By: Katie Serna (Class of 2018)
For my internship, I am working with the Terra Linda Athletic Trainer to help implement methods to conserve water in the athletic department while also learning about sports medicine. I am currently working on writing a proposal for how I plan on saving excess water that goes unused by sports teams. The current ideas in my proposal are to give unused water to the MarinSEL garden to water the plants. And to freeze extra water and use it as ice to help treat injuries. I am working on making a list of contacts for who I need to reach out and propose my ideas to as well. I am excited to start going through with my ideas because I think that they will really help to cut down on the amount of water wasted at Terra Linda High School. While my internship’s main focus is on water conservation, I love that I have also been able to shadow my employer, Kit Holsten, and learn about what she does as an athletic trainer.
The body is extremely fascinating to me, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy sports medicine because you are able to help people and can learn about the body and how everything works together to create one functional human being. I have been working with an athlete recovering from an injury and helping to rehabilitate them so they can return to their sport. I help the athletic trainer to oversee the exercises the athlete is doing and as they heal we can re-strengthen the area of injury to prevent another injury from happening again. I love that I have been able to help my fellow athletes return to their sport as quickly and as safely as possible.
My only struggle so far in my internship is that I wish I could help even more with injured athletes. Since I am only an intern and am not medically trained, I cannot help treat any injuries. I am able to assist with minor things such as wrapping ice, but I wish I could do more. Kit is always so busy having to care for so many athletes and I feel bad sometimes wishing I could do more. I am glad that I am able to help as much as I can, even if it’s not as much as I want to. So far I am really enjoying my internship and excited to learn more things about sports medicine and to really help to conserve water at Terra Linda.
