Vivi Babalis is a junior on the UGA Gymnastics Team from Montreal, Quebec. She is currently studying Sport Management.
I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to complete an internship in my hometown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I was able to work for the Quebec Gymnastics Federation Headquarters. This year Montreal, Quebec hosted the Canadian Gymnastics National Championship. I was assigned to help the federation with this project. I was extremely happy and excited to be able to help and learn from the organization for the event. Being a gymnast myself and having competed at this meet several times, it was definitely different being on the other side of things. During the time I had with the Quebec Federation, I could say I touched a lot of different aspects on the organization for my responsibilities.
This internship taught me a lot, especially because usually I was the athlete and never saw the behind the scenes of the event. When you are the athlete you just worry about yourself and if everything is set up right for you, but now being on the other side with the staff was a whole different view. Putting up an event is a lot more work than you would think or imagine. I was lucky enough to have taken the course Sport Event Management this past spring and already had a good idea of all the work you need to put in. That course was really helpful for this internship. The better you prepare before the event, the easier the event will be. Working as a team and putting all our information we know about different aspects of the event really helps us go further and have a smoother event.
My internship gave me the opportunity to see a career field that I have been interest in where I can have a clearer idea if I want to pursue this occupation. My experience was beyond what I expected. I am very pleased and happy of my results.
The most valuable skill that I gained from my internship was the ability to speak, interact and communicate with people in a professional field.
