BEVERLY, Mass. – At Endicott College, a student's first-year internship lays the foundation for future success. It either reinforces early career decisions or creates a new path of thinking about life after graduation. In essence, it gets undergraduate students thinking about their future right from the start, putting them a step ahead of their competition. 

During the winter season, Endicott women's rugby freshmen student-athlete Kelsey Joyce (Wharton, N.J.) completed her first-year internship. Joyce gained valuable experiences through her first-year internship and offered up her perspectives to ECGulls.com.

Kelsey Joyce
Exercise Science

First-year Internship: Atlantic Health Rehabilitation Institute

Describe your overall experience at your internship.

My overall internship experience was amazing. During my time at Atlantic Health Rehabilitation Institute, I was able to work with many different therapists but mostly the Outpatient Occupational Therapy department. I was able to observe treatments for stroke, serious concussions, ALS, Parkinson's, hand, wrist, and arm injury patients and more. Being able to work with all these different patients and learning about their recoveries was very interesting. I learned all about the different ways to treat patients and how to assess them and their progress. I was also able to observe pediatric, speech and physical therapy. Being able to observe the different departments that Atlantic Health Rehabilitation Institute offers was very helpful to me as well because it allowed me to realize what I liked and what I didn't find as interesting. Overall, I had a great time working in such an open and friendly environment and can't wait for my next internship.

Did your perspective on your chosen career path / major change? Do you want to further pursue this career path / major or do you think you might want to try a different area of your major or switch all together?

By doing this internship it solidified my choice to become either an occupational or physical therapist. Seeing all the patients getting better and how they interacted with the therapist made me realize that it was exactly what I wanted to do someday. I plan on continuing with my exercise science degree and then plan on attending grad school to become either an occupational or physical therapist. I know I want to help people and I believe either of these two jobs will allow me to do this.

What was the biggest lesson you learned from your first internship?