Just a few short weeks removed from her college graduation, Kat Krtnick has joined the NCAA staff as an intern. Kat spent the past four years as a member of the Wisconsin-River Falls volleyball team, and shares some thoughts with us after completing her first week in the working world.

Just as players need a preparation period prior to a game to loosen up their muscles and to get into the mindset of competition, I have discovered that NCAA interns also require a warm-up???maybe not of the glutes and the quads as I am used to as a volleyball player and track runner, but a warm-up of the company culture, the co-workers, and all the cognitive processes of the brain.

Having just recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, I wonder if all graduating student-athletes endure the same transition into the workforce as I currently am. The only culture I have known my entire life thus far has been an incessant balancing act of strength and conditioning sessions, classes, practice, studying, work, committee meetings, and of course, a social life. Although the thought of abandoning ancient literature texts and calculus problems for eternity was exhilarating to me, I was also wondering if my qualifications and experiences would be adequate for the real world.

Here I am, in my first week as an NCAA Intern, ready to answer that very question and many more. Will my experiences as the setter on the volleyball team really teach me how to be a leader on the Public and Media Relations staff? How will the journalism and marketing knowledge that I have gained through being a two-year intern for the Kansas City Chiefs Summer Training Camp relate to intercollegiate athletics? Will the serving as a SAAC. member, Student Senate representative, and a Recreation Committee chair really enhance my interpersonal and organizational skills?

After sitting through seemingly endless orientations, paperwork, and warm-up sessions during the first week of my internship, it???s finally game time. I???m ready to put my skills to the test.

As the buzzer sounds, the National Anthem resonates, and my number is called, I step out onto the court. No longer am I attired in the UW-RF Falcons #9 volleyball jersey; as I look down at my business suit, I realized that I have just warmed up for my professional debut.

My year-long contract as an NCAA Intern may not be worth millions or my name may not be in lights, but I do know that my professional opportunity here will be nothing short of priceless.