While Georgetown student-athletes work to reach their goals as a team on the field, senior Mia Girard stands on the sideline, watching attentively, working toward a goal of her own.
After graduating, Mia knew she wanted to pursue a college education in kinesiology or health sciences. With the hiring of Athletic Director and Athletic Trainer Jessica Whitehead at the start of the school year, Mia saw the perfect opportunity to kickstart her future.
Mia expressed interest in learning about the field of athletic training by spending her internship course hours shadowing and learning from Jessica.
Now, Mia is fully immersed in the world of athletic training.
Each day, on top of her other coursework, she takes on the administrative duties of an athletic trainer — assembling medical kits, organizing inventories in the training room, golf carts and storage room, and preparing rehabilitation plans. In the afternoon, she gets hands-on learning experience shadowing Jessica, helping athletes with their rehab plans, and treating them.
Mia doesn’t mind that her days are busy. She sees each day as an investment into her future.
“I love my internship, I look forward to it every day. I love getting to be on the sidelines at games and learning evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation techniques,” she said.
While shaping her knowledge and skills, the internship has also given Mia the opportunity to visualize her future.
“My internship has allowed me to see what my love for medicine and athletics looks like together and how much I like being involved with something that connects the two of them,” she explained.
Following college, Mia aspires to work in the field of sports medicine, ideally as part of the medical staff of a sports team, a passion that grew through hours of curiosity, commitment, and collaboration.
“Mia has been an absolute honor to have as my first intern here at Georgetown. It is really rewarding watching her dedication and excitement about this internship,” said Jessica. “Mia’s initiative to start this internship is a great example of the opportunities here at GMHS.”