For the second year in a row, a group of students from Southwestern University spent their summer working alongside world-class doctors and researchers at Houston Methodist Hospital. Some students participated in an internship that included professional development, networking, and mentorship across multiple hospital departments, while others gained valuable exposure to healthcare operations through an observership program focused on various medical specialties.

These experiences were made possible through a transformative partnership between Southwestern and Houston Methodist that has opened the door for nearly two dozen SU students to gain unparalleled hands-on experience at one of the nation’s leading healthcare systems. Although medical studies and scientific research are at the heart of the collaboration between the two organizations, a group of communication studies students proved that the partnership extends far beyond just medicine.

During the summer of 2024, Professor of Communication Studies Bob Bednar ’89 led a group of five seniors to Houston Methodist for a six-week educational experience unlike any other. Bednar’s Organizational Communication course set out to investigate interpersonal, group, and mediated communication patterns and processes within diverse organizations, using Houston Methodist as their classroom.

“We see a lot of direct research and a lot of high-impact experiences in the science and STEM fields, and even in the social sciences, but not as much in the humanities,” Bednar said. “I wanted to give some of our humanities students the same kind of experiences that the STEM students are getting, but ones that are tailored for them.”

As part of their intensive experience, the group spent time at MITIE, the Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, & Education. (Photo courtesy Bob Bednar)The course began with four weeks of inquiry-based study of organizational theory in the classroom at Southwestern. The group then traveled to Houston for a week of high-impact field work where they saw firsthand many of the core concepts and skills learned in the classroom. The final week of the course involved each student writing about their individual experiences, which culminated in their final project, a field study of organizational communication at Houston Methodist.

“My focus has always been on how to get students to translate what they’re doing in the classroom to real-world experience so that they can see their own futures more clearly,” Bednar said. “My main hope was that these students would experience bridging theoretical knowledge to situational knowledge. We had great conversations as a class leading up to the field work, but it’s not really until your body is involved that you start to feel things differently and process things differently.”

The group spent four days embedded at Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital, where they interacted with hospital staff across nearly every department, receiving both observational and direct interview opportunities. In the middle of the week, they also spent a day at Houston Methodist’s flagship hospital in the Texas Medical Center. There, the students toured the hospital and the Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, & Education.

Although the class roster consisted of all communication studies majors who were coming to the end of their undergraduate journeys, each of the five students had vastly different backgrounds, perspectives, and interests. What resulted is five unique analyses of the experience, each focusing on a different area.

“To me, it felt like the perfect kind of Southwestern Experience,” Bednar said. “We created a small-scale, intensive experience that honored the interests and experiences of all these students, and got them in contact with other professionals who are doing the kinds of things that they’re imagining doing when they graduate.”

With hopes of pursuing a career in construction project management, Georgetown native Tre Flores ’25 focused on the operational and logistical aspects of running a large hospital system. The Houston Methodist system operates like a small city, with over 34,000 employees spread across nine hospitals and a research institute. Flores analyzed how all of the different pieces of the puzzle come together successfully.

“We all went in wanting to focus on different purposes,” he said. “I want to do construction project management, so I really wanted to look into the facilities and their supply chain. That opened my eyes to how massive an organization it is. Everybody in the hospital has a very important job, no matter what level they are.”

“Both Houston Methodist and Southwestern share much of the same history, foster many of the same values, and have tremendous relationships with each other that date back generations.” — Houston Methodist Hospital Vice President of Spiritual Care and Values Integration Charles Millikan ’68

For Alexa Delanela ’24, a computer science major who switched to communication studies after taking one of Bednar’s earlier courses, the class gave her the opportunity to take a deep dive into how technology and data are integrated across a large organization. Specifically, she explored how Houston Methodist is able to use critical data while still remaining true to their values.

“I am interested in the intersection of data analytics and communications,” she said. “I was drawn toward how the data ties into the human side of things, what that means for the organization as a whole, and how it guides their processes. They made a big emphasis on interpreting the data without taking away the human aspects of the patients. They don’t want to view individual patients as numbers, so it was interesting to see them find that balance.”

Of the students participating in the class, only Lauren Chisholm ’24 is interested in pursuing a healthcare-related field. Since graduating, she has been preparing to take the Dental Admission Test with the goal of attending dental school to become an oral surgeon. Her experience at Houston Methodist provided valuable experience in healthcare operations.

“With a lot of the people I met, I was able to talk to them about both the communications and the healthcare side of things,” Chisholm said. “I had the opportunity to learn about things that would be helpful when applying to dental school and better understand just how much my communications degree will be valuable in the field. I built a pretty strong connection with those who are working at Houston Methodist and are also fellow Southwestern alumni.”

Students in Bob Bednar's Organizational Communications course toured Houston Methodist Hospital's flagship location in the Texas Medical Center. (Photo courtesy Bob Bednar)Southwestern boasts a deep roster of alumni who are serving in a variety of roles across the Houston Methodist system. At Willowbrook, Keith Barber ’85 is the Chief Executive Officer, Stephanie Bruce ’93 is the Assistant Chief Quality Officer, and Ava Erin Manning ’93 is a gynecologist. At the Vice President level, Mark Easterly ’92 is the head of Legal Services and Erin Skelley ’94 leads Brand Marketing. Additionally, Tim Boone ’77 is the Director of Education at the Houston Methodist Academic Institute and Charles Millikan ’68 recently retired after spending over 20 years as the Vice President of Spiritual Care and Values Integration.

“Being a Southwestern graduate, I wanted to help create a partnership and a collaboration between our two institutions,” Millikan said. “Both Houston Methodist and Southwestern share much of the same history, foster many of the same values, and have tremendous relationships with each other that date back generations.”

During his time as Vice President of Spiritual Care and Values Integration, Millikan oversaw the hospital’s mission and values, in addition to guiding over 100 chaplains. He gave the students a behind-the-scenes look at how Houston Methodist’s values are ingrained into every aspect of hospital operations.

“As a hospital system, we find it’s important to understand who you are, what you’re called to do, and how you’re expected to live that out,” Millikan said. “We take very seriously the vision and mission of who we are — a hospital that offers a spiritual environment of caring. Every person who works here is part of a ministry that allows them to be able to help others.”

This emphasis on values led to the title of the students’ final project, “Mission-Driven Medicine.” The published work also includes perspectives from Lauren Wise ’25, who explored Houston Methodist’s use of artwork as a communication tool across their hospitals, and Justin Zamora ’24, who studied Houston Methodist’s operational dynamics, including structure, culture, and friction points.

“I made the commitment to see individual perspectives on the same experience,” Bednar said. “We did everything together and that’s what made it really cool. I got to see different students ask different questions and be engaged. I watched each one of them grow considerably in that week. It was really cool for me to be part of that.”

“I know, because we worked together on this so closely, that the students are going to carry this with them, and they’ll think about this when they’re joining their own professional organizations.” — Professor of Communication Studies Bob Bednar ’89

Following the intensive week in Houston, the group wrote about their experiences individually, then published their findings. Back in Houston, Millikan was proud of the work that students from his alma mater created.

“They were able to capture what I think marketing, mission, and vision can do when you put the right people on the right bus, doing the right things,” he said. “The key is they were fully engaged. That’s the value of a Southwestern education – it’s not just an education of learning and reading, it’s an education of scholarship. It allows you to understand that life is a journey, and you will always have an opportunity to contribute.”

For Chisholm, who graduated in December 2024, the entire experience was a fulfilling way to complete her Southwestern Experience.

“This was definitely, by far, my favorite class that I took at Southwestern,” she said. “It was so different from anything else. It was unique, not just to be in person at Houston Methodist, but to apply everything that I learned in class, with the people in my class, and our professor, all together.”

Reflecting on the summer semester, Bednar hopes that his class can be a model that other faculty across Southwestern can use to integrate similarly immersive experiences into their fields of study.

“I know, because we worked together on this so closely, that the students are going to carry this with them, and they’ll think about this when they’re joining their own professional organizations,” Bednar said. “I would love to see other faculty find a way to do this within their own disciplines. I do think it provides a model and I hope others get inspired by that.”