Is it absolutely necessary for a student to stay active during the summer?

<p>Miami I thought you lived in Detroit?</p>

<p>The OP has left the room. Still in the building (posted something in another thread and logged in early today), but not in the room anymore. I doubt the OP will comment further.</p>

<p>My D. has also been working. She had the best job on campus…not summer job. I am happy for summer opportunities that your kids have had, but to say that they are everywhere is not correct. To state that May is OK to obtain these summer opportunites is not correct either. You have your experiences and I have mine. We live in different places. I just do not want OP to get greatly frustrated after not being able to find anything for summer in May. It may not exist any more. Here is to learn for the future. I was trying to help. Pointing out that your kids were able to find anything at any time they wished is not helpful. Forget about “cool jobs”, I was talking about “any dirtiest job out there”, there are none, period. We are not even mentionning summer jobs when volunteering positions have waiting lists. My D. has applied to about 30+ and much earlier than May, she got zero responses. You can get a job here only thru connections or if you are here year around and have been waiting for awhile.<br>
It is very nice to know that it is not the case in other places. However, it is very helpful to know that other places lack these opportunities and sending somebody on a spinning trip might not result in anything. Other very well qualified applicants did not get it, and OP might not get it, no reason to create frustration.
"Those kids who claim they can’t find a job or volunteer position are the same ones who put a full thirty minutes a day, for the first week of summer, into the search. "</p>

<p>-Very judgemental and incorrect in most cases. These kids are forced to do everything during school year, and good for them, learn vary valuable skill of managing time, sometime pushed to the imits well beyond their age and still come on top. They simply know that they cannot rely on summer opportunities that do not exist for them.
It is not to say that there is no reason to try. Go ahead and try to find something, but do not get too frustrated if search is not successful as many have the same experiences.
I do not live in Detroit but in place close enough where many of us are driving to Detroit for job, so we have always been worse than Detroit. If anybody think that Detroit is full of jobs, yes, it is…but only in comparison to my home town. Nobody in a right mind will say that there are good job prospects in Detroit right now.</p>

<p>If you were my kiddo, you would not be “doing absolutely nothing” over the whole summer break. I would expect you to have some kind of job to help pay for your personal expenses while in college. The use of one of the family cars would be predicated on your need to use it for a job. No job would mean no “pleasure” car use in this house.</p>

<p>If you really made a good faith effort to find a job…and I mean a GOOD effort…and couldn’t, I would offer to pay you to do things I would otherwise pay others to do…mow the lawn, spread mulch, paint a room, etc.</p>

<p>Sitting around for almost four months doing nothing would not be a happening in our house.</p>

<p>One last statement, because I am so annoyed at the comment that “everyone gets annoyed with the volunteers”. I pulled out the last edition of our little local paper. In it are announcements telling volunteers where to call to sign up to become a driver for an organization that offers free rides to elderly people for doctor appointments, grocery shopping, etc. There is an announcement asking for volunteers for the local food bank. There is another announcement asking for volunteers to help with a festival. Another announcement asking for volunteers to help with a fun run. I could keep going. </p>

<p>Sheesh! Organizations rarely advertise for volunteers who will annoy them!</p>

<p>^Again, it is at YOUR location, not in OUR home time, annoyed or not, there are way too many volunteers at most places here, that is why there are “waiting lists”. If every volunteer get his position, all places would be entirely overhelmed. It is your right to be annoyed by this fact, it is still a fact.</p>

<p>^Then let’s not generalize.
Let’s not assume our departed OP has an excuse.</p>

<p>No excuses, just relocate for McDonald job if cannot find any where you live!!</p>

<p>Coworker this morning told me that his son has an internship for the summer. I think that he just started looking and landed one at his school with a professor. He’s an engineering major (not exactly sure which major) at an ivy. The position has potential for continued research (paid) in the fall semester.</p>

<p>I am with those who firmly believe that in big cities like Toledo and every other area there are plenty of volunteer jobs to be had. Contact your clergy and see what member of your church or synagogue need help. Or simply volunteer in the facility’s office itself. Answer phones, stuff envelopes, etc. Anyone who believes there are no jobs or volunteer opportunities anywhere, I have a bridge to sell you. Time to stop blowing smoke.</p>

<p>I agree with jym. If you live in a city so blighted there are no JOBS, then there are certainly volunteer opportunities. See a need and find a way to fix it. You don’t have to complete the task, just begin it (to paraphrase a sage.)</p>

<p>And then you have a line on your resume about the program you started. Win-win.</p>

<p>The only places I can imagine that have zero opportunities of any kind would be sweet bedroom communities where most people are living tidy lives and the needy are clustered elsewhere. So, maybe the kid borrows the car or takes public transportation. If the hospitals are booked, go look for Ronald McDonald House, a hospice, Habitat, a soup kitchen- even if it’s a bit of a drive. </p>

<p>You work some of multiple weeks and you’ve got “June-August 2012.” Funny thing is, vol work is often so fulfilling. My kids loved a variety of projects and are in a college program that revolves around these commitments.</p>

<p>When D’s summer job gave her too few hours last year she filled in with chores at home. H and I both work and appreciated the help with cleaning/laundry/cooking/grocery shopping/painting/yard work. I assume that a college student at home could do this rather than nothing.</p>

<p>" agree with jym. If you live in a city so blighted there are no JOBS, then there are certainly volunteer opportunities. "
-Yes, as I have mentioned there are volunteering opportunities with wating lists that lasts over summer. You have to contact some absolutely crazy number of organizations to get something at all. which my kid has done. She did not need it, as she was doing all her ECs during school year, she just needed to kill time in a summer as we did not want to spend money on summer classes.
From reading various posts on this thread, I realized that most people live in places with much more job and other opportunities and have no idea about the level of dispair in some other places. Many people are leaving, businesses are going to other states, but some others cannot relocate because one spouse has a stable job. So another one is forced to take any job even travel to a different city on a daily basis and many do. These people have filled all positions, nothing is left for summer opportunities, all volunteering is overcrowded.<br>
In this case, just take it easy, enjoy your summer, do not get too frustrated, go back to school and do everything there.</p>

<p>Miami, what we are saying, is that if your community is one of blight, unemployment, and despair, then BECAUSE OF THAT there are many, many opportunities to volunteer to help. A place with huge unemployment numbers has more need for unpaid help with church food pantries. A place where the elderly can not afford to repair their own homes has a huge need for young volunteers to fill that need. </p>

<p>I get it that all the terrific volunteer positions in the orthopedics department or the pediatrics department at the hospital are overflowing with eager premed students tripping all over each other. That doesn’t mean that there are not hundreds of other places in your blighted, depressed area that are not in more need of real volunteer efforts, however. </p>

<p>I live within 30 miles of inner city Baltimore, one of the most blighted areas in the country. There are a plethora of volunteer organizations working to serve the needs of the women and children and homeless in that area.</p>

<p>MiamiDap-^You are not listening. I don’t mean city- or community-sponsored volunteer opportunities. I understand many well-known organizations have waiting lists and scads of kids looking for summer resume builders.</p>

<p>You just mentioned the “level of dispair” in some places. This represents opportunity! For instance: Create a free summer arts camp program for kids in just one block of your neighborhood. Teach adults or kids to read. There are lots of things a person can do, if they see a need and have some imagination. Everyone has skills to share.</p>

<p>Reminds me of the story of the 2 shoe salesmen who were dispatched to a 3rd world country. The first one called his office and said, “No opportunities here, no one wears shoes.” The second one also called his office, “Wonderful opportunities here, no one wears shoes yet!”</p>

<p>There you go.</p>

<p>I would think home repair would be a biggie in many of these areas! People just cannot afford repairs or are too old and can’t do for themselves any more, so areas get more and more blighted. </p>

<p>Teens could get together and have fun painting and making a real difference. :)</p>

<p>There is simply no way that there is not a single opportunity to volunteer to help others. Here, for example, is a long list of volunteer opportunities/services in Toledo [volunteer</a> opportunities in Toledo - Bing](<a href=“volunteer opportunities in Toledo]volunteer - Search”>volunteer opportunities in Toledo - Search)</p>

<p>Miami, it seems a lil late to try to shut the barn door. You already insisted there are NO jobs and NO vol opps. Now this:</p>

<p>I realized that most people live in places with much more job and other opportunities and have no idea about the level of dispair in some other places. </p>

<p>So,if you are truly aware of need and despair, why discourage people who want to help? </p>

<p>Why say, fiddle dee dee, there’s so much need that there’s no sense trying to help, everyone’s got all that sewn up and you’d be underfoot anyway. Don’t insinuate WE don’t get it because we “live in places with much more job and other opportunities.” </p>

<p>We live on the cushy side of town. My kids drive a mile to support a soup kitchen, another half mile to a clothing/bedding distribution center, drive to another community’s food bank to donate boxes of foods they had collected. Through a nearby church, they do whatever is needed.</p>

<p>I think it makes perfect sense to have a blighted area that is so crime ridden you wouldn’t want your child to work there. There are areas in the country that are so blighted the city doesn’t maintain them partly because workers are afraid to go to the neighborhoods. There was recently a story on NOLA in the NYT about the area hit worst by the flood and the photos were unreal. I recently saw a photo array of an area in Phila. where I worked in college, and I wouldn’t send a kid into it now. Flynt, Michigan, etc. There are lots.</p>

<p>Kids who are at schools on trimesters/quarters also have a hard time finding GOOD summer jobs because they leave school so late, and the summer jobs truly have been taken. That requires lining the job up before the summer begins.</p>

<p>My kids have had summers where they didn’t work. They work extremely hard during the school year and rest over the summer. They are varsity athletes who are training. They have enough interests so as to be able to entertain themselves. One didn’t have a major related summer internship until after his junior year. They had lots to do that didn’t involve a job or volunteer work or maintaining a house. </p>

<p>Yes OP, it isn’t a terrible thing to have an idle summer, imo.</p>