For UNC Asheville alumni Noah Rice ‘21 and Judy Felipe De La Cruz ‘26, the Pre-Healthcare Professions Internship at the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) was a pivotal step toward careers in medicine. As paid summer interns, they gained real-world experience, hands-on training, and early exposure to patient care that helped clarify their professional paths and prepare them for the demands of medical school and clinical practice.
Noah Rice, who earned his B.S. in biology from UNC Asheville in May 2021, credits his experience with the Pre-Healthcare Professions Internship at MAHEC with solidifying his path to medical school. As one of 10 paid summer interns, the annual program provided him with the real-world experience, hands-on training, and academic credentials he needed to get into and excel in medical school. This May, he’ll receive his medical degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.
MAHEC interns learn more about the medical profession through experience and research, including shadowing physicians. Since Rice joined during the pandemic, which shut down many in-person visits, he mostly shadowed telehealth visits. During a visit with a family physician in a rural clinic in Hendersonville, he was inspired by the doctor’s personal approach to patient care.
“A lot of the visit was a conversation, getting to know the patient and what he was thinking and feeling,” he says. “I remember the patient getting visibly more comfortable and more relaxed. That, for me, exemplified why I wanted to go into medicine: that human connection, getting to know someone, being able to help in any way I can, and providing resources for them. I knew I was in the right place.”
As part of the internship, students design and lead an original organizational or community project. Drawing on his background in data analysis and qualitative research from UNC Asheville, Rice chose to address a real-world challenge that MAHEC clinicians were facing around vaping education. The project gave him exposure to clinical research and applied health communication, further preparing him for medical school.
“I got paired up with someone who helped introduce me to the basics of research and how clinical research might be conducted,” he says. “My experience with the program was amazing.”
Students encounter a wide range of clinical experiences during their internships, including working in dentistry, pharmacy, psychiatry, and internal medicine. The diversity of patient care helped illuminate the importance of remaining adaptable in clinical settings for former intern and UNC Asheville Biology major Judy Felipe De La Cruz.
“A doctor I shadowed was trying to learn Spanish to speak with the Hispanic community,” she recalls. “I thought that was very impactful. Even though he’s older, he’s still trying and wants to learn new forms of how to treat patients and communicate with them.” She also learned practical skills, like how to navigate a patient portal, and was able to attend a pediatric surgery course.
Director of UNC Asheville’s Pre-Health Professions Program and Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Amanda Maxwell, not only graduated from UNC Asheville, but she also benefited from an internship at MAHEC. Like Rice and De La Cruz, Maxwell was inspired to pursue a career in the medical field because of her experience seeing MAHEC doctors build relationships with patients and the impact it had on their care.
MAHEC’s Program Administrator of WCU Health Professions Experiences and Undergraduate Internships at the Center for Health Professions Education, Steve Imig, says he’s continually impressed by the interns from UNC Asheville and how much effort Maxwell puts into supporting them. Imig says, “UNC Asheville students are well-prepared and able to step in to do great work for us, and in return, the MAHEC experience helps students to reach their career path goals.” And for Imig, that reciprocal impact is the greatest reward.
© 2026 UNC Asheville
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