My name is Zach Round, and I am a senior Communication Studies student with a minor in Creative and Cultural Industries. COM 490, my internship, is my last class ever at Chapman as I graduate in the summer of 2024. You can say I saved the best for last! My internship took place at CORE Athletic Training, which mostly does recess and after-school enrichment programs at the local elementary schools in Newport Beach, California. Over the summer, they hold a summer camp, and that is what I was up to at my internship for the summer.

Fun times at CORE

Some of this internship’s responsibilities included cleaning up and refereeing some games for the campers. Also, sometimes during the camp, some coaches and CITs got to play in the games with the campers; CIT stands for Coach in Training. In my reflection on this internship, I said, “It isn’t really an internship,” meaning that it was so much fun that I did not see it as work or an internship. Now, before I get too far ahead with how great this internship was, let’s get into how this relates to communication.

When in this role, you need to communicate with the campers, but communication at a higher level will only work with some campers as they range from ages 4 to 11, so their brains are still developing. You have to communicate sophisticatedly enough yet basic for the campers to understand what you are saying, especially when explaining the next game they will play. Conflict also arises in this camp, so conflict management skills are a must-have. The campers can have issues at home, towards each other, or with themselves because they got out during a game. It is crucial to learn each management style and when to use them, and thankfully, I learned them at Chapman. You also have ‘fire drills’ that are uncontrollable and that you need to adjust on the fly, and that is what any college can teach you with changing due dates or changing life events.

Another significant aspect of this internship was social media marketing and content creation. I was responsible for providing guidance to the social media team and creating engaging content for their Instagram platform. This role allowed me to apply my self-taught social media marketing skills and learn new strategies to increase engagement and reach. While I was mostly self-taught in this area, my academic background at Chapman did provide me with some marketing knowledge that was beneficial in this role.

The content that I created for CORE

Overall, this experience has been super fun, and I am very thankful to have been a part of expanding my reach. You can say Chapman prepared me well enough to fit this role because, in the end, they offered me a paid position as a lead coach.