Internships with Yankees, PGA Tour, Vikings, Brewers and beyond give UW-Stout students big-league skills

UW-Stout senior Carson Leuzinger may be paying a little more attention than usual this year to Major League Baseball's Opening Day, when the New York Yankees face the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, March 25.

That's because Leuzinger, a dietetics major from Monroe, had two internships with the Yankees last summer at their development and rehabilitation center in Tampa, Florida. There he helped All-Stars and new draft picks alike get healthy - and stay healthy - by making the right nutritional choices.

The Yankees aren't the only professional sports franchise where UW-Stout students have interned in the past few years. Blue Devils have worked with VIPs as black jacket interns for the Minnesota Vikings. They have served as coaching fellows with the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and made sure PGA Tour events were up to par. And they've worked behind the scenes for the home-state Milwaukee Brewers to ensure services for fans and clients were home runs.

All the while, Blue Devils like Leuzinger were finding ways to apply their UW-Stout education.

"Some things I learned at Stout that helped me down there were having a basic understanding of the macronutrients and micronutrients, what's high in protein, what's high in fat," Leuzinger said. "I remember one time I was in the cafeteria and a player came up to me and said, 'I want to eat a lot of protein. Should I eat shrimp or pork today?' Just knowing that was a good background."

Whether for major league sports franchises, Fortune 500 firms, or Main Street businesses, career-focused experiences like Leuzinger's are key to UW-Stout's polytechnic identity. UW-Stout students enroll in roughly 1,000 internship and co-op experiences annually, giving them career-ready skills before they receive diplomas. In fact, 35% of UW-Stout students accept positions with their co-op or internship employer.

Helping the Yankees at the plate

Leuzinger, a guard on the Blue Devils men's basketball team, came to UW-Stout with the goal of pursuing a career in some aspect of sports, whether it was nutrition, strength training, physical therapy or chiropractic. Ultimately, encouraged by what faculty members described as an increasing demand for dieticians, he joined the B.S. dietetics program.

Leuzinger first took part in an unpaid internship for the Yankees last June, then was asked to return in August for a paid internship. He worked at the team's facility in Tampa across the street from George Steinbrenner Field, which serves the Yankees during spring training as well as the regular season home of one of their minor league affiliates, the Tampa Tarpons.

Starting his days at 7 a.m., Leuzinger would work to keep players - notably those who had just been drafted as well as major leaguers who were undergoing rehab - fed and hydrated. His tasks included making meal plans for players, creating charts about the nutritional value of meals at restaurants near the facility and stocking fuel stations with protein shakes, granola bars and vitamins.

"One thing that shocked me was just how approachable everyone at the facility was - players and staff," Leuzinger said. "They're all just the nicest people ever. It can be intimidating coming to an internship with the Yankees, being a college student. They all took me in like I was just another part of the organization."

He particularly enjoyed working and chatting with the likes of right fielder Aaron Judge, last season's American League MVP, as well as pitchers Carlos Rodón and Cam Schlittler. "Once you meet them and get to know them, you become more of a fan," he said. "You kind of realize they're just regular dudes at the end of the day. They're just guys who play baseball who are really good at it."

Leuzinger said his internship impacted what has been on his own training table as a student athlete: He returned from Tampa with a few new ideas, including electrolyte grapes (grapes mixed with electrolyte drink powder and frozen), protein balls and smoothie recipes.

Even more importantly, Leuzinger had opportunities for professional networking. The facility's head dietician, for example, had previously worked for the NCAA Division I athletic programs at the University of North Carolina and the University of Florida. "It's important to build those connections because you never know who they know," he said.

Behind-the-scenes experience

UW-Stout's B.S. golf enterprise management programhas also provided a pathway to internships with affiliates of the PGA Tour, giving undergraduates behind-the-scenes experience at some of the golf world's most notable venues and events.

Senior Garret Sigl, a golf enterprise management major from Seymour, got an inside look at what it takes to make major competitions like the PGA Championship succeed during an internship last summer with Patina Group, a restaurant, hospitality and catering company owned by Delaware North.

Sigl split his logistics and operations specialist internship between working at a Patina warehouse near Green Bay - which housed countless items needed for large-scale catering jobs - and helping with three major PGA events.

"All the behind-the-scenes things that you wouldn't think of, I got to help organize, work on and clean up," Sigl explained. "Then whenever a tournament would come up, I'd fly out to the event, work there and come back to the warehouse."

He spent nearly two weeks working at last May's PGA Championship, which was held at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. The following month brought him to the Women's PGA Championship at Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas. Then, even after the fall semester began, he spent late September working at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black Course at Farmingdale, New York. Sigl gained experience in the back-of-house operations for these prestigious tournaments, which drew hundreds of competitors and hundreds of thousands of spectators.

For example, at the Women's PGA Tournament he oversaw the building that served food for caddies and players. "I like to say my position was kind of like an air traffic controller," Sigl explained. "There are constantly problems that come up, and you don't have much time to solve them, so you have to find a way to reprioritize what's going on, how important it is, and work your way through. It was quite interesting just to see how much organized chaos goes on and how well you're able to overcome some challenges that can step in your way."

At the Ryder Cup, which pits teams of American and European golfers against each other, Sigl's tasks ranged from ensuring supplies were property accounted for to managing liquor inventory to making sure 200 doughnuts were delivered each morning.

"I think the biggest thing I learned is how important teamwork and being positive helps with the workplace environment," said Sigl, who is also a member of the UW-Stout men's golf team. "I've worked at many different companies and a couple of different industries, but I've never worked in a place that has as much positivity and shows as much teamwork as the Patina Group and Delaware North."

Making connections through UW-Stout

Junior Henry Lavin, also a golf enterprise management major, spent the past two summers interning at the Tournament Players Club (TPC) Twin Cities, first as a golf shop intern and then as golf shop coordinator. The PGA Tour-owned course in Blaine, Minnesota, which hosts the 3M Open, has given Lavin plenty of opportunities to apply the skills he's learned at UW-Stout.

"Everything I have been taught I have used during my internships," Lavin said. "Every lesson that we have had a purpose. I've really noticed that, and it's allowed me to really truly like school."

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