Nathan Washburn is a junior from Lincoln, Nebraska, majoring in nutrition, exercise and health science with a coaching minor. This summer, Nathan has served as a strength & conditioning intern with Husker Football.
What made you interested in nutrition, exercise and health science?
I've been lifting weights since early high school, which I originally began doing to train for soccer in the off-season, but ultimately fell in love with lifting itself and began to prioritize it over the sport I was training for. Around the same time, I began diving deeper into sports nutrition to couple with my weight training, and since then I've fallen in love with these things. When entering college, I figured I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do for my career, but I knew it had to be something involving exercise, nutrition, sports, etc.
What has been your favorite or most valuable aspect of the nutrition, exercise and health science program so far?
The nutrition classes in specific have been extremely effective in my learning of the different aspects of health science, as our professors for these classes are quite good and not only know what they're talking about but also how to present information in effective ways. They're not just experts in their field like you may find some professors to be, but also great teachers.
How did you become an intern with Husker Football?
My advisor, previously having known that I was interested in exploring strength & conditioning coaching as a possible career option, reached out to me about an internship opportunity with the football team as a strength & conditioning intern. She gave me the contact info of a coach, and I persistently emailed back and forth with this coach until I had put myself in the position to get the internship despite my lack of experience.
What have been some highlights from your experience this summer?
During my internship, the main takeaway I got was the huge amount of extremely useful information I received about strength & conditioning, and coaching. Being able to learn from some of the best coaches in Division I athletics about training methods, programming, volume periodization, coaching queues, and even professional etiquette independent of our field were all vital in my professional growth and development.
How will this experience help you as you move forward?
The job itself was an incredibly high-intensity, high-stress environment which requires quick thinking and always being ready to be tested. I feel that having done this job I can be assured that I'll be better prepared for any future job and its demands. Thought I don't deny there may be one, it's hard to imagine a higher intensity work environment that the one I was in this summer. I am extremely grateful to the coaches who I worked under for putting such great weight on my shoulders during my time with the team because any other job in the future won't feel as heavy.
Where do you hope your career takes you?
I hope to continue taking positions in not only athletic coaching realms, but also to try my hand at some roles in nutrition and health sciences. Though I'm not sure specifically what my end goal is just yet, I feel comfortable with trying my hand at a variety of roles related to NEHS and seeing where I belong.
College of Education and Human Sciences
Nutrition and Health Sciences
