Health Care

Health Career Blog

Helping Others Through Strength and Conditioning and Firefighting

By Timary Malley ’20

January 17, 2023

Tags Health Care

I’ve made a lot of career changes on my journey. I started off my college experience wanting to be a veterinarian, but that later changed after I worked at a veterinarian hospital for a summer. I loved the experience, but realized that the profession was just not for me. Throughout my time at Hamilton, I considered a multitude of career paths. I was always involved in sports and played on the women’s ice hockey team. During my sophomore year, I realized that my true love and passion for strength and conditioning could be turned into a career. As I garnered more experience in the field through internships and made connections with others in sports performance, I found another realm I was intrigued by: sports nutrition. I took an opportunity to be a virtual intern with UConn Sports Nutrition in the spring of 2020. This internship helped me better realize what I wanted to pursue. While I loved the nutrition side of sports performance, I felt it was not what I wanted to do for my career, but I did not want to let it go entirely.

After graduating in 2020, I began a strength and conditioning internship with Athletic Evolution in Woburn, Mass. Through this experience, I found a love for the environment and the opportunities that a private facility offered. Although I loved what I was doing as a strength coach, a part of me felt like something was missing. I believe my purpose is to serve and help others. As a strength coach, I did not feel as though I was fulfilling my entire purpose; there was a gap that I could fill, more people I could help. I then considered civil service, and became interested in becoming a firefighter.

Thus began my journey into the fire service. I spoke with many female firefighters and everything I had learned so far made it seem like the right fit for me. I enrolled in an emergency medical technician (EMT) program for the following summer, but I knew I did not want to give up being a strength coach, either. In the year leading up to my EMT class, I accepted a position at the College of the Holy Cross as a strength and conditioning assistant. During this time, I became an NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist, as well as a nutrition coach through Precision Nutrition. My time at Holy Cross gave me a feel for what it was like to work at a Division I college. I also learned that I wanted to gain more knowledge about sports performance and exercise science, so I enrolled in the Sports and Exercise Science Master’s Program at Merrimack College beginning in the fall of 2021. I also knew I wanted to continue coaching, so I accepted a position as a Strength and Conditioning Graduate Fellow at Merrimack College.

After completing my EMT program and passing the national exam to become a certified EMT, I accepted a position working for a private emergency medical services company in Central Massachusetts to get experience in emergency medical services. Knowing a job would help pay for gas money and other expenses, I held this position throughout my graduate school tenure, working one day a week as an EMT. While working as an EMT, I fell in love with the position. After some thinking, I decided becoming a firefighter was my ultimate career goal, but I also still wanted to be a strength coach, which is why I did not rescind my enrollment and position as a graduate fellow in the master’s program. I also knew the upcoming school year would challenge me to grow overall.

After graduating with my master’s degree, I had experience in the collegiate and private sectors of strength and conditioning. While I enjoyed both realms, I knew I would pursue working in the private sector because it meshed better with being a firefighter. Upon graduating, I accepted a position with the New Boston, N.H. Fire Department and later accepted another position as a strength coach for Complete Athlete in Derry, N.H. I also had personal training clients for both fitness and nutrition. Now, I am also a recruit in the New Hampshire Fire Academy, where I am earning my firefighting certifications needed for employment in a full-time fire department.

My education at Hamilton enabled me to pursue so many routes and interests because I developed a broad range of knowledge from the variety of courses available and the experiential opportunities that arose. A lot of people enter college thinking they need to choose the career they want to pursue immediately, and that the choice cannot and will not change. That is the farthest thing from the truth. Throughout college, you learn more about yourself and your passions. You may even develop new passions. It is important to soak these in, get experience in the field, and be open to change because you never know where you could end up.