Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Sports Leadership

Luke
Major: Sport Management It was a lot of Event Management. You would help set up for events like the Meijer State Games, Transplant Games of America, The Color Run, and the U.S. Open Table Tennis. You have to work long hours and have to be able to communicate well with others.

Game & Event Operations

Nico
Major: Sport Management Tasks include but are not limited to set up and tear down of all field equipment used during the game, set up of scoreboards and music. Hosted visiting team and officials, aided with direction as far as where these visiting teams and officials are supposed to go.

Griffins Internship

Mitch
Major: Sport Management When I was interning with the Grand Rapids Griffins I was in charge of select concourse areas on game nights, as well as working in the box office with the ticketing operations team. There were times that we as interns had special projects to take care of, this meant coming in on weekends and overseeing the cross ice jamboree and season ticket holder events. I also monitored post game autograph sessions and jersey auctions that took place throughout the regular season.

GV Football Summer 2013

Mitch
Major: Sport Management While working for Coach Mitchell and Grand Valley's football team I was able to monitor and oversee numerous events. I worked as the liaison during the MHSAA All-Star game, ensuring each high school team on campus had everything they needed, working 14 hour days and multiple practices. I also monitored Grand Valley's annual youth camps that they hold each summer, keeping track of timing and scheduling so that the camp didn't go to long. Seeing that it was the off season for the football program there wasn't a lot of hands on experience, but I learned a lot from shadowing and networking with the coaching staff. I look forward to coming back in the fall and working with the Coach Mitchell throughout the season.

Rec Facilities Intern experience

Daniel
Major: Sport Management Worked on benching marking and fundraising projects related to recreation space, enrollment, space per student, as well as fundraising research for student organizations. Learned about day to day operations and maintenance of all rec facilities, including all outdoor rec, rec center, pool, fitness center, weight room, Kelly Turf building. Help with preventative maintenance tasks, worked with student staff, attending monthly staff meetings, as well as weekly meeting with management. Help with set-up and tear down of some events and activities, and learned about scheduling and memberships.

Game Of Your Life Experience

Joshua
Major: Sport Management I worked at a tour assistant for every TaylorMade-Adidas Collegiate Series events. My job was to set up the golf course, be a rules official and do the scoring once players are done with their rounds. While working at the shop, I became an excellent salesperson by selling golf equipment and I also had the opportunity to teach junior golfers of all ages during the camps and clinics that I ran. At the Golf Club of Coldwater, I was in charge of running the junior golf leagues. Which consisted of a 30-minute lesson then help the kids on the golf course. One task for the college tour that I did, was answer phone calls at the tour office, register players, explain rules and processes, and put together packets to send out to members of our tour. As well as keep the web page up to date at all time.

Personal Trainer

Tim
Major: Sport Management created workouts, took clients through workouts

Storm Basketball

Ronald
Major: Sport Management I helped plan two of the biggest AAU basketball tournaments in west Michigan (Storm Classic and Brawl for the Ball. The Storm hosted both of them. I helped plan and run each of the tournaments. I also helped with clinics, practices, and camps ran by the Storm. I even handled equipment duties such as shoes, jerseys, shorts, etc.

Summer Lacrosse the Midwest

Steven
Major: Sport Management I was the head coach for the Varsity Elite team. My job was to plan and create practices that will contribute to the growth of players' fundamentals, and their Lacrosse IQ's. I was in charge of travel, which was driving rental vehicles, and making sure coaches arrive safely and on time to the sites of their games.

Sky's the limit

Fateah
Major: Sport Management Assisted Youth Basketball specialist with Court of Dreams programs in which youth teams get to play on the Sky court for 2 hours prior to the game. Setup and transported Sky material to and from event, team practices,and tournaments. Assisted running basketball clinics with youth at various schools and gym throughout the Chicagoland area. Sold tickets and obtained donations for Sky Cares.

McCahill Group Intership Experience

Juan
Major: Sport Management Give weight lifting introductions to new members Give tours of the facility to potential members Lead a group fitness class day-to-day maintenance Create/implement my own fitness program with members Lead "Agency PUMP" for Farmers University Create health related articles for members Market new products sales of products, memberships, etc

Inclusion and Innovation at Grand Valley Athletics

Joe
Major: Sport Management As a intern for the athletic department under Associate Athletic Director Keri Becker, I was fortunate to work on several great projects. One of which was the new transgender student-athlete policy that Grand Valley has created for the upcoming year. I was in charge of preparing a presentation to the entire coaching staff to educate them on the new policy. This was extremely informative and I learned so much about inclusion in athletics. Grand Valley has shown that they pride themselves on being proactive and not reactive. I also have been working on the "ooVoo Champion Project". The purpose of the project is to further help student-athletes meet their obligations as students as well as athletes. The project allows student-athletes to have class recorded that they miss due to travel and watch them on their own time. The program reinforces that Grand Valley's student-athletes are truly students first, athletes second and further ensure we are "creating the best learning environment possible".

Beacon Hill at Eastgate

Kaitlin
Major: Health Professions Worked with the program manager of Assisted Living and Dementia Unit in managing the staff, and helping create a thriving environment for each resident by making sure their care plans were up to date and were receiving satisfactory care from all staff.

Oasis of Opportunity

Cameron
Major: Health Professions Through my time at Oasis I had the opportunity to shadow many medical practitioners (PA, MD, DO, and NP), observe/participate in the administration side of healthcare, assist in writing stories for donors, advertise medical services, update medical records, and assist patients acquire prescription assistance, among others.

Nursing Manager Intern

Austin
Major: Health Professions I sat in on bed meetings, which was an overview of how full the hospital was for the day with beds, how many nurses they had on as well as PCA's and trying to make sure that every floor was staffed correctly and just an overview of what the day may look like with surgeries, patients getting discharged, etc.

Health & Wellness

Maria
Major: Health Professions Some of the tasks I completed while at my internship include, but are not exclusive to-entering class evaluations into the computer, writing features for weekly emails, registering people for classes, distributing flyers throughout the hospital, and attending evening events.

Patient Access

Dreena
Major: Health Professions My summer project was to rewrite the registration policy for the ER. I observed in the emergency department, followed along with the registration desk employees, and was trained on the Health Quest computer system to gather information on how to fix the policy. I also collected all insurance information from every coordinator and created a data base so new associates can easily gain access to all insurance companies. Created maps with the original floor plans of the hospital showing how to get to the conference rooms. I also wrote directions to every location in the hospital.

Speaking Spanish in Spain

Lori
Major: Health Professions I worked with physical therapists, psychiatrists, a nurse to assistant in the daily activities provided within the school and the residential facility. I assisted within the classroom setting, therapy setting as well as the physical therapy sessions in the gym as well as the hydrotherapy in the spa. I assisted in feeding residents who do not have use of their hands as well as bathroom assistance.

Clinica Santa Maria

Connie
Major: Health Professions I helped with outreach events and programs that were hosted by Clinica Santa Maria. I also helped to finish an application for a grant that will help bring a maternal infant health program on board at the clinic. We hope that the program will grow after starting at the clinic.

Learning the Roles of an Inpatient Neuroscience Unit Within the Hospital

Paul
Major: Health Professions As an intern within the Hauenstein Center, I was privileged to provide care for a diverse population of patients suffering from a variety of medical issues. Most of my daily tasks consisted of working with patients by taking vital signs, providing help with daily activities such as bathing and eating, transferring patients to other units in the hospital, taking blood sugars, and learning how to provide specific care for different diagnoses. Through doing this, I was able to learn the roles of different clinicians on the unit and spend time with physicians, physicians assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, registered nurses, health care managers, and nurse technicians.

A Summer in Dublin

Tatiana
Major: Health Professions During my internship, I rotated through the hospital. I spent most of my time in finance, patient support and cardiac with some days observing labs, conferences, and the play room. Most of my work in finance was based around getting new bills from the post, sorting them and putting them into the computer. In the cardiac department, I spent a lot of time updating charts and making sure they charts are where they are supposed to be in the hospital. I observed some cardiac conferences about patients and planning their treatment. I also observed some cardiac cath procedures. During my time in patient support, I helped release copies of patient charts requested under the Freedom of Information act. I also logged complaints, compliments, thank you cards and parliamentary questions on the database. I visited the microbiology, histology, biochemistry and hematology labs for a few hours each lab to get a taste of what they do and how it is important. Because I didn't have a degree, they couldn't let me do any work in those labs, as that is customary in Ireland.

Process Excellence

Jessica
Major: Health Professions The internship I completed was in Process Excellence which uses management philosophies like lean to help healthcare improve quality while reducing costs and becoming more efficient overall. As a process excellence Intern I observed the Consultant during her advising/coaching sessions with clinical and administrative staff on designing as well as implementing system-wide interventions to improve clinical, process, operational and service outcomes. I got to participate in using lean tools such as value stream mapping to make improvements to the patient wait times in Wege Lab. I also helped implement a Kanban system in Cytology, Histology, and Specimen control. I also partook in developing a standard work for the process excellence department and a structure or idea for a training system for new specialists. In addition to implementing lean tools I as able to observe managers meetings which helped me better understand the value and importance of the Process excellence consultant.

My Introduction to the Surgical World

Audrey
Major: Allied Health Sciences As a nurse tech in the surgical center there are a variety of patient care tasks associated with pre-operative and post-operative care. When patients come in for surgery we are responsible for picking the patient up from the waiting room and introducing them to the center and the rest of their day. We take a base set of vitals on the patient, perform the necessary tests such as; blood sugar tests, EKGs, Urine Analysis, and/or pregnancy tests. For hysterectomy and ortho patients, nurse techs scrub the patients down with a CHG disinfectant while. We also assist the nurses in whatever other tasks they need help with pre-operatively and in caring for total care patients. After surgery the patients return and a new set of tasks is assigned to nurse techs. We welcome patients back from their procedure, very often still groggy from anesthesia, and take sets of vitals as the doctor has ordered. We also provide patients with their first chance for food and water in 24 hours. Pain management and communication with the nurses is also a big role of the nurse tech. We also complete bladder scans, blood sugars, urine assessments, discontinuing IVs, and getting patients up to the bathroom. The number one goal throughout the whole center is patient care, so above all you make exceptions for your patients and make sure they are receiving the best care you can possibly give them.