From HCC intern to health workforce leader, preceptor, and champion for the next generation.
Stephanie Huerta Alvarez first joined Health Career Connection as an intern in 2013. Today, she is helping create the same kinds of opportunities for the next generation.
Stephanie is now Manager of the Office of Health Career Pathways at the University of California, San Francisco Fresno regional campus, where she also serves as a Principal Investigator. She is an HCC alumna, longtime preceptor, and health workforce leader whose story reflects the lasting impact of early career exposure, mentorship, and professional networks.
An Internship That Expanded What Was Possible
Stephanie was part of HCC’s first cohort in the Salinas area and completed her internship at Hartnell College with Dr. Debra Kaczmer, Dean of Allied Health and Nursing.
As a college junior, she gained a behind-the-scenes view of how health training programs are developed. She participated in summer health pathway programming and supported preparations for an accreditation review as Hartnell established its Respiratory Care Practitioner program.
The experience also introduced her to mentors and peers who would remain part of her professional network long after the summer ended.
At the time, Stephanie says careers in public health were not widely discussed and her university did not offer a public health major. HCC exposed her to new possibilities and supported her as she navigated her early career.
After HCC, she worked in transfer admissions at UC Santa Cruz, moved into managed care, and eventually returned to the San Joaquin Valley to join UCSF.
She later earned her Master of Public Health from UC Berkeley in 2019. That experience helped prepare her for leadership roles at UCSF Fresno, first as Education Director at the Latino Center for Medical Education and Research and now as the founding department Manager of the Office of Health Career Pathways.
“A large part of my existing network can be attributed back to the connections, conferences and opportunities put on or shared by HCC,” Stephanie says.
From HCC Intern to HCC Preceptor
For Stephanie, becoming a preceptor was a natural way to continue the cycle of mentorship that had helped shape her own career.
She credits many of her accomplishments to mentors she met through pathway programs as a young person. When the opportunity arose to support HCC interns herself, she welcomed it.
Since then, Stephanie has helped make HCC internships an important part of her department’s summer programming. She has also secured additional grant funding to support HCC placements within the office.
This past summer, four members of her department served as HCC preceptors.
UCSF Fresno was one of the first organizations to host HCC interns in the San Joaquin Valley. Stephanie estimates that her office has hosted more than 30 interns, typically welcoming one to four each year. She has formally served as a preceptor for about five years and has worked closely with HCC interns since joining UCSF in 2016.
Building Talent, Not Just Completing Projects
Stephanie’s own experience as an intern shapes how she mentors students today.
Rather than simply assigning interns projects that need extra support, she tries to expose them to the full scope of her department’s work. Interns contribute to targeted projects while also learning from colleagues across the team.
“A lot of what I design for the programs I lead, and the interns I have, is what I wish I had experienced as a young professional,” she says.
That approach benefits both the intern and the organization.
Stephanie says HCC interns arrive well prepared, competitive, and connected to the communities her team serves. She also values the support HCC provides throughout the internship experience, which makes it easier for host organizations to focus on mentorship and meaningful work.
When positions become available, she often looks to the HCC network first.
Stephanie has successfully hired multiple former HCC interns after their participation in the program.
The Value Continues Beyond the Summer
For Stephanie, one of the most important aspects of the HCC model is that support does not end when the internship concludes.
As an alumna, she has continued to participate in professional development opportunities offered through HCC. She says resources shared by HCC have supported her as she pursued new roles, earned promotions, and negotiated opportunities throughout her career.
Now, she is helping create that same continuity for others.
“The most rewarding part is the little wins along their journey,” she says. “I always hope our internship placement was a pivotal experience in their career or at least an experience that helps them open the door to their next opportunity.”
Opening the Door for the Next Generation
Stephanie believes established health professionals have an important role to play in creating opportunities for emerging talent.
“It usually takes one person to open the door in an organization for experiential learning, so why not those that have positively benefited from the experience,” she says.
For organizations, that can mean hosting an intern, connecting HCC to another potential partner, or incorporating HCC placements into broader workforce development efforts. Stephanie also notes that organizations pursuing grant funding may be able to strengthen workforce development proposals through partnerships that create meaningful experiential learning opportunities.
Her own journey demonstrates what can happen when those doors are opened.
What began as one internship in Salinas helped Stephanie build a professional network, discover new career possibilities, advance into health workforce leadership, and ultimately create opportunities for dozens of emerging professionals after her.
Her advice to today’s HCC interns is simple:
“Trust the process.”
Stephanie remembers that her own placement process felt uncertain at first. Looking back, she says it became exactly the experience she needed at that stage of her growth.
“You get what you put in and don’t burn a bridge because you never know when the people you meet along the way may be the person sitting in the interview room making the decision to hire you next,” she says. “It is a very small world.”
For HCC alumni and health organizations alike, Stephanie’s story is also a reminder of the long term value of investing in emerging talent. One internship can create an opportunity today and help build the health workforce for years to come.
Interested in helping develop the next generation of health leaders? Learn more about partnering with Health Career Connection and hosting HCC interns by reaching out to us at partner@healthcareerconnection.org.
