Please give a brief background on yourself and your career.
My name is Cayla Vila and I graduated from Wellesley in 2015 with majors in neuroscience and Spanish. At Wellesley I was involved in Freestyle and Blue Cancer Society/Relay for Life, and loved spending time outside on campus. I’m currently spending one year as an AmeriCorps Community HealthCorps member in New York City, serving at a large non-profit community health center. AmeriCorps is a federal service program that works with host organizations ranging from community health centers to foster care services, and more. I serve as a Health Risk Management and Education Coach in the Center for Counseling of my clinic, meaning that I provide care management services to our mental health patients.
How has your career changed since you originally envisioned it at Wellesley? What other careers did you consider as a student?
At Wellesley I was pre-med, and I’m planning on beginning medical school at the end of my service year next summer. So my career goal of becoming a physician has remained the same, but I had no idea that I would do AmeriCorps! Once I figured out that I wanted to take time off before medical school, I thought about doing some international public health work, but found that AmeriCorps was a better fit for me. As a student, I also considered a career in public health, which I still hope to incorporate into my medical career.
How has Wellesley contributed to your career?
Although everything that I’m doing now in my position is entirely new to me, Wellesley taught me a lot of transferable skills that have been very useful as an AmeriCorps member. First and foremost, I’m working with people all day, whether it be patients or colleagues, so good communication skills and teamwork are very important. I think my experiences in organizations and classes at Wellesley gave me a great foundation from which to further develop those skills. Secondly, time management and flexibility are key!! Similar to being a student, I have a lot of things on my plate. But having to juggle lots of assignments, responsibilities, and relationships at Wellesley has really prepared me to take a head-on approach to managing all of the things I have to get done.
As for help in finding this position, I learned of AmeriCorps thanks to the CWS and, randomly enough, a Neuroscience 300 class assignment!
What is a typical work day or work week like for you?
My typical work day consists of scheduling appointments, making outreach phone calls, and doing field visits to try to re-engage patients in care and meet them where they are in life. I also spend considerable time coordinating with outside agencies for services related to housing, job placement, food stamps and public assistance, and consulting other medical and mental health providers. Each day looks very different depending on who walks through the door. I love having to work on my toes!
What piece of advice would you offer students looking to get into your area of interest and expertise?
For any students interested in a career in medicine, I think positions like these are amazing opportunities to see healthcare from the inside out, and to understand that a person’s health is more than a list of symptoms, but rather their relationships, mental health, and human needs as well. I would highly recommend spending time to experience these things before jumping into medical school.
For students interested in service or public health, I would say flexibility is key and look for roles that you can make your mark on so that you get the most out of the experience.
What do you wish you had known as a student?
I wish I believed people when they said that it’s okay to not have your life planned out, and that being a scrambling senior is fine! I think it’s important for students to know that opportunity often comes knocking when you least expect it, so every interaction and experience should be viewed as a potential opportunity to learn something and build meaningful relationships. More concretely, I wish I knew more about AmeriCorps and other service programs.
If you could come back and take one class at Wellesley what would it be?
If I could come back to Wellesley, I would take a religion class. I always wanted to take classes in that department, but never had time due to my hectic schedule. It’s hard in the “real world” to take the time to study things that you’re interested in or curious about, so that would be awesome.