecular and cellular neuroscience. He will graduate this year and has been accepted to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
For Bryan, his accomplishments at Nationwide Children’s and his acceptance into medical school are all directly tied to his internship in 2021.
While working on medical prior authorizations “wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, it led to greater things,” Bryan said. “It gave me a foot in the door to the hospital. Having Nationwide Children’s on my resume and having someone internal vouch for me was invaluable.”
He says his work with the hospital – particularly the Stottmann Lab – was a major factor in his acceptance to the University of Cincinnati.
As he wrote in a letter to Wendy Williamson, his internship “was a MAJOR stepping stone” and truly changed the trajectory of his life.
Published November 2025
