Day One with the Interns

In a calendar year, we go through 3 sets of interns; Fall, Spring and Summer internships.  We will accept 3 interns per time frame.  As a strength and conditioning staff, we utilize 3 different weight rooms.  We have chosen to accept only 3 interns per time frame in order to keep one intern in each training facility. She/he will get plenty of exposure to all of our student-athletes as well as our staff members.  The interns will be assigned to one weight room for a two week period before being re-assigned to the next facility.

An internship program can either be a great addition or a huge inconvenience to your staff.  I believe your first day/week will play an intricate role in how the rest of the semester will develop.

First things first… We have a meeting to set the tone of the internship.  This meeting normally takes about 45 minutes.  The interns are each given a binder containing a syllabus, ground rules, expectations, daily & weekly “to do list”, their performance evaluation, campus map, suggested training websites, local points of interest and a blank note notepad.  Of those handouts, I feel that our ground rules are the most important.  The ground rules are to help the interns understand what is and is not acceptable behavior.  What is common knowledge for us may seem like a foreign concept to others…particularly the younger ones. 

I know many people many think I’m babying the interns for putting this together for them.  However, a great leader (professor) did this for me while I was in grad school and I found it very helpful.  I believe that, by starting them off in an organized manner it will increase their chances for success throughout their time with us.  If nothing else, I’m “paying it forward” from the Doc that set me off on the right foot many years ago.

The blank notepad is to be used for any notes that need to be taken about information they’ve been given.  On the first day of every week they are also to create their own short and long term goals and record them in their notepad.  This is helpful to get them thinking about what they want to do as opposed to what we want them to do.  Finally and most importantly, the interns are required to use that notepad to journal/reflect multiple times throughout the week. I ask them to keep a constant journal to help with comprehension of “classroom” topics as well as training/coaching situations. The metacognition (thinking about what you think) and ability to see ones’ thought process will reveal great insight to personal tendencies. Being able to understand how one best works will help to make decisions on how to put oneself in a place to succeed.  For example, through journaling you can easily see what things come easily to you (strengths), what things you struggle with (weaknesses), how you reacted to certain situations and how productive the outcomes were or were not.  From then on, when issues come up in the future you are more prepared to make actions or decisions that will create the most favorable outcome.  Again, I know it seems a bit childish to keep a journal.  However, I believe it’s one of your strongest tools to learn about yourself and accelerate your own progress on whatever it is you want to get better at.

The 3 interns we have this summer seem to be off to a good start.  I have the feeling that they’ve already developed a healthy competition between themselves to earn the title of being our best intern.  (It was stated by one of them as a long term goal.)   I’ll post updates about the trials and tribulations of the Summer 2012 Notre Dame intern class.  I welcome any comments or suggestions to help further develop our program.