Jose: We're all human beings. We all learn different. We all have strengths and weaknesses. You can do as much as you like.

Narrator: This is the "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" podcast, where we build trust and belonging through the authentic storytelling of our Mayo Clinic staff. In this episode, you will hear Jose, a team assistant, and Ian, a desk operations specialist, share how their relationship formed during Jose’s internship with Project SEARCH, a transition-to-work program for young people with disabilities.

Jose: During my senior year in Shadow Mountain High School, I was struggling so much that graduation was five months away. My consideration was to go to college or get a job. Although I wanted to go to college, I was scared. I was starting to do a few academic courses, but it wasn't enough to complete. So as I was struggling, my speech teacher, introduced me to Project SEARCH. I didn't know that Project SEARCH was working along in the hospital that helps individuals with neurodiversity to work in the workforce. She said that this would be perfect for me to learn these new opportunities. I said yes, I'll definitely take on. I wanted to learn so much then in a hospital. That's what I'm here now.

Why did you decide to get involved with Project SEARCH?

Ian: When I came to Mayo, I wanted to help people, but I didn't have a medical background. I didn't know exactly how I wanted to help people, but I knew working at Mayo would give me that opportunity to help. So when I was in my role as a desk operations specialist, my supervisor approached me and started to tell me about Project SEARCH. She said, “I know your strength is connecting with people and there's this thing called Project SEARCH that we as desk operations are going to do for the first time and I thought of you.” And before she could even finish, I said that I'm in. I don't know what my job will be as a mentor, but I'm 100% in. This is an actual tangible way to help people and not only help people like we do in desk operations every day helping patients, this would be my opportunity to help someone grow but in a lifelong type of way. In our case, you were the first intern I had, so it was a chance to help you every day; grow and learn and give you skills that you're going to be able to keep with you through your career, but also in your life. It was what I had been searching for without even realizing I had been searching for it.

Jose: For the very start of the program, it was quite nerve wracking for me. I never worked in the hospital environment before. And it took me some time for my nerves to disappear. When I joined desk operations specialist, the first rotation I did with you, I was really shy. I kind of isolated myself, but at the same time I wanted to get involved with more opportunities and to show all of you what I'm capable of. I absolutely enjoyed it. It gave me the strength to believe in myself not only in desk operations specialist, but physical therapy getting more hands-on with patients using different tools I learned so much from our skills. For hard skills, it was like navigating into the computer, checking in with patients or dotting them ready in the exam room. In the soft skills were just like communication to self-advocate myself. It really did help me a lot as months went by and I started to grow and evolve more.

Ian: I'm proud of a lot of the things I do at Mayo, but being a mentor was by far the most fulfilling thing I've done at Mayo so far. I think we connected from day one when you came in you were very shy like you said your shoulders were slumped, you were looking at the ground a little bit. To see you go from a person that wasn't sure of themselves to what I see you now like a year and a half later working on the team. I mean, it's as if you would always been on the team. There was no shy, Jose. There was no Jose that didn't have the confidence that you have. And I remember the first day when I asked you for lunch time, do you do you like to have lunch by yourself or do you like to have someone with you? And you told me and this this broke my heart, you said, “Well, I'm used to being alone at lunch,” and literally at that second I said there is no time Jose will ever be alone as long as you're in my rotation, but as long as you're here at Mayo, you're always going to have someone to sit with at lunch. So that I think was what illuminated what Project SEARCH was to me. Yes, it's teaching you to room patients or work on the computer, check patients in, but my goal was to get you confident to get you to feel like you're part of the team. I wanted to make sure that every day you showed up at our job as an intern, you knew you fit here. Our team, I think, was great with that as well because they made you feel welcome. We enjoyed you and we started to see you loosen up very quickly.

Jose: One of the most impactful moments was right after work, I gathered in the modular buildings with the interns which I call them my friends, we would discuss about our daily debriefing. We would share about our days and our departments, which all of us were excited about every day.

And another thing that really did impact me so much it was everyone in Project SEARCH, desk operations specialist, and physical therapy opened my eyes to possibilities I've never envisioned before. All my life that I have been struggling so much when I discovered I had a disability, like after 6th grade it my whole life shattered me, leaving me feel like I was born with a curse and feeling like I was trapped in the box, where there's only the things that I can learn. But outside of that, there's so much that I have never discovered before or ever learned from like everyone else is doing and I feel like I was never going to be accepted. I feel like, when you discover it, it's like what will people think of me? What will people see in me? Will they accept me for who I am? It's my biggest question I had that was wrapped around my head for so long, but you guys helped me vision something else. You guys really broke that barrier and made me understand too that I was never alone. You gave me hope and believing that I can do so much even if I have a disability that's never going to stop me from what I want to do.

Ian: What you just said about being in a box, I think that is one of the ways that my mentorship aligns with the Mayo Clinic culture and values. When we talk about Stewardship as one of the RICH TIES here at Mayo, I think for me in the mentor role, I think that Stewardship was exactly what you're talking about, teaching you that you don't belong in a box. To teach you confidence. I could see it in you from the get go what kind of person you are; you’re a hard worker, you care about people, you want to help, so I knew that the challenge was gonna be getting you to actually believe that. I already knew it from day one, I could see it in your eyes, you were all heart so to make you believe that that ability was already there, that was my goal.

I think a lot of Project SEARCH interns at some point in their lives have felt like outsiders and to be able to make you not feel that way, that's very important to me, and it's not something that ends at the end of the rotation. It's not just, nine weeks and then goodbye, you really form a bond with these people. I mean Jose's my friend without question.

A tip that I would give potential mentors, I think one thing to recognize going into this is everyone's going to learn differently. As a mentor, you have to adapt your style to whatever learning style the intern comes in with. Pay attention to the queues they're giving, pay attention to the effect that your teaching style is having on them. You can adjust to meet their needs. If you are going to be a mentor, just be open minded, be ready for any kind of learning style.

Jose: What I enjoy most about being Mayo, number one, it's definitely help patients. That's something I've wanted to do all my life is just to really help people. Everything that I can to make patient’s day even if there's sometimes you don't make their day, but you at least, do everything to help that patient.

Two is to feel accepted and to be part of the team. I guess, before I was just really shut down of myself and just blocking everything that I was scared nobody will ever accept me and you guys pretty much gave me the hope to be part of the team. You guys really gave me opportunities and believed in me that I can do everything.

Lastly, I'm now a mentor. I am helping a Project SEARCH intern. It really takes me back from I was an intern, but now I'm here and I'm training with an intern and it's such a pleasure to do that. That's something I love to do is to help people and to help those learn them about work environment. But too is to accept who they are. They can do what whatever they wanted in life. I'm just really excited just to be a mentor.

Ian: And that's it. In hearing Jose say that you're telling me that what we as mentors and Project SEARCH group has done is successful. For you to go from nervous and shy and unsure of yourself to now you're literally teaching the new interns how to do the job. I can't say there's anything more fulfilling than seeing that. You're paying it forward and it's a beautiful thing to see. I'm so proud of you. I'm proud of all the interns. I feel honored to be a part of it, even in a small or large way. It really means a lot to me.

Jose: I just wanted to thank all of you. I wanted to thank you, Ian. I wanted to thank everyone in Project SEARCH, desk operations specialist and physical therapy for helping me becoming who I am and giving me that confidence to be where I am now.

You gave me that strength back and I'm so thankful and blessed for this. There's so much opportunities for me to grow. I am a lifelong learner. Things will take time for sure, but it's never gonna stop me. Even with my disability, it will be permanent within me for the rest of my life, it's never going to impact the things I wanna do. I can break those obstacles and prove myself that I can do so much more, and I want people to really understand too, just because you have a disability don't let that title be entitled to you for the rest of your life. Be proud of who you are and find those people who can help you and support you and feeling accepted too.

I wanted to thank my parents, too, for believing in me and for accepting me who I am; not as a failure. I really wanted to give people hope. To never stop doing what they love.

Narrator: Thank you both for sharing your experience with us. Jose, it is inspiring to hear your story as a former Project SEARCH intern, now a confident Mayo Clinic employee who mentors new interns and doing what you love, helping others. Ian, thank you for your dedication to establishing an environment where individuals can thrive. It may be the first time you two didn’t have tears talking about your journey, but I certainly did!

Sharing experiences like these increases our understanding of one another and ultimately contributes to finding connections, belonging and inclusion at work. For more stories, subscribe to "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" on popular podcast apps.