How The Rise-N-Lead Internship Started

In 2022 we had our first group of interns. This was created as a way to take the learning, leadership, and character development opportunities deeper. It was also created as a way to raise up new coaches. 

This first internship was 1 day of me fire housing everyone with a TON of material that I crammed together and then tossing the students into coaching with summer camps and other classes.

From this crazy whirlwind of a program 3 boys rose up and took the initiative to pass their Level 5 test so they could become assistant coaches. (That was a requirement then to pass before being able to be an assistant). These same three boys (and a younger brother) took a brave step and became the first of our interns to go to Austin and take their ADAPT Level 1 course. The 3 worked over the summer to get their 10 observation hours! These boys now contribute weekly to our community and classes and add so much value for the younger ones raising up. 

This experience was inspiring see the growth in each boy and how much they gave back to our growing community. 

From this I leaned into the 2024 year and morphed the internship into a year program. With ideas from Coach Anthony we have further changed the internship for 2025 and have created a year 1, year 2+, and pre-assistant coach track (for older students).

When an individual coaches, they become a better parkour practitioner themself. 

When an individual coaches, they move from passive recipient to active giver. 

When an individual coaches, they move from just getting started to realizing they have something to contribute and value to share.

When an individual coaches, they feel more part of the community and feel like it's more of their own verses something they sometimes participate in.

Coaching allows youth to practice receiving feedback. This allows room for personal development. Because we get to focus on something fun like coaching and becoming better at helping others learn parkour we can talk about things that may in other situations not be received or might be too emotional of an area to be willing to receive feedback on.