Students in the program, most of whom are young women, come to Walker with questions about boys and sex and problems they are having at school.
"Hey girl, how was your day today?" Walker asked one ninth grade student on a recent Wednesday.
The girl's smooth young face screwed up in genuine ambivalence as she searched for an answer to this very simple question.
"Mmmm," she responded after a long pause. "Better than yesterday and the day before that."
Ninety-nine percent of Frick students come from homes that receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children, as opposed to 49 percent of students in schools district-wide, according to statistics kept by the Oakland Unified School District. More than half of Frick's 450 students were suspended at least once last year while just 10 percent of students district-wide were suspended over the same time frame. The school also has a high percentage of students in foster care.
Combined, these factors earn every student at Frick the designation "at risk". In other words, because of circumstances beyond their control, these kids are considered more likely than others to use drugs; more likely to be exposed to violence, in the home or on the street; and more likely to drop out of school.
Block after block of vacant storefronts, punctuated by take-out restaurants and liquor stores surround Frick's campus. It can be a tough environment for hope to thrive in.
Rudolph Peters, an outreach counselor who acts as liaison between the school and the hospital, said Frick students eagerly vie for the internships. Some kids are on a waiting list for up to a year before they get a spot, the demand is so great, he said.
"The money they get is always an incentive, that's just the American way," Peters said. "But it also creates a situation for a child to see that there can be a different way, that they can do something a little better for themselves."
Alashuntae Blunt wanted to see what it was like working in a hospital.
"I wanted to do some work on computers because I think I want to be a computer technician," Blunt said.
She is thinking about attending the Health Academy, a magnet program at Oakland Technical High School that further prepares students for careers in the health industry. Blunt's older brother attends school there. If she doesn't enroll at Oakland Tech, Blunt will likely go to either Fremont High School or Castlemont High School. Blunt said she and her friends call Castlemont "Herpe High".
Walker, who graduated with a Masters Degree in social work from Howard University in 1996, said working with Frick students has been eye-opening. At Howard she was a graduate assistant and worked with undergraduate women who were very motivated and self-assured.
"Many of these kids are first generation graduates of anything. It's a massive accomplishment for them to complete a little six-week program." Walker said. "We have a graduation ceremony for them and their families come out and witness it."
Peters, the outreach counselor, said he tracks students who complete health career internships. So far, he said, everyone who has successfully completed the program has stayed in school.
It all happens
here: Highland General Hospital in Oakland, California.
Some kids wait for up to a
year before they get a spot [in the program], the demand
is so great.