The summer after your first year of college is a rare and wonderful time to discover and explore your interests, without the pressure to nail a great summer internship that increases every summer until graduation. As the school year comes to a close, my fellow first-year friends at Scripps and I have been sharing our plans for the summer. After interviewing a few of my friends, I realize there is a wide variety of interesting and fun ways you can spend your summer. Here are a few great examples:
- Work at an Academic Enrichment Program: Caroline
Caroline will be working this summer at the Office of Marketing and Communications at Explo, an academic enrichment program for middle schoolers and high schoolers held at Wellesley College. She will be organizing and designing the programs’ daily newsletter and other program materials. In addition, she will be working with other passionate college students from all over the United States. She chose this summer opportunity because it allows her to strengthen her design skills, work with a team, earn money, and spend time on the East Coast.
- Take Summer Classes: Angie
After taking an Intro to Sociology course this semester, Angie has become very interested in how societies develop and affect our daily lives. She will have the opportunity to explore this interest further during Pitzer’s Summer Session. She plans to take a course that will delve into how sociology is seen and understood through film. The six-week course will not only keep her busy and productive over the summer, it will also count for credit towards her potential major of Sociology. She is excited to continue learning over the summer and to be able to study her two interests of film and sociology in a single course.
- Take Time for Life Transitions: Sophie
Sophie and her family are moving across the country this summer for her parent’s careers. Although the move prevents her from getting an internship or job like many other students at Scripps, she is glad to be able to help her parents with this big life transition. The summer break gives her a rare opportunity to spend time with her parents and help them begin this new adventure.
- Work in Your Hometown: Sophia
Sophia will be working as a cashier at Nothing Bundt Cakes, a bakery in her hometown. She worked there last summer as her first real job and believes that working in any sort of retail or service job is important and a great work experience. In addition to making money, she enjoys bringing out her creative side by making decorations and frosting cakes, as well as developing her social and communication skills through interacting with customers.
- Work in a Lab: Kimia
Kimia is planning on working in a psychology lab this summer in her hometown. She aspires to go to graduate school and earn her PhD, which involves a lot of research, so working in a research lab early in her psychology career will be very helpful to her. She hopes that her work this summer will lead to further opportunities in psychological research. She is especially excited to expand her skills and knowledge and hopes to further define which field of psychology she wants to practice.
I hope you are inspired and excited by these ideas, and that they help you to realize that there are many alternatives to the traditional summer internship. Take this time to relax, spend time with family, explore new areas of the world, discover your interests, and develop your skills!
What are your plans for this summer?