Local UAA Internships Provide Real-Life Workforce Experience for Gators

UF senior diver Abby Howell chomps in front of Exactech headquarters, site of her six-week internship in the human resources department.

Local UAA Internships Provide Real-Life Workforce Experience for Gators

Monday, August 13, 2018 | General, Chris Harry

Nine UF student-athletes took advantage this summer of a new NCAA rule that allowed them to work 20-hour internships at some of the area's largest companies.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It had been three years since Abby Howell had time in her daily schedule to work a summer job. The rigors, demands and pressures of being a collegiate student-athlete just wouldn't allow for it. Neither would NCAA rules, which did not apply after her 2014-15 senior year at Clermont (Fla.) High.

"I worked at a trampoline park," said Howell, a member of the Florida women's diving team.

Her first job since was considerably different.

Howell, a telecommunications major entering her senior year, spent the last six weeks working four days and 20 hours a week as an intern in the human resources department at Exactech, the local company (and O'Connell Center namesake) that manufactures innovative orthopedic implants and surgical instruments for hip, knee and shoulder replacement, as well as biologic materials and bone cement systems. The time there gave her real-life working experience and helped preview the necessity for time management, communication skills and daily interaction in a professional setting.

"To be honest, I didn't really have a lot of expectations going in," Howell said. "I kind of went in thinking, 'I'm not sure how much I'll get out of this," but I ended taking so much more than I thought I would. It was awesome. Just to see what those people do on the medical side of things … I had no idea, not a clue that it would interest me. To see the other side of things in the medical field was just very insightful."

Making her time at Exactech possible was the NCAA, which in an attempt to enhance educational experience and preparation for life after graduation, recently adopted legislation that allows — and encourages — student-athletes to participate in internships and study-abroad programs without affecting their eligibility.

Vanderbilt was the first school to take advantage of the new guidelines. The University Athletic Association followed suit by partnering with three local companies to put nine Gators to work in various internship capacities this summer. The internships were unpaid by the companies, but the UAA was permitted to provide a room-and-board stipend that allowed the participants to stay in town during the summer.

"These student-athletes nowadays, they do not have time for a summer job," said Senior Associate Athletic Director Jeff Guin, who heads operations at the Hawkins Center for Academic and Personal Excellence. "They all have transferable skills, but they need work on their resumes. That's what really drove that for us; for them to get that experience."

Guin got word of the potential for such a program last fall, took the idea to Athletic Director Scott Stricklin and got the ball rolling in the spring, thanks in great part to Allison Forrest, Hawkins Center's career development coordinator.

"The feedback we got was really, really positive," Forrest said.

Clockwise from top left: football player Jahim Lawrence in scubs at UF Health-Shands; volleyball player Chanelle Hargraves behind her desk at Exactech; swimmer Victoria Bindi before surgery at UF Health-Shands; swimmer Stanley Wu at his work site.

The nine student-athletes selected for the pilot UF program were scattered like so:

* Two joined Howell at Exactech. After finishing eighth in the high jump at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Jhonny Victor, a junior and sports management major, took an intern spot in human resources. He took turns focusing on leadership, recruiting and even payroll, but also was charged with designing a poster to be placed near the smoking area to remind employees about the dangers of smoking. Chanelle Hargreaves, a volleyball player entering her sophomore year, spent the bulk of her duties in HR and liked the work, coming to the conclusion she may want to pursue something similar in the sports industry.

* At UF Health-Shands, swimmer Victoria Bindi, a junior biochemistry major with aspirations to attend medical school, was given the chance to be a surgical assistant and had access to the operating room three or four times per week. She was there to witness conjoined twins get separated. Swim teammates Hannah Burns and Stanley Wu, both majoring in health, education and behavior, were assigned to occupational therapy. Long-distance runner Autumn Bartlett, a senior majoring in nutritional sciences, focused on designing menus emphasizing more plant-based foods, and spent time shadowing dieticians in the intensive care and pediatric units.

* The Loss Prevention Research Council works with Fortune 500 companies to shore up security and mitigate theft in their organizations. Former UF javelin thrower Megan Reed, now a graduate student seeking a masters in business management, had a program at the Gainesville branch of LPRC program focused on the development of crime and loss-control solutions.

* Walk-on linebacker Jahim Lawrence was the only student-athlete among the UF nine to do a Summer "C" internship, meaning a 12-week program that went through both the Summer "A" and "B" sessions. Lawrence did duties in the cardiovascular center and operating rooms at UF Health-Shands.

The weekly 20-hour stints went Monday-Thursday. On Fridays, the interns met as a group for professional professional development in collaboration with the UF Career Connections Center, where they discussed their strengths and values, updated resumes and LinkedIn pages, and conducted mock interviews. At the end of their internships, each participate was asked to do a power point presentation for their peers and UAA administrators detailing their experience, what they took from it, and how they might apply it to their future.

Now that the program has been through its first season, Guin and his staff plan on making its availability known early enough in the fall to get word out and hopefully offer as many as 20 such spots in the summer of 2019.

"The student-athletes on our campus need to be exposed to all the possibilities," Guin said. "When they start finding out and start getting these experiences, it's eye-opening. For them, it's like, 'Wow! That's really out there?' "

Yes, it is.

Beats the trampoline park.

"I loved that back in high school, 'cause it was up my alley while it lasted," Howell said. "But this was something else. This was real."