final Reflections
My experience thus far has been great with the YMCA, and I'm going to continue interning their next semester as am in the position of being the coordinator of the Men's adult basketball league. I am also going to doing various community service projects next semester with Together hood in which these both will help improve the experience section of my resume. The aspect of this internship that added to my personal development is the factor of being patient. There are many aspects of business which requires patience and I had a first had experience of being patient when it came to the community responding back on possible participation in the different YMCA sports leagues. The experiences on the job that related to my academic studies are: the construction of the facility and aspect of marketing an event out to the community. This internship has influenced my career objectives due to me having to apply business strategies to coaching. I would consider other students to apply for this position because It will allow them to make an impact in the Tiffin Community and it will be a great experience on their resume.
Communication and Interactions with my Supervisor
I felt that me and my supervisor did not start out with great communication but as I progressed into my internship, We began having meetings various times a week and we would be sending emails back in forth with various ideas. I know enjoy talking to my supervisor because he not only relate to me as a student-athlete (since he was once a student-athlete in his younger years), but he has taught me many business strategies that I was unfamiliar with. We would have meetings in his office for a few hours discussing different marketing strategies and also discussing my future upon graduating form Tiffin University. I appreciate him in understanding the goals that I have in my future and I know that he is doing all the he can to make sure I can add a great internship experience onto my resume. As stated in a previous post, some interactions involved touring around the facility to see the different aspects of how the facility was built.
Together Hood update
After Meeting with Deena Smith, My first task was choose a project. This means I have to talk to community groups to find projects the Together hood committee to vote on. The potential groups that will mostly likely have projects include: Habitat, City Parks Department, County Parks Department, Adopt a road, and City downtown clean up. There are also guidelines I have to follow once i figure out which project we will be performing. There is a schedule that must be followed to ensure that each project is carried out in a timely manner. Things that must be included are: time to travel and park, check in, receive instructions, set-up, complete the task, clean-up, and the celebration at the completion of the project. These are the many things i take in consideration when contacting these different organizations to set up potential projects. I researched each of the organizations listed above to see which would be a great service opportunity in which they all are great opportunities. The toughest decision is deciding which project to should we try to perform and how many people will need to be presented to allow the project to be carried out in a timely manner.
Back into the Community
My supervisor wanted me to continue my search for members of the leagues. We came up with another way in which we could possibly gain members. We used the idea of reaching out to people on the different social media's since it has become a key way of communication in our society today. One idea that we came up with was to reach out to middle aged women over Facebook since their a popular group who would be pretty active on Facebook. We also felt to reach out to young adults over twitter and Instagram since those two applications are commonly used by young adults. We went through the rosters of people who are members of the YMCA and we seen if they had Facebook accounts to contact. We figured out that middle aged men are not as active on Facebook in the city of Tifffin, however this group of people can be found at various bars and restaurants around town. An idea that i came up with was to possible post flyers in the Tiffin famous Madison Street Tavern since its a well known establishment in Tiffin. This will allow us to be able to reach out to different age groups in our target market.
Restructuring of the Tiffin YMCA
While meeting with the CEO, He asked me on things that i think should be improved to the overall Tiffin YMCA facility. I felt as though they needed to add a new surface where the basketball courts are located. The ground in that specific area has a hard impact on a person leg which cause issues such as shin splints and other common leg injuries. I felt as if there was a change made to the flooring, then it would cause more people to want to come play basketball at the YMCA. I also felt that they should expand their fitness room to add more machines that are muscle specific. This tactic will most likely cause a rise in the attendance due to the YMCA having machines that other fitness places do not have. I believe that the YMCA should have a track and field program in the spring as they have in the summer due to the actual track and field season occurring in the spring. this will allow kids to gain an experience on running track in the actual time of year they would run in once they reach middle school and high school. We also discussed creating a flag football league due to the unorganized leagues around the Tiffin community. If the YMCA creates there own league then all of the community flag football leagues could send their players to the Y to create a type of tournament.
Various Meetings with the CEO
Some fellow interns and I had various meetings with the CEO of the YMCA to discuss ways to better improve the overall experience at the YMCA. I provided ideas of making a certain area as am aerobics area since they were adding a different type of flooring to the room which correlate with aerobics and stretching. We took a tour around the facility and while we were touring, i discovered a concept from class that I discuss with the CEO. In my SRM 325 course, facilities and design management, We discussed that while building a new facility, you have to account that the facility has to have a certain amount of toilets and water fountains throughout the facility. While we visited the locker rooms (which are currently being renovated) I noticed only two toilets in each of the locker rooms and I asked the CEO if that was going to be enough toilets in which he said it would. He also showed us the many other renovations they were making to the YMCA and how some were more important than others due to the needs of the organization. We discussed in SRM 325 that most organizations make sure the most important needs of their facility is handled first.
Elementary School Experience
My supervisor, Steve Crone, presented me with an opportunity to help pass out sack lunches to children at Krout Elementary school in Tiffin, Ohio. It was a great experience due to me being a big help to the two other volunteers. We went to each classroom while the kids were at recess and we passed out lunches in each classroom. This volunteer service that we provided has a great impact of the children at the school because there were some children that do not have food once they leave school. these lunches provided the children with a chance to space out food during the week and the weekend since there were plenty of food and snacks in each sack lunches. It was also nice to see the big smiles on the different kids faces while we were going throughout the school with the lunches. I have had previous experience with working with children so this gave me a chance to help impact a child's life. this is one of the most memorable experiences I had during my internship experience. When we went in each classroom, We would look up the child's name and place a lunch in their respective bookbags
The stars of the Organization
There are different stars of the YMCA. The CEO, Steve Crone, is the main star due to him overseeing every operation that occurs within the YMCA. He was the person that I was in most contact with due him having the answers to any question i had regards to my internship experience. Another star would be Deena Smith because she introduced me into a program that can be beneficial for me in my internship experience as well as community service. These are two people in the organization that I report to whenever I have any questions or complete a project. My favorite part about the internship experience is the fact that I'm making a great impact on a community in which i didn't originate from. I am always pleased when I help others whether its with community service or if its sports related. My least favorite part of the internship experience is waiting on the responses from the people in the community in joining the various sports leagues. I would also say that this is the most difficult part of the internship experience as well.
Applying my coursework to Internship Experience
My internship experience has allowed me to become exposed to many business strategies that occur in many organizations. I am currently taking MGT 495 which is organizational strategy and there are concepts from that class that I have seen occur within my internship experience at the YMCA. In our class we discussed the importance of the growth of an organization as that will determine if the organization will make a profit. As I stated before, One of my responsibilities as an intern is to help promote the YMCA to the community to help with growth. This experience has allowed me to gain a better understanding of on how owners of a business must continue to find ways to promote revenue. In my MGT 495 class, we had to perform a business strategy game throughout the course, each group had to figure out how to produce revenue for their company which is simulation of how a CEO has to find revenue for their company.
Togetherhood
As I was waiting for the responses of people joining the basketball league, I began to work on another project which is called together hood. This program includes members of the YMCA and members of the community going out into the community to perform any type of volunteer service that is needed. Deena Smith is the person in the YMCA who shared this program with me and is the overseer over the Tiffin together hood program. The projects can include anything from cleaning a park in the community or painting a house. I felt as though this was a special opportunity for me because I always feel great when I help make a difference in the community. What I learned new this week was that there is a process an organization has to go through when trying to perform volunteer service in the community. This includes: gathering members together to see how many volunteers will be present, finding people who can influence others in the community to volunteer, and finding a certain project to complete.
Expanding into the communtiy
This part of my internship required me to be away from the YMCA and into the community. I was required to try to help promote the adult sports league to different people in the community. This included college students all the way up to middle aged men. I would say that this one of the most difficult times of my internship because this process took much time due many people being uninterested. This goes back to my initial learning expectations because one expectation that I had coming into this internship was to gain a better grasp on how to market and promote certain events or a type of sports league. Another learning expectation that I had was to gain a better understanding on how run a business similar to the YMCA in which my supervisor Steve Crone shared with the many qualities that it took to run a business similar to the YMCA. We discussed that running a business requires patience which is a quality a needed when trying to promote the sports league. His true goal is to increase the attendance at the Tiffin YMCA and my job as his intern is to help him in his goal by promoting the Y's sports leagues.
Continuation of Basketball League
We have to contact the old coordinator of the previous basketball league's t gain a list of previous players to contact them about our new basketball league. We discussed sending emails out to potential members of the previous leagues to see if they were still interested in the upcoming league and we received many responses. The feeling that I have whenever i'm in the YMCA is a positive feeling due to me making a great impact to improve the organization. I enjoy helping others and making a difference in the community and I have made a difference in the Tiffin community by helping getting an older group involved in a sports league. It is common to see older people in most community not very active and I felt great to see people interested in joining a sports league that I help coordinate.
Coordinating Basketball League
For the next 10 hours, We developed a plan to start a new adult basketball league for the months of January through April. We looked at the way other YMCA created there basketball leagues and we seen that we should try to bring in a big group of men to allow different divisions based on skill level. My supervisor played a big role in my internship and He provided help all throughout my experience. He showed me how to create surveys and he showed me the different ways a balance sheet is used within the organization. This allowed me to gain experience in areas that I'm not familiar with.
Beginning of Internship experience- First 10 Hours
As I began my internship experience at the YMCA, I had a pretty familiarity with the YMCA environment which its located in most parts of the United States. I performed my internship at the YMCA in Tiffin Ohio and I had several meetings with the CEO Steve crone. We discussed on how the organization needed to gain more members in several sports programs ranging from young adolescence to adults. My supervisor and I devised a youth sports plan which allowed me to gain an understanding on how the organization markets and reaches out to young children and encourages them to participate in the sports programs that are provided by the organization. My supervisor did not require a type of dress code as the YMCA is a place where physically activity is usually encouraged so I typically wore athletic type of gear.