In June, high school students in Palm Springs’ sports medicine internship program gathered to get to know each other on a deeper level. Palm Springs High School offers this internship opportunity to juniors and seniors in the Palm Springs Academy of Learning Medicine. In the program, second-year interns mentor first-years as they navigate this new experience.

High school sports launch with the start of the school year, and sports medicine interns must use teamwork and communication to solve daily challenges. That includes helping injured athletes and assisting with recovery at practices and games. The opportunity to connect and bond over the summer makes it easier to collaborate, overcome these challenges and find solutions efficiently.

On our summer Bonding Day, everyone brought potluck items to share. Students introduced themselves and participated in an icebreaker activity. Then the water activities began. Students answered questions in groups, and if they answered incorrectly, they were drenched with water balloons. With leftover balloons, a war broke out; some students even dumped water jugs on one another.

As the day came to a close, students were tested to see who really paid attention. Students gathered in a circle with each stating their name before a volunteer was placed in the middle and challenged to repeat everyone’s name, or get drenched again. This game encouraged students to be confident, remember one another’s names, and communicate with the group in the future.

This Bonding Day is essential for helping student interns get to know one another and feel comfortable in the unfamiliar sports medicine environment. Those who have participated in the past say the experience helped them ask peers for assistance and to feel more comfortable by seeing familiar faces. One student said, “Bonding Day helped with knowing the majority of everyone’s names and being able to talk to them during my work shifts without having any awkwardness.”

The impact of Bonding Day is long-lasting, helping students feel more secure in the sports medicine internship environment.

Gloria Camacho-Montoya and Genesis Martinez Aldama are students in the Palm Springs Academy of Learning Medicine program. For more information on the valley’s high school medical academies, contact Kim McNulty with OneFuture Coachella Valley at kim@onefuturecv.org.