Kenzie Tate, a Rockingham County High School graduate and current senior at Appalachian State University, has been a summer intern at UNC Health Rockingham as a part of the Golden LEAF Rural Internship Initiative. Tate has rotated through multiple clinical departments at UNC Health Rockingham to increase her familiarity with the hospital inpatient setting. To improve her skills in her degree area – speech-language pathology and audiology – Tate spent intensive periods at the UNC Rockingham Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center and with the UNC Rockingham Rehabilitation Therapy team.

“My time at UNC Health Rockingham through the Golden LEAF Rural Internship Initiative has provided me with opportunities to gain experience and observe exactly how rehabilitation therapy works for both inpatient and outpatient settings,” said Tate. “I have been able to see different therapies in action that I have not experienced before, and now I am more open to how I can implement these techniques in the future.”  

The Golden LEAF Rural Internship Initiative provides eligible Golden LEAF Scholarship recipients with professional work experience related to their career field in a rural North Carolina community. As an internship site, UNC Health Rockingham has provided Tate and other Golden LEAF Scholars with opportunities to explore rural medicine and a future career in health care. Tate shared that the Golden LEAF Rural Internship Initiative has allowed her to explore new opportunities and grow her interest in rural health.

“Offering opportunities for our local students, like Kenzie, and work alongside our rural health care professionals in specialized fields is one of the greatest tools that we can use to keep care local,” said Dr. Thresa Hardy, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Operating Officer at UNC Health Rockingham. “We hope that students in the Golden LEAF Scholarship program will continue to grow their skills and then return to serve their home communities and those families who already know and trust them.”

As a high school senior, Tate interned with a speech therapist in the public school system and began exploring her own career aspirations in health care. While at Appalachian State University, she has been a member of the Speech-Language Hearing Association for the last two years and will be the incoming president for the 2025-2026 school year. Tate’s time spent at UNC Health Rockingham has helped her reaffirm that she wants to expand her speech-language pathology knowledge with a focus on pediatrics. She plans to apply for graduate school soon and is exploring programs at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Appalachian State University or East Tennessee State University.