Summer Internship Program

Arlington Free Clinic’s summer internship program offers a unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact while gaining real-world experience in a nonprofit healthcare environment. The 10-week program starts in early June and ends in mid-August. Interns support our mission across a variety of roles, including clinical care, finance, and fundraising. Clinical internships are a great fit for pre-med students, providing hands-on experience in a community health setting. Spanish fluency is required for Clinical Interns so they may communicate directly with patients.

The application process opens in early January and typically concludes by mid-February. Interviews are conducted in February, and final candidates are notified in mid-March.

Our 2026 summer internship application window has officially closed. 

I had the amazing opportunity to be a clinical intern, and it was such a unique and rewarding experience. I got to help out in a few different areas like translating for patients, working in the pharmacy, and making phone calls. Each of those roles is so important to keeping everything running smoothly, and I loved being part of it. What made it even better was the atmosphere. Everyone here is so welcoming and willing to help. It’s the kind of place where you can really learn, ask questions, and feel supported every step of the way.

I’m incredibly grateful for the chance to be part of this team and to gain hands-on experience in such a caring environment. It’s an experience I’ll carry with me moving forward, and I truly appreciate everything I’ve learned along the way.

This summer, I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to the Arlington Free Clinic across a number of meaningful capacities. I’ve interpreted for optometry visits and called patients about upcoming appointments, allowing me to exercise my Spanish skills to support the clinic. On one of my favorite days this summer, I oversaw the front of the pharmacy where I distributed medications, provided education, and processed requests for medicine refills.

A significant project throughout my summer involved supporting the diabetes focus group program, which aims to understand how sustained, comprehensive care to diabetes patients might enhance their health outcomes. To aid this effort, I updated the focus group tracker with data including A1C levels, vaccine compliance, and primary care appointments. I also created graphs to visualize the clinical data, enabling my mentor Alba to better judge the progress of the patients and thus the effectiveness of the program.

In a world plagued by an acute lack of compassion, the work of the AFC represents a refreshing and much-needed antidote. From providing attentive medical care to simply making patients feel welcome, I have been consistently inspired by the clinic’s staff and volunteers — individuals driven by integrity, empathy, and the humanitarian responsibility to care for our neighbors regardless of their means or background. It has been my privilege to observe and learn from such kind and decent people.

This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to intern in the Women’s Health Department at Arlington Free Clinic. As a Women’s Health Intern, I worked closely with providers during GYN visits, gaining hands-on exposure to Pap smear procedures while simultaneously developing my medical terminology in both English and Spanish. I regularly translated for patients during clinical encounters, allowing me to support clear communication between providers and Spanish-speaking patients and help bridge the language barriers.

My responsibilities also included making mammogram reminder calls, helping patients schedule appointments, and directly communicating test results such as Pap smears and mammograms to patients. Over time, I became a familiar and trusted presence to the patients and doctors I saw repeatedly, which made the experience even more rewarding.

One of the highlights of my internship was helping coordinate a cancer survivorship event for current cancer patients and survivors. Alongside the GYN team, we successfully organized the event to bring patients together in a supportive, uplifting space to make them feel seen, heard, and encouraged to continue pushing forward in their healing journeys. I delivered a presentation focused on the importance of skincare and mental health, two areas often overlooked in conversations around cancer recovery. Witnessing patients engage, smile, and connect during the event was deeply moving, it was by far my favorite part of the internship.

My time at AFC gave me invaluable exposure to women’s health care, strengthened my cultural competence, and deepened my passion for community-focused medicine. I am grateful to the entire AFC team for their mentorship and for allowing me to be a part of such meaningful work. A very special thank you to Kate, Andrea, and Jenny for their constant support and guidance throughout this experience. This internship was truly a wonderful and unforgettable experience.

This summer I had the opportunity to work as the Community Resource Navigator intern for AFC. I learned about the many non-medical resources that are available in Arlington county, but sometimes unknown by the community living in it. This summer I was able to connect many patients experiencing food, housing, employment, transportation insecurity, and more with the necessary resources. I was able to contact all patients that were on the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) referral list after their screenings demonstrated insecurities in different areas. Either through making phone calls or meeting them in-person. In many cases, these were other organizations that have similar visions and missions: helping the community of Arlington live a healthy life. Over the course of my internship, I also got the opportunity to visit some of these sites in-person. It was a great experience getting to meet people from different areas of expertise, sharing what we do, and learning from each other. Similarly, I attended different outreach events including presentations and tabling events. While sharing information about AFC and its services, I also get the chance to learn and connect with other organizations and potentially refer our patients to them and vice versa.

This was no doubt an incredible and enriching experience that has come to be extremely rewarding. I am grateful to have been a part of AFC and its growing, direct impact on the Arlington community.

This summer, I had the amazing opportunity to work with AFC’s Development team as the Development Intern! In this role, I was able to contribute to the planning of the AFC 2025 Benefit Gala through soliciting silent auction items, prepping donor letters and materials, and creating/maintaining spreadsheets to track Gala progress and information. In addition, I had the opportunity to attend weekly staff meetings, work extensively with donor management software, and contribute to the creation of promotional material for AFC.

Being an intern at AFC allowed me to gain hands-on experience in non-profit development and get a true glimpse into the amount of hard work that goes into development and fundraising efforts. Working under the mentorship of Naimah Jamal, AFC’s Events Manager, allowed me to see this firsthand, as I was constantly amazed by how much passion and dedication she had while preparing for the Gala. I was also able to experience the dedication of the entire Development team, who not only worked incredibly hard in their own roles, but were always eager to help and work with one another. Being a part of this team and their dynamic was an incredibly welcoming and inspirational experience.

I am so grateful for my time at AFC. Not only was I able to gain experience that has prepared me for my future, but I was able to spend my summer as a part of the AFC family. I will miss it so much!

Sylvia Cope is a sophomore at George Mason University working towards a business degree with a concentration in accounting. She enjoys reading, crocheting, baking and traveling. In her internship this summer Sylvia is most looking forward to learning and practicing her accounting skills while contributing to AFCs efforts to help the community.

This summer, I had the opportunity to be the Women’s Health Intern at AFC. My roles included translating GYN or primary care medical appointments, doing clinic intake, making mammogram reminder/appointment calls, and making 6 flyers about women’s health for GYN patients. My favorite part of internship was translating GYN clinics. I enjoyed meeting the GYN providers and making a difference in a patient’s day. Overtime, the patients started to recognize me, which was amazing.

I also worked with AFC’s ongoing research project with Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown called CONTIGO. They are doing research on how to best educate Latina women on breast and ovarian cancer. At Georgetown, I was able to interview participants and analyze interviews (the data). At AFC, I helped screen patients to recruit them to the study. It was amazing to be able to talk to AFC patients at AFC and through the study. I will be able to contribute to the final paper this fall, which will be incredible!

Being the women’s health intern gave me the opportunity to connect with patients, learn about the direct GYN problems the Hispanic community faces, and improve my public health research skills. A special thank you to Kate N., Kate S., and all the AFC nurses for making this experience possible. I will hold this experience closely as I apply to a masters in public health followed by medical school.

This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to serve as a Clinical Intern at AFC, where I was inspired by a team that consistently prioritizes patient care. During my time at the clinic, I engaged in various tasks, such as making phone calls to inform patients about pharmacy closures, upcoming appointments, and testing events. I also created a flier that successfully promoted a Chagas testing event and collaborated with a team to brainstorm and plan a potential nutrition and diabetes education event. It was rewarding to apply the program planning skills I've gained from my Public Health education in a real-world setting. 

One of the highlights of my summer was interpreting for our Move to Health classes. In one memorable class, Virginia Cooperative Extension visited, and I had the opportunity to cook alongside the instructor while interpreting for our participants. This experience, along with interpreting for clinics with providers of various specialties from cardiology to primary care, allowed me to practice and refine my medical Spanish skills. 

I'm incredibly grateful to have been part of AFC's family this summer and to have worked with such amazing mentors who made me feel immediately welcomed. My time at AFC truly affirmed my passion for the medical field and patient care. 

This summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to work directly with AFC as the Development and Events Intern. I completed a variety of tasks that deepened my knowledge of the non-profit health sector. I created, organized, and maintainedspreadsheets to track the Annual Benefit Gala, attended weekly staff meetings, promoted community involvement with AFC, and reached out to local businesses to encourage donations. It was such a fantastic experience to see firsthand how much hard work goes into running the Clinic and how impactful AFC is in my hometown community. I worked closely with Naimah Jamal, the Events Manager, and I'm very grateful for her help and mentorship during my time at AFC. The Clinic fosters a tight-knit community of staff, volunteers, and patients, and it was incredibly rewarding to be part of such a dedicated team this summer. 

Expanding my work as a Move to Health Coach by becoming the Move to Health Intern has been an incredible opportunity. As a coach, I already loved the program and all it stood for, but becoming an intern opened my eyes to the countless resources the program has. 

My focus was increasing class participation and organizing the program's resources. I called every patient who had been referred to the program.  This allowed me to understand their individual needs as well as provide valuable insights into how we could enhance the program's impact.  

I'm most proud of my "Advice for Healthy Living" pamphlet that I created for the patients and my "How To" document for the MTH volunteers. I hope the patients can take the lessons from class to their daily lives and that coaches can build on the strong foundation.  

I'm immensely grateful to my remarkable mentors, Irene and Surekha, whose unwavering support and guidance have been instrumental in my internship. Working with patients of different backgrounds and medical conditions allowed me to enhance my cultural competence and medical background. The vibrant and enthusiastic presence of the entire clinic team brightened each day making it fun to come to work every day. I can't wait to get back to AFC and see the MTH program continue to grow! 

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to intern and work with the women's health department at AFC. One of my tasks was scheduling patients for mammogram appointments at the Virginia Hospital Center. This allowed me to learn more about EPIC (the electronic health record system), the process of performing and analyzing mammograms, and the importance of cancer screenings. I also worked closely with Luisa to schedule and run gynecology clinics. During these clinics I served as an interpreter and was able to form connections with both patients and providers while also improving my Spanish and learning new medical terms. A highlight of my internship was interpreting during our July "Pap-a-thon" that provided pap smears to 22 patients in one clinic. I admire how much love and care AFC staff members show to every patient despite having limited resources and appointments to offer. This experience has broadened my clinical knowledge beyond what I imagined and I am so grateful for all I have learned. AFC is truly a family and I am happy I was able to spend my summer being a part of it. 

I had the pleasure of interning this summer with the Development team at the Arlington Free Clinic. I played a large role with assisting the Annual Benefit Gala which included solicitingauction items, creating an auction catalogue, producing a donor analysis on previous gala’s, creating and posting social media posts, attending weekly staff meetings, and communicating and organizing donor information. This experience has been incredibly rewarding seeing all the hard work being done here for the clinic and its patients. There is a strong sense of community here between the staff, volunteers, donors, and patients by seeing all great things being done for the greater good of Arlington Virginia. Not only did I get to work and see behind the scenes at a non-profit, but I was able to give back to my community as well.

Mateo Cardinale is a lifelong resident of Arlington. He attended Arlington Public Schools and graduated from Arlington Tech. Mateo is a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech, studying Business Information Systems. He enjoys playing baseball, traveling, cooking, and spending time with his family and pets

Maribel Gomez is originally from Guatemala. She is working on getting her Associate's Degree in Nursing through NOVA. She is excited to work as a clinical intern this summer. In her free time, Maribel enjoys spending time with her friends.