Sydney Pruitt

Reflection Paper

Internship in Public Health

7 July 2023

Reflection Paper

Introduction

My name is Sydney Pruitt, and I am a public health student at Georgia College and State

University. I chose my internship site to be Bodplex in Milledgeville, GA. Bodyplex4 is a full-

service health club with fitness centers in various locations in Georgia and even a few locations

outside of the country! Boyplex’s core belief is delivering an “anticipated, life-changing fitness

experience the world didn’t know it was missing.” As far as staffing, Bodyplex requires many

talented and hardworking individuals to help run the gym. These employees include the owner,

wellness director, manager, personal trainers, class instructors, daycare workers, front desk workers,

and janitors. These roles are all crucial and all work together to help the gym run efficiently and

smoothly. These people work alongside each other to give each and every member the best

experience possible. The wellness director is the head of all gym operations and oversees making

sure all services the gym provides are running smoothly. The personal trainers work with members

to assist them in achieving their fitness goals. The class instructors lead group fitness classes where

members can take a class and mainly mirror what the instructor does. These classes include Zumba,

bodypump, bodyjam, bodycombat, Silver Sneakers, as well as a few others. The daycare workers

work in the daycare and provide childcare services to provide a fun and safe environment for kids to

enjoy. Members who have children can bring their kids to the daycare where they can play with

other kids and in the daycare and the parent is able to work out carefree without worrying if they

will have to get childcare or whatnot. Front desk workers represent the face of the gym, so members
are properly greeted with a friendly appearance. Front desk workers are also there to assist members

with drinks, protein supplements, and merchandise purchases. In addition, front desk workers are

there to help new members sign up for memberships and help choose a membership plan that best

suits their fitness needs. Lastly, we have the janitors. In my opinion, janitors are crucial to the gym

and are very important in making the gym look presentable. Like all other gyms, Bodyplex has a

large variety of different machines which are all shared by members. The janitors help make the

gym look clean by making sure all of the gym equipment is properly sanitized and wiped down, as

well as making the floors appear nice and clean. No one wants to work out at a gym where it looks

filthy and nothing is cleaned, which is why Bodyplex has a janitor that comes in daily to make the

gym look nice and presentable. All the members at the gym are there for the same reason. To

improve their overall health and well-being. Whether you are in there to lose weight, gain weight,

gain muscle, work on balance, stability, etc. these are all things that are benefiting our health.

Bodyplex has a large variety and diversity of members including a wide age range. Even though all

movements and exercises can be scaled to meet one's capabilities, Bodyplex offers high-intensity

cardio classes and offers Silver Sneakers classes which are catered to adults that are 65 and older.

That is why Bodyplex is such a great gym to go to because it caters to all audiences and provides

plenty of resources to assist someone in achieving their fitness goals.

Description of Experiences

My role as an intern consisted of taking on many tasks throughout the day that were

constantly changing daily. Since Bodyplex is usually chosen by exercise majors, a large majority of

my time as an intern consists of shadowing and assisting personal trainers through their training

sessions. However, since my supervisor knows I am a public health major, she was able to give me

tasks that consisted of “behind the scenes” work where I was able to do paperwork and even do

some health promotion. However, I really enjoyed shadowing the personal trainers. Having
extensive fitness knowledge and an exercise background, I was quick in becoming comfortable with

helping the members do their exercises as well as helping with their form. It was very rewarding

seeing the members work hard to complete their exercises and become closer to achieving their

goals. What was even more rewarding was seeing a member make progress and do a movement or

exercise that they were not able to do before they started personal training. Just being a part of these

members' personal fitness journeys these past few months has been so rewarding and I have gotten

to see so many people accomplish many remarkable things. To be completely honest, the most

challenging part of the internship was not anything dealing with the actual internship site itself, but

the workload combined with doing hours at the internship site was very challenging for me. I do not

know about other students doing the summer internship, but balancing all the things that I had to do

on a weekly basis and attempting to put my mental health first was extremely difficult for me.

Doing 38-40 hours a week, doing the weekly journal and discussions all the while gradually

working on the project combined with taking care of my dog, and horses, making sure I had

groceries, my house was clean, my second job, and maintaining my personal life has taken a huge

toll on me! I will be grateful once my workload goes down dramatically. Not to mention, I had to

take on a new class with Dr. Jarriel that started earlier this month! As I said, I will be thankful when

things slow down.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

Honestly, I did not know what to expect before I first started interning at Bodyplex. My

supervisor mentioned that I would be working alongside some personal trainers, but I was unsure

what that entailed. I will say, however, that I did not expect for me to enjoy working in the gym so

much. I have met so many people and have not only built personal relationships but also

professional relationships while working at the gym. I would agree in saying that the organization

was open to my ideas and contributions that I spoke about in various situations. I was able to put my
input into helping the personal trainers create their workouts, which movements they incorporated,

and even recommend rep schemes. Most of the trainers were very open to me contributing and

inputting my opinions into different workouts and some trainers even asked me my opinion on

various topics. I was even able to recommend doing things differently to make things run more

efficiently. I would say the supervision from the internship site supervisor was effective. Amberly

always makes sure that I have something to do and that I am doing things correctly. She always

ensured that I was getting my hours and that if I was ever low on hours I could come in early/stay

late to get more hours. Amberly is a wonderful internship supervisor! Even though I enjoy helping

with the personal training sessions very much, I kind of wish I was able to do more things that were

public health-oriented versus exercise science oriented. The only challenge I faced while writing my

discussions is that I felt like everyone else in the class all work/interned at a place that focuses more

on public health as to where mine was more focused on exercise science. So, I would say the only

thing I could have improved about my internship was maybe doing more things centered on health

promotion. I believe that I could have done some social media marketing for the gym to promote

business and also spread awareness about various health-related topics. I would recommend this

setting to future interns. I would not recommend it to public health interns necessarily unless they

are planning to go to grad school for sports/athletic training, but I would still recommend it. I would

possibly consider a career in a setting like this if it were a managing position or something similar.

Unfortunately, the trainers at Bodyplex do not make very much money so I do not see myself

making a career out of being a personal trainer per se.

Internship Preparedness:

For my internship placement, I did not really get to use the academic skills I gained at

Georgia College. As I mentioned earlier, my internship was exercise science-oriented, so I was

slightly disappointed when I was not able to apply most of what I learned at Georgia College in my
public health classes. One thing that my public health classes did prepare me for was how to be

more aware and accepting of different lifestyles and of people who come from different

backgrounds. So, when it came to talking to people, I made sure to be more aware of people's

backgrounds and cultures when it came to discussing fitness and nutrition. Some of the classes that I

thought were most relevant to my internship were Anatomy and Physiology of Human Movement. I

often referred to different muscle groups that were being targeted through different exercises, so

knowing and memorizing parts of the human body was crucial to be able to explain things. I think

that the GCSU/School of Health and Human Performance did a great job of preparing us for real-

life application of public health concepts and for future employment. The Public Health course

requirements in my opinion consist of a wide variety of key classes that are needed for someone

who wants to work in public health to become successful. The GCSU/School of Health and Human

Performance holds its students to a high standard and prepares them for real-world experiences

upon graduation. I loved all my professors and believe they wanted the best for all of their students.

In all honesty, I do not believe that the GCSU/School of Health and Human Performance could do

anything better to help their students become prepared for future employment.

Internship Performance

I believe that the main skills I acquired as part of my internship were major communication

skills. I have learned to be an active listener, how to share feedback, and use of the right

communication methods. To be honest, I was not completely satisfied with my performance on my

punctuality in turning in some assignments. I wish earlier on in my internship that I could have done

better with time management. I believe that I improved, and I am content with the progress I made.

When I was rushing to turn in assignments, I was not able to turn in assignments to the best quality

that I know that I can give. At the same time, I believe that I did not do so badly in adapting because

going from taking a few classes a week to working 40 hours a week and still managing to turn in
assignments was a huge change in lifestyle, so I am proud of myself for adapting. If I had to rate my

work on a scale of 10, I would rate myself a 7/10. I think that I could work on my time

management. At the same time, I have kept in mind that my workload will not be as much once I

begin my career, so I am trying not to be too hard on myself.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits

The internship has impacted my personal goals the most. Seeing these members come in and

work hard to achieve their goals and better themselves is really inspiring and has only made me

more motivated to work on myself more. For example, there is a member that is one of the hardest

workers I have ever seen. She is a nurse that works 12-hour shifts (7:00 pm-7:00 am) and as soon as

she gets off work she comes to the gym. If that does not motivate someone, I do not know what

would. Seeing her do what she does has inspired me and given me a reason to not make any excuses

when it comes to taking care of myself. I also believe that this experience has given me confidence

when talking to others. I am more likely to speak up and tell others if there is an issue or if

something needs to be brought to their attention. One of the most important lessons I learned while

doing my internship is that the only way someone can get help, they must want it. I think that this

belief applies to many people. Whether you want to help someone who suffers from addiction,

someone who wants to lose weight, or someone who suffers from mental illness, you will not be

able to help that individual unless they truly want help. While doing my internship, I got to witness

many people who could have put more effort into their workouts and eating habits and wondered

why they were not losing weight. I know that exercising frequently and eating healthy can be

difficult for someone who has never done it before, but if they truly want to better themselves, they

will give it all they have. So, it was sometimes frustrating to see people complain that they were not

losing weight whenever they were not giving it their all and challenging themselves. In conclusion,

I really enjoyed my time interning at Bodyplex. Even though I am thankful for it to soon be over, I
will also miss it terribly. I have made many connections and have grown close with some of the

members and to think that I may not get to see them again really hurts my heart. However, I am

thankful for this opportunity and for all the things it has taught me! Also, a special shoutout to Mrs.

Dupree for being an amazing instructor! Your help and feedback were greatly appreciated and I am

honored to have had you for this course. Thank you for all that you have done.