At Buena Vista University, students’ majors require many different things: different lengths of credit, certain classes they have to take and even internships. Students have a choice of doing internships on campus, in town or even across the country. For the exercise science student in the strength and conditioning track, many have chosen a unique opportunity on campus.

Students like Serafin Galvan and Sebastian Clear have been selected to be interns in the Athletic Performance department, where they spend most of their time in the weight room. Both students are head interns under their mentor, Shane Maier.

Galvan, a sophomore, has been an intern for a year and a half and was named a head intern after one semester. Clear, also a sophomore, has been an intern since the beginning of the spring semester after switching majors.

Even though both students got their starts with the program at different times, they have very similar ways they started. “I’d gone up to Coach Maier, and I had asked him if he would be OK allowing me to intern, or, you know, what I needed to do to be one of his interns. He just kind of offered me the internship to see how I did, and I did really well my first semester, just being a normal intern, and that ended up making me a head intern coming into this year,” Galvan stated.

Clear added, “I switched my major at the beginning of the year, and I talked to Coach Maier about it, and he said he would want to bring me on.”

As an intern in the program, students learn hands-on and are put right into it as soon as they begin their internship. Maier discussed his process in creating the workload for his interns.

“We developed programs for certain teams. We shadowed the coach to understand what cues they wanted to give. We also gave insight on how, as an intern, I would then correct an athlete, as well as understanding the cohesiveness of athletic training, and then understanding how to read athletes, build a relationship with them, so I kind of carried that on from University of Iowa to here.”

For both Galvan and Clear, they are assigned teams to work with during the seasons. These change depending on what sport is in season, heading into season or in post-season. Clear has worked with women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, and tennis. Galvan has worked with basketball, cheer, stunt, and dance.

They have personal objectives they want to strive for as interns. Galvan said, “Help the environment. The weight room, obviously, is for coaching. If someone has bad form, or if someone needs help on the workout, I can help them out.”

Clear stated, “To help athletes just be more explosive, be able to translate what we do in the weight room onto the field and help them to do that as much as possible.”

With both students being sophomores and student-athletes themselves, they are put into a unique situation of coaching their fellow student-athletes. Some of these peers are seniors and fifth-years. For them, it’s important to separate coach and friend when it comes to other student-athletes.

Clear said, “They’re really responsive to any technique that I give them. And so, I mean, the girls all do well. And any other team that I talk to, whether it’s men’s or women’s, they all do a good job with responding, no matter if they’re older than me or younger.”

Galvan said, “I think that they kind of respect that too, and they also know that I’m not there to be, you know, mean to them. I’m not there to pick out little things. I’m there to try and help them out with my knowledge.”

Even though both students have had struggles, they have to overcome them. These two students work hard and use their love for weightlifting in their internship. From the early rise in the morning to help the athletes of Buena Vista University achieve and win the day, to the late afternoon after classes to push them to grow even after being tired. Galvan and Clear are passionate, and it shows.

For Maier, he counts on these two to have the success of the weight room continue.

“I’ve had a lot of interns, and this semester, well, it’s just Serafin and Baz. They really dived in and helped with kind of getting things rolling.”