Coming Full Circle

In the fall of 2019, Isabella Gillette, a student at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, began her internship with CHRISTUS Foundation for HealthCare. The Foundation has been fortunate to have an on-going partnership with the school with students working in various areas of the Foundation.

Gillette worked in the Foundation offices performing clerical duties, and eventually moved onto the larger task of making updates to the Foundation’s donor database.

Following her graduation in 2021, she began interning with the Mobile Clinics and started her studies toward her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. In July 2022, she was officially hired as full-time staff. “It all fell so perfectly into place,” Nancy Bocanegra, Mobile Clinics Supervisor. “She is able to help us with data entry through the State’s IMMTRACK system for tracking immunizations. We call her our IMMTRACK guru.”

Gillette starts her day at 7:30 a.m. helping with that day’s site preparations. At the location, she oversees forms and database entry. “My day ends around 4, and then I attend my college classes,” Gillette said. In addition to her full-time job, she is also a full-time student taking five classes.

During the recent Back To School event at CHRISTUS St. Mary’s Clinic, Bocanegra checked in a father with his children. She then sent them on to Gillette. “The dad said, ‘I know her.’ He was Isabella’s kindergarten teacher, and she was now handling their paperwork,” Bocanegra said. “It was so beautiful to see that full-circle.”

One accomplishment that Gillette is most proud of is becoming an Eagle Scout. “Girls were accepted into the Boy Scouts in late 2018, and I founded Troop 1511 in 2019. I had until February 2021 to be considered for the first inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts in America. So I was on an insane time crunch, but still managed to make the inaugural class.”