Sprinter Cameron Mahorn, one of 17 UF student-athletes who took part in the 2019 summer internship program, spent his Summer B at Exactech learning about joint replacements and implants.
Career Clarity
Tuesday, August 13, 2019 | General, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Kyren Hollis, an 800-meter runner for the Florida men's track and field team the last three seasons, had his audience's attention Friday.
"I like a fast-paced environment," Hollis said.
He wasn't talking about sports, either. Kyren Hollis (left) and Cole Johnson (right) at the Shands trauma center.
Hollis spent the last six weeks working at the emergency room and trauma center at Shand's Hospital. As such, Hollis was exposed to some troubling sights — "the worst of the worst," he said — which told the African American studies major and 2019 graduate exactly what he needed to know with regard to his career objective of becoming a nurse in an ER.
"It showed me I can handle it," Hollis said.
Teammate Cole Johnson, a 400-meter man, went looking for the same answer. Johnson, a junior, is a bio-chemistry major who a couple months ago was toying with the idea of becoming a doctor. What he experienced the last few weeks convinced Hollis that medicine, indeed, was his calling.
Johnson also interned at the trauma center. He was there to see a car accident victim have their spleen removed. He watched intensely as stroke victims were treated with running catheters inserted through their femoral arteries at the hip and channeled all the way to the brain. And he had to hold it together when a young child, who had tried to light a candle, was brought into the unit with third-degree burns all over their body.
"You can watch all the 'Grey's Anatomy' you want, but it's not the same," Hollis said. "This was real-life experience. You're in there and living it. I'm surprised other student-athletes aren't just lining up to try and get a chance to do this."
By "this," Hollis meant taking part in the University Athletic Association's summer internship program, which debuted in 2018 after the NCAA adopted legislation allowing student-athletes to participate in career opportunities organized through athletic departments in conjunction with community organizations and businesses. The internships are unpaid, but schools can provide a cost-of-attendance stipend (as in room and board) that allows the participants to remain in town during the summer.
Though the Summer "A" and "B" sessions, 17 student-athletes from nine different sports took part in the program. On Friday, a handful gave presentations to a conference room of UAA employees, among them Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, Executive Associate AD Lynda Tealer and Senior Associate AD Jeff Guin, who oversees the Hawkins Center, the academic arm of the UAA.
"They can't get this experience in their sport and they can't get it in the classroom," Guin said. "It really helps them set up for the rest of their lives as far as what they want to do. They get educated on the opportunities that are out there. As they hear about the different fields in the industries they're interested in, it just opens their minds so much. That is huge."
Here's some of what they found:
* Swimmer Madison Conway, an advertising major, did her internship with aha Pure Foods, a local company that sells plant-based diets. Conway used her communication and marketing skills to promote a product designed to charge the immune system, while also helping with stress, cognitive function and fatigue. Conway left aha knowing she wanted to try her hand down the line with building the brand of a start-up company.
* Volleyball player Morgyn Greer worked in the office of Rep. Ted Yoho (Fla.), the Republican representative of the state's 3rd congressional district. Greer coordinated staff schedules, among other clerical duties, including writing letters and taking calls from constituents wishing to talk — pro and con — about Yoho's stances on veteran affairs, immigration and other hot-button issues. "I'm a political science major," Greer said. "So this fit like a glove."
* Sprinter Cameron Mahorn and swimmer Yekaterina Aslanidi both interned at Exatech, the Gainesville-based company (and O'Connell Center namesake) that manufactures orthopedic implants and surgical instruments for hip, knee and shoulder replacement. Among Mahorn's most interesting endeavors was documenting the rare cases of failure of implants and determining the nature of their malfunction. Aslanidi, meanwhile, became well-versed in Excel and QAD. She formatted trade balance reports, income statements and account balances, as well as did month-to-month comparisons between her data to find outliers and track company growth. "These were skills I will need to have when I go into the work force," she said.
Other local companies that participated in the program included Books-A-Million, ESPN Gainesville, nutritionist Naomi Whittle, Hoof & Horn, Pound Human Identification Laboratory, the InterMed Group, Shannon Homes & Restoration, and the Cleaning Genie.
Swimmer Isabella Garofalo focused on brand management during her internship marketing the works of wellness explorer and nutritional expert Naomi Whittel.
Each Gator who took part came out better for it.
And more prepared.
One evening, while working the overnight shift, Hollis was on hand when paramedics brought in a car accident victim. It was not a pretty sight. In fact, one of the nurses on duty even had a tough time dealing with the scene initially, but composed herself.
"I asked her, 'How do you do it?' " Hollis said. "She just told me, 'It's a job and you have to stay strong and deal with it.' It made me think how everybody has different coping mechanisms, but really just understand circumstances and your role is what it's all about. Seeing it all made me think, 'I can do this.' "
Guin and his Hawkins Center colleagues hope more student-athletes want to do these internships.
"This is straight experience, period," Guin said. "We've tried to encourage more sophomores and juniors to do it because, while quite a few of them have internships that are required of them in their majors at the end [of their degree requirements], they can do this and get some crucial experience beforehand that can really guide them with regard to their future."
