Summer Intern Joshua Wilson shares experience on virtual program

When Joshua (Josh) Wilson began his internship with us nearly three weeks ago, he never could have expected the real-life experience he’d gain virtually. He’s continuing to create his own career path, even amid a global pandemic.

For the first time since its creation more than 10 years ago, our company’s summer internship program is 100 percent virtual. Despite the pandemic, we are continuing our commitment to early career talent programs.

For Josh, working from home has been a positive experience. He’s grateful that we’ve made it work despite the unusual circumstances.

“I was fairly excited to be in an office setting,” he said. “But three weeks into it, I’ve found what keeps me productive and how I need to keep my workspace – which are all great lessons to learn.”

It also helps that Josh, a biology undergraduate student at NC State University, spent the last month of his spring semester doing online learning. His online classes helped him prepare for the transition.

This summer, he’s working in Healthcare Development. There he’s learning how to implement healthcare plans alongside the strategy team and other key stakeholders.

“Just three weeks into my time here, it’s been an amazing experience to see how a new healthcare program is brought into fruition.”

Josh’s main project for the summer is to strengthen the collaboration process between Healthcare Strategy and Development. This is important to our work. We leverage this process to implement new healthcare programs across many divisions in our company.

“There is a certain framework and template used that I’m working to make more inclusive to the entire enterprise,” he said. “That way, everyone throughout the company could pick it up and understand our goal.”

In addition to the exciting project work, Josh says he knew he wanted to join us for the summer after meeting his two supervisors during the interview process.

“They made me feel welcomed the moment I got here,” he said. “The welcoming environment ensured that this is a great place to work.”

With seven weeks left in the program, Josh is excited to take advantage of every moment. He looks forward to finding additional ways to get involved in development & project work.

“This is not your typical internship program with busywork,” he said. “With my team, I see that I can meaningfully contribute and have my voice heard, even in important decision-making conversations.”

He said that’s not the only thing that excites him about Blue Cross NC. He also wasn’t expecting so many jobs and specialties in addition to the critical business of paying claims and delivering health insurance.

“We’re so much more than a health insurance company!” he said. “We have such a focus on community relations, data and analytics, marketing and more.”

What’s next for Josh? He graduates this coming December with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He’s considering going to medical school to become a pediatrician. But he’s also highly interested in public health policy. For now, he’s excited to spend the rest of the summer at Blue!

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