Page 36 - Christiana Care Focus

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Project SEARCH interns graduate,
look forward to bright horizons
“I dare each of you to focus on your amazing abilities, your talents and all your newly learned skills,” said Kurfuerst, “to do great things
after today, each and every day, even if they’re really hard. Great things happen when we do the things we absolutely Cthink we cannot do.”
hristiana Care caregivers say they benefit from Project SEARCH
just as much as the program participants.
“It’s not only about the op- portunity to bring in people who may not get a chance to work in places because they
don’t operate the way everyone else does,” said Pamela Ridgeway, MBA,
MA, SPHR, vice president of talent and inclusion. “What we get back is amazing. We will see our units and our departments start to grow within themselves because they’re able to learn a little bit differently than they did before.”
In connection with Christiana Care, Project SEARCH partners include Red Clay Consolidated School District, Delaware Department of Education, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Community Integrated Services, Autism Delaware and POW&R (Productive Opportunities for Work & Recreation).
AstraZeneca recently provided Project SEARCH, Christiana Care with a $2,000 donation toward the career development of the program’s interns. AstraZeneca staff worked with the interns on interviewing skills.
Eleven interns graduated in the Project SEARCH Class of 2019 and 73 interns have gone through Project SEARCH since the program began in 2011. 
“I dare each of you to focus on your amazing abilities...”
Anthony Calandra is looking forward to his new job at the information desk at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute.
Project SEARCH is a nine- month internship program for individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities. On June 3,
Christiana Care caregivers, mentors and families joined the members of the Class of 2019 for a year end celebration at the John H. Ammon Medical Education Center.
“My favorite part of the whole year was definitely meeting new people,” said Calandra. “I know I’m a people person and if I have a job where I’m talking to people, that goes nicely with me.”
Calandra’s internship was split between the Cancer Center, Clinical Engineering and the Mail Room. Other Project SEARCH interns learned from caregivers in departments including Material Distribution and
Logistics, Environmental Services and Surgical Material Distribution.
“We look at preferred skills of the rotation site as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each intern,” said Takashi Rhoulac, Project SEARCH instructor and coordinator. “We match the participant with an internship that’s a strength,
but also an assignment that we hope strengthens one of their weaknesses.”
The participants highlighted that growth during their graduation speeches.
“I learned a lot about myself at each of my rotations,” said intern Benjamin Dix. “As
a patient escort, I learned how to respond appropriately to uncomfortable or difficult situations, which in the past I have tried to
Davoid.”
uring the year end celebration, Christiana Care’s chief operat- ing officer Sharon Kurfuerst, Ed.D., OTR/L, FAOTA, FACHE,
FABC, challenged the graduates to continue to commit to being exceptional today and even better tomorrow.
34 CHRISTIANA CARE HEALTH SYSTEM