What is LINK?
LINK is a three week full time internship that Juniors at Animas High School do in their spring semester. They go out into the field and shadow a mentor in the profession they are thinking about doing as a future job, or that they are passionate about. They spend the three weeks observing and helping their mentor, while learning what every day life looks like in that field. Students also learn interview and professional development skills leading up to the internship so that they will be prepared when talking to potential mentors.
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The Vault Durango
The Vault is a group fitness gym that has been open for over 10 years in Durango, Colorado. The gym is owned by Donnis Dolso, who was my mentor, along with Jessika Buell. The Vault has about 7 classes a day for adults, kids and teenagers. The workouts are similar to CrossFit and work on functional fitness for adults in the community. Click below to check out their website!
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My Internship Anticipation/Preparation
Check out my preparation blog below, to see the process of how I found my internship!
My Internship Reflection
I came into this LINK with many skills relating to this profession, and I thought that this meant I wouldn't learn a lot within my three weeks. Well I was definitely wrong. My internship taught me many things about life in the professional world and many skills I can use in my own life as well.
While I definitely learned a lot, I came in to my internship with experience at the Vault. I had already been a trainer at the Vault for about 6 months, and had been taking classes for over a year. I already knew how to teach a class and how to go over all of the movements. Even though I already had this skill, one of the things I learned and became confident in was how to control a class of adults and get them to listen to what I was saying really well. I was teaching them proper form so they could prevent injury, and it was really important that I be able to make them listen to me really well. I also learned a lot about how to run a small business. With Jess, I saw how she runs the Vault, and gained new and important skills like administrative skills and marketing. With Donnis, I learned how she writes workouts, teaches clients, and gets people to keep coming into the gym everyday.
One of the biggest challenges I faced with my internship was that I became injured after about a week of the program. It was hard for me to be able to demonstrate movements in class, and this was a large part of my job. I also was not able to workout at the gym. This injury really set me back in my confidence and excitement about my internship. I no longer was able to do all of the fun things with clients that I used to do, and coming in to work became hard after a while. I gained a big lesson about how much injury or sickness can affect you when you have a full- time job. When you're a student, you can miss school or take some time off from doing activities, but at a job you can't afford to take time off. The business needs their employees and you really can effect the whole team if one person is out. I was able to push through some of the pain, and get through the three weeks still learning so much by the end of it.
Another challenge was that Fitness is something that I am extremely passionate about, but it is not necessarily something I want to do in the future. If I could do my internship again, it would be in a field that I really needed to learn about so that I could see if I really wanted to pursue it in the future. That being said, I really enjoyed the three weeks that I spent at The Vault, and overall I still learned a lot.
I would definitely recommend adults in Durango and beyond to get involved in the LINK program. It is a great way to get involved in the Durango community, and help a student taking the next steps toward their future. You also get the chance to teach and share your knowledge with a student that wants to learn, and that is super valuable and special. Everyone should consider taking an intern!
Like I said before, I learned so much from this internship, but I would also like to explore other fields of work in the future. This internship taught me that in fact, I don't necessarily own a gym or be a personal trainer, and I think that that is just as valuable. I will continue to be passionate about fitness for the rest of my life, but I will also explore other professions I am passionate about in school and beyond. This internship helped me narrow down my future, and for that I know it was a great and beneficial experience.
While I definitely learned a lot, I came in to my internship with experience at the Vault. I had already been a trainer at the Vault for about 6 months, and had been taking classes for over a year. I already knew how to teach a class and how to go over all of the movements. Even though I already had this skill, one of the things I learned and became confident in was how to control a class of adults and get them to listen to what I was saying really well. I was teaching them proper form so they could prevent injury, and it was really important that I be able to make them listen to me really well. I also learned a lot about how to run a small business. With Jess, I saw how she runs the Vault, and gained new and important skills like administrative skills and marketing. With Donnis, I learned how she writes workouts, teaches clients, and gets people to keep coming into the gym everyday.
One of the biggest challenges I faced with my internship was that I became injured after about a week of the program. It was hard for me to be able to demonstrate movements in class, and this was a large part of my job. I also was not able to workout at the gym. This injury really set me back in my confidence and excitement about my internship. I no longer was able to do all of the fun things with clients that I used to do, and coming in to work became hard after a while. I gained a big lesson about how much injury or sickness can affect you when you have a full- time job. When you're a student, you can miss school or take some time off from doing activities, but at a job you can't afford to take time off. The business needs their employees and you really can effect the whole team if one person is out. I was able to push through some of the pain, and get through the three weeks still learning so much by the end of it.
Another challenge was that Fitness is something that I am extremely passionate about, but it is not necessarily something I want to do in the future. If I could do my internship again, it would be in a field that I really needed to learn about so that I could see if I really wanted to pursue it in the future. That being said, I really enjoyed the three weeks that I spent at The Vault, and overall I still learned a lot.
I would definitely recommend adults in Durango and beyond to get involved in the LINK program. It is a great way to get involved in the Durango community, and help a student taking the next steps toward their future. You also get the chance to teach and share your knowledge with a student that wants to learn, and that is super valuable and special. Everyone should consider taking an intern!
Like I said before, I learned so much from this internship, but I would also like to explore other fields of work in the future. This internship taught me that in fact, I don't necessarily own a gym or be a personal trainer, and I think that that is just as valuable. I will continue to be passionate about fitness for the rest of my life, but I will also explore other professions I am passionate about in school and beyond. This internship helped me narrow down my future, and for that I know it was a great and beneficial experience.
LINK Project
All students are required to create a project by the end of the 3 weeks. For my project, I planned and created anOlympic Weightlifting Seminar. The seminar will be a group of about 12 adults and I will go through two movements: the snatch and the clean&jerk. I will teach proper technique and form, drills to get better at the movements, and how to be able to add weight to your bar and keep progressing. I also created videos on how to do each of these movements for their social media pages.
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