Internships and Residencies
El Futuro offers a highly sought after training program that attracts students from many local professional schools and training programs. We attract medical students, resident physicians, psychology interns, masters level social work students, divinity students, and other professional students to come to El Futuro for a one-of-a-kind training experience.
El Futuro offers residencies, internships, field work, and practicum opportunities to provide students from a wide variety of educational disciplines the opportunity to apply traditional academic classroom learning to actual clinical experiences in a multi-program setting.
We offer internships and residencies in our Durham clinic, with limited opportunities at our Siler City clinic location.
Graduate level clinical internships
The Clinical Learners program for social work, marriage and family therapy, counseling psychology, and counseling students is a valued part of our clinical program at El Futuro. Our interns and practicum students learn how to provide trauma-informed, culturally-relevant psychotherapy in a challenging and supportive environment. El Futuro has hosted clinical interns and practicum students from graduate programs of social work, counseling, marriage and family therapy, and counseling psychology. Interns receive weekly individual supervision from a qualified supervisor at El Futuro, and are also encouraged to participate in monthly group and specialized supervision. For more information and to express your interest, please email: ltovar@elfuturo-nc.org.
Residencies
We are fortunate to partner with the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) to provide this unique training experience for medical students and resident physicians. El Futuro is an AHEC Center of Excellence.
Testimonials
I just wanted to thank all of you for making my year at El Futuro a great one. Not only did I learn a lot from being there social work-wise, but I could not have asked for a better group of people with whom to work. Each of you is extremely talented, caring, and good at what you do. Thanks for “showing me the ropes” and making my field placement a really positive experience!
I can’t tell you how invaluable your guidance has been lately. I’m currently in an Ob-Gyn clinic every Wednesday and more than half of my patients speak Spanish only. I have a hard time expressing succinctly how much the entire staff at El Futuro has helped me learn how to approach patients in a respectful and helpful way. You guys literally made me a better psychiatrist…and I was happy to be along for the ride.
Our Current Residents and Interns
Clay Cooper, MD, MBA
Family medicine resident
Read Dr. Cooper’s personal statement about matching at Duke Family Medicine here.
Jonathan Fricke, MD
Family medicine resident
I grew up in a small town called Baraboo, Wisconsin, the home of the Ringling Brothers Circus and some pretty cool state parks. I moved to Milwaukee to attend college at Wisconsin Lutheran. There, I became passionate about community health while teaching English classes to Latino immigrants and creating culturally-appropriate arts activities at a day center for senior citizens. I went to med school in Madison at the University of Wisconsin, where I was fortunate to be part of an MD-MPH program, through which I spent time in Guatemala and worked with an early literacy program called Reach Out and Read.
I chose UNC because I love Carolina Blue. Other reasons include that faculty, residents, and staff went out of their way to make sure my wife and I felt right at home on the interview day. The faculty were passionate about underserved communities and rethinking primary care. The residents seemed to love what they were doing. I have the feeling that I still don’t quite have a grasp on all the opportunities that will develop as a result of doing residency at a great place like UNC.
Outside of medicine, my wife, Paige, and I like to try new restaurants, run together (we love the trails at Umstead State Park), and watch documentaries. We’ve begun backpacking in the last couple years and are hooked. I also love making music, and try to play piano and ukulele as often as I get a chance.
Katy Sims, MD
Psychiatry resident
Katy grew up in Carthage, NC — a tobacco farming town South of the Triangle. She attended Davidson College for her undergraduate degree and is now a fourth year Psychiatry resident at UNC School of Medicine. This is Katy’s second time at El Futuro — she also did a residency here during the second year of her program!
Katy’s dedication to psychiatry comes out of her realization that whole-body health often has to start with sound behavioral health — you can’t work on someone’s diabetes if they’re too depressed to make lifestyle changes. She especially likes working with Spanish-speaking populations because of how much being able to deliver treatments in their native language means to these clients.
In her free time, she fosters border collies with her husband, knits, sews, weaves, and crochets, and spends a lot of time outdoors — also with the dogs!