Junior swimmer Amanda Ray details her UF Health Shands internship experience during a presentation to fellow interns and members of the UAA.
UAA Summer Internship Program Turns 5
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 | General, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Fast Fact Sheets, as they're known, were cranked out by Amanda Ray, well, fast and furiously. Ray, a member of the University of Florida women's swim team, did a six-week stint in the Investigational Drug Service this summer at UF Health Shands, which took part of an estimated 300 clinical drug trials. Ray was charged with writing the fact sheets, which broke down the purpose of the new pharmaceutical.
This is the drug. This is its proposed mechanism. This is how it works. This is the outline of the trial. This is how many participants will take part. This is how it's supplied and documented.
"I loved learning about the different studies. It was almost as if I was getting insider information," said Ray, a junior from Raleigh, N.C. "I told some people that one day I'll hear about a new drug getting approved and be able to say, 'Yeah, I knew about that a while ago.' To me, that's really cool." Gymnast Payton Richards at Shands
It's the middle of a blazing hot summer, but the "really cool" references are being tossed around again by Gators student-athletes selected to take part in the UAA Summer Internship Program, now in its fifth year. Eighteen athletes from seven different sports participated in the 2022 program, each getting hands-on experience in fields they hope to pursue when their days of collegiate competition are over.
The program was paused during the pandemic of 2020, but in its four turns has sent more than 60 student-athletes to work at local businesses,
"It's provided many opportunities for student-athletes in various fields to gain necessary work and practical experience," said Jeff Guin, who as senior associate athletic director for academics oversees operations at the Hawkins Center. "We cannot put into words the impact these experiences have had on career aspirations for these Gators as they prepare for life after sport."
Allison Forrest is director of the Gators Experience at Hawkins Center. She is charged with seeking candidates for the internship, reviewing their applications and matching the best candidates with local participating entities.
She's seen the results and heard the reviews (usually raves).
"To me, the most beneficial thing is the growth and confidence they gain because a lot of them — maybe most of them — do not have much experiences in these fields," Forrest said. "What the internship does, it either confirms what they see as their career path or opens their eyes and directs them on a different one."
Take Ray. Her major is Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, so her interest in the medical field was there, but she didn't know where in the field. What she did know, however, was that she always had been intrigued by the pharmaceutical side; not in retail, but in the research.
"Vetting drugs, more than selling them," she said.
Forrest was able to pair that interest with the IDS people at Shands and found a 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-through-Friday schedule that allowed Ray to get her 20-hour week, while also being available for UF team workouts in the morning.
In addition to her fact-sheet duties, Ray shadowed workers in the emergency room, trauma center and intensive care units. She scrubbed up and watched how IV bags were prepped. She helped create placebo pills for drug trials.
"But the investigational side, the research, that was my favorite," she said.
Men's basketball player Alex Klatsky, a junior and Business Administration major, did an internship in the business office at Exactech (the company, not the arena where his team plays), which produces implants, instruments and technology for joint replacement. He sat in on a cost-accounting overview meeting and heard how the supervisors in charge of distribution were taking on the supply chain issues.
"Not just dealing with them, but how they had positioned themselves for years in case this happened," Klatsky said. "It was really, really interesting."
Gymnast Alex Magee, a junior from Orlando, is a journalism major with a concentration in sports and media. Her interests are on the broadcasting side of the field, so her internship put her with WRUF, the local ESPN-backed affiliate, which meant both writing stories and delivering 45-second sound bytes on what was "trending" in sports.
Magee admitted she had to talk and write about some sports she didn't follow that closely, but left her time at the station (and in the studio) more well-rounded in her knowledge of football, baseball, basketball, track, etc. Even hockey.
"I tried to educate myself," she said. "I mean, one day I was writing about Gators softball in the Women's College World Series, then the next day I was talking about the SEC meetings, and the next day it was Lightning in the Stanley Cup playoffs or the NBA playoff. It was fun. Even if you're not very knowledgeable on a subject, you will be before you leave there."
Some other examples:
Swimmer Elise Bauer, a Health Education and Behavior major, also took a turn at Shands and along the way witnessed an open heart surgery.
Sophomore distance runner Caden Monk, from Gainesville, put his pursuit of a Business Administration degree to use at Bosshardt Reality and had a front-row view of what goes into appraising a home for sale.
Gymnast Payton Richards, a Family, Youth and Community Science major from Mokena, Ill., was partnered with a child-life specialist at Shands, where she tended to the spirits of pediatric patients facing difficult procedures and extended stays in the hospital.
The end result was another rewarding summer.
A really cool one.
"The whole experience was just really validating for me," Ray said. "Before this internship I was kind of blindly going toward pharmacy, just kind of picked it and hoped it was the right thing for me to do. Now, I feel like I have a set purpose in mind. I really, really loved it."
