The main portion of my STEP project was researching and developing a training program to incorporate both individual athlete needs and team goals. I oversaw training sessions 3 times weekly to teach proper mechanics, inspire athletes, and adapt to meet refined goals, and led integrated team building workouts to create an atmosphere of team-wide respect and trust

I learned that investing energy into developing those around me is something that I truly enjoy. I had to learn when to hold back and not become too invested, but getting to spend time with the group of athletes and invest into them showed me that I value these personal relationships. Learning this showed me that I need to find areas in my life where I can work with people and build relationships, especially with the generation a few years younger than me. Their age was special because I had more life experience than the athletes, but was close enough in age to still be relatable.

My other notable learning was that you can’t do everything yourself. You don’t know what you don’t know. Being humble, willing to listen, and ready to learn are key in developing yourself and helping other people.

The first event was one of my athletes slowing transforming over the course of the training program. Ben was a sophomore, very quiet, and far from being one of the top athletes. He was a player who could easily fade into the background. As we were training, I worked with Ben to build strength and confidence. A large portion of this was encouraging him to try things that were challenging for him. At first he was hesitant, but slowly he started to stand up and face his challenges. By the end of the program, he was the most vocal leader on the team. If someone was slacking, Ben was shouting across the court for them to push themselves. When other athletes were giving up, Ben was leading by example and pushing through. It was an incredible testimony to see how he grew from being the quiet kid to the most valuable leader on the team.

The second event was when I wrote the initial training program and knew it needed more work. I reached out to Quadrian Banks, OSU’s Men’s Basketball Strength and Conditioning Coach, and he agreed to meet. Not only did he help me develop a superior training program, but he pointed me towards multiple resources to further my learning. He taught me training principles and taught me where to learn more.

This change has been instrumental in my career search. Learning the value of investing in people and how to learn have enabled me to pursue my career goals. I’m currently an aspiring Software Developer, pursuing web development skills through Udemy, Harvard CS50, and other resources. I discovered my passion for coding during my internship this summer by solving business analysis challenges with VBA. These challenges led me to continuously learn new aspects of VBA and sparked my interest in software development. My experiences during my STEP internship enabled me to think broader, bigger, and outside of myself. I learned how to teach myself strength and conditioning and applied the same concepts to learning programming. STEP was a fantastic way to stretch myself to pursue new things.

Curious about how the athletes improved from the program? Training Program Results