Reflections from Vasa’s summer intern

By Galen Broido

A competitive swimmer’s summer usually consists of early morning practices, swim coaching, life-guarding and one-piece tan lines.

Although the sport of swimming is one that I have, do and will always love, I promised myself that my summers would not look like this. I felt I needed a separation from my training and my work.

When I arrived home after my first collegiate swim season at UNC Asheville this spring, I was looking for new work experience, something that related to my interest in a Mass Communications major.

The opportunity for a summer internship at Vasa seemed liked a match made in heaven for many reasons:

  1. I would be working with the marketing team (there’s the Mass Communication connection!) to create a Training Guide for new Vasa owners.
  2. Working at Vasa would allow me to gain valuable work experience that was very different from anything I’d experienced before (which mainly consisted of wading knee-deep in vegetables at a farm!).
  3. A local Vermont company that strives to help athletes (swimmers specifically!) improve their training and racing.
  4. As a company that works with and for athletes, they agreed to accommodate my own training schedule.

Balancing work with a difficult practice schedule is a challenge.

However, any worries I had about the parallels between my training and my work were soon put to rest. I not only learned the ropes of working in an office setting, but I also learned more than I could have imagined about the sport of swimming.

By compiling information for the Training Guide, I learned the marketing and business side of working in an office. I’ve also gained a focus for what I would like to study at school. Through all of the spreadsheets and research documents I made, I absorbed more information than I could have imagined about the sport of swimming. From tips coaches gave, to sports psychology, I have a new perspective on the sport I thought I knew so much about.


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