The Intern

An intern.

In the sports world. 

Is almost like a glorified free worker. 

That may seem like a tough idea to you but I’m just calling a spade a spade. 

The hours committed to doing the dirty work just for someone to say you’re never going to get a job or that you still need 5 years of experience and your degree isn’t all that. Just seems like a waste of time and the effort isn’t worth it. 

In the intern world, I have been very fortunate to receive compensation for my work and time but I still have experienced jobs where the time I put in was not worth my emotional well-being. 

Unnecessary backlash, being blamed for situations that you had no part in (but you’re an easy route out), giving 110% 6 days a week. To neglect your social life because someone else holds the keys to your success. 

That’s what it’s like. To feel like you sold your life just to get another intern position right out of college because that’s the only thing that your experience is worth. 

“It sucks.” Georgia Hoekstra said who is also an intern in sports. 

“We don’t get treated the same way. All of the problems of the staff fall on us and it’s our fault. They ask too much of us for it being unpaid.”

It’s almost like being a student-athlete expect not getting any of the benefits and having to choose between school or the job. This shouldn’t be the case because we are all here for school and an education. 

Even through sharing these words that most people my age go through. So many will still say, we all had to do it. ‘It’s part of the business world.’ ‘It’s just hard and you’re complaining too much’, ‘Just get a job and be grateful’. Let me tell you that I wouldn’t be saying these if I didn’t maintain 16 credits almost every semester, and hold three jobs, two of which are internships. 

Working in sports is a full-time position and it’s hard to be in a spot where you’re doing your passion but also your time and mental health are being targeted all at once. 

However, at the same time, I don’t want to say that all jobs in sports are this way. There are so many internships that pay and treat their interns well. I worked for the Denver Nuggets this summer and that was one of the best experiences and jobs I have had regarding bosses and pay. 

It seems like the sports world understands internships and their roles and the other half doesn’t. 

It seems like there needs to be a standard set in place for all sporting institutions to clarify the definition of an intern and the rules around it. 

Hoekstra said it great,

Sports need to “understand that we are students and Interns; that is a common thing that is forgotten.” 

If interns could be treated like the students that they are then it could create a better atmosphere. 

So many times I have heard that people want to work in sports but they can’t go a semester without pay or don’t have time because the time commitment is too much. If there was a standard just like any other job, I think that it would be more beneficial for the interns and the experience they’re essentially getting. 

“Be more flexible.”

That seems to be the deal. We are not your scapegoat, we are not just interns, we are not just people who enjoy sports, and we are not just students. We are student Interns who are looking to work in sports someday. Treating us like the people we are and being flexible with the other time commitments and experiences we have. 

The weird thing is, at the end of the day I still look forward to going into my sports job. I know that the toxic environment is always going to be there but It is something that I have to go through. It is part of the experience. I can only hope that someday it won’t be part of the experience and that the NCAA will follow the lines that the professional level has. That they won’t “expect us to make sacrifices, that they don’t expect others to make.” To guide and teach us what the sports world looks like and how we can grow and understand ourselves better. 

Maybe it is for the best that we have to go through this process, or maybe it’s just circumstantial, whatever it is, it’s hard and I wish change could happen. That the NCAA would be better.