Young Professionals Academy
All internship opportunities were provided by the semester-long hands-on class at Emerald Campus, Young Professional's Academy. (YPA). For more information, download the documents to find out more.
My Internship Goals -
- To learn about possible health/nutrition career paths that I may want to follow after college
To discover about a real-world work environment and what it takes to thrive on a day-to-day basis
To learn three skills required to be successful working, talking, or teaching individuals or with a group.
To take any advice about the path, or education needed to take in order to prepare and gain experience for a job within this career path
Internship #1
I interned at PeakHumanPerformance throughout a 6-week time period starting on September 3, 2023, spanning until October 15. PeakHuman Performance is located in Plain City, Ohio and my mentors were Kyle Dorsten, Alex White, Ken Kniss, Vince Workman, and Brian O'Neill. I observed my mentors teach and coach how to lift, techniques, and more importantly, build relationships with their clients. They work one one-on-one with their clients or as a group or team, and creating a great relationship between client and trainer is extremely important in what they do at Peak. Each trainer has a history of athletics, whether that be a college degree in sports science or a retired professional football player. My favorite part about interning here at Peak was the workplace environment I was a part of. Everybody was friendly, had a positive attitude, and was easy to tell that everybody who worked there genuinely enjoyed their job.
There have been learning experiences while observing training sessions at peak. Something that I noticed was important to them was that every single movement and exercise performed is extremely intentional, nothing is done without a reason. This type of training may be unique to Peak, however, it was still very interesting observing the intentionality and importance with which they treated everything they do, which can be carried over into everyday life. I learned that by combining that with a wonderful workplace environment to be in you have an ideal job to not only enjoy what you do every day but also grow and learn as a person each day. I found that that is ideal for a job I want in the future, not an office job with little to no enjoyment or growth. I want what I observed here at peak in my future.
While I loved the environment and learned what an ideal workplace should look like from my internship, I do not think I want a future job in weightlifting but I am not upset at all by that. I am more interested in the nutrition side of health and will be looking for an area in that department for my second internship as well as in college. Ever since going to Peakhumanperformace as a kid, I've always loved going and really been interested and enjoyed what they had going on there. That was a big reason why immediately when I heard about YPA I wanted to find out if I could make it work with Peak, and I am super appreciative that they have allowed me to work with them these last few months
Internship #2
My second internship was spent from November 1-December 8 at Mesh Fitness with Nate Traucht, a personal trainer who works there. I was put in contact with him by Grace Lee, a classmate whom I am extremely grateful for opening up this opportunity for me, as it has been one of the best hands-on real-world experiences that I have ever been a part of, and that I incredibly enjoyed as well.
I have never in my entire life willingly chose to wake up before seven o'clock in the morning. However, I'm writing this currently on the fourth week in a row of 4:30 weekday wake-ups, with not a single bit of regret or annoyance. When Nate said he had an early client in the mornings, I was not expecting a consistent 5:00 gym goer. But Michelle is that client, who loves to start her day with a lift, who is trained by Nate. One of the biggest lessons I've learned from this experience is how to build relationships between trainer and client. Nate and Michelle have been working together for years now, and the relationships they make even outside of just the two of them have been the best thing in the world to see. They've taught me how to be friendly with everyone, wake up with a smile, and actually be in the moment with my day, to enjoy it, instead of "just getting through it". I've learned that I need that in my life, not a high-paying job or a big house and I think that's the best lesson I could have learned from this experience.
Now, money would obviously be very beneficial to life experiences, which is exactly why I am going to these internships to begin with, to learn about the real world so I can get a head start on learning how to be successful later on in my life. Other than the many physical trainer pieces of knowledge that Nate has taught me, he has taught me an insane amount of things when it comes to making it with what I want to do in life as well. Not just from his accomplishments, but with his failures as well. He's taught me that I have to put the work in if I want to succeed. I won't get anywhere by waiting for things to get better, but instead by accepting the difficulty and constantly bettering myself to persevere and actually accomplish what I want to do. He's taught me that if I want to go to college I should go, but I should rather spend more money on my future career and building up a resume that would help me succeed much more and much sooner. However, the most important thing that he said to remember is to try to find a mentor in order to lead the way for me to succeed. Since a mentor has already been through the process of what I'd be trying to go through, then they would already know what to do, how to do it, and make sure I don't fail. That is the number one thing I should do to avoid making a ton of mistakes, and/or going down the wrong path that would cost me a lot of time and money.
Nate and Michelle have enjoyed my job shadowing so much that they have invited me to join their sessions for an extra week, additionally, any time from now on whenever I would like to come in and help out or just observe I am more than welcome to. They have been so kind and welcoming to me ever since the first day, and I am extremely thankful for them for each day that they have allowed me to come in. This internship was exactly what I was hoping for from the YPA experience, and I am extremely grateful that I was able to be a part of this.