<p>I’ll be working as a camp counselor, which isn’t great pay but it’s enough to cover my social expenses for a year and I like young teens enough to tolerate them 24/7 for several weeks. I’ll be a couple of hours from home and will probably use my days off to visit friends and family in the area.</p>
<p>The job doesn’t start til late June, though, and I’m out of college in early May, so I’m going to try to get a part-time job at Starbucks or something for those 5 weeks.</p>
<p>My family is also planning a trip to Europe at the end of August which may or may not actually work out due to finances. I’ll understand either way, though of course I won’t turn down a week in Scandinavia!</p>
<p>Ordinarylives: unfortunately D is a pale redhead with no melanin. She likes the outdoors but it would be very, very difficult for her to have an outdoor job like a lifeguard or camp counselor. I am the same way. Even wearing the strongest sunscreen possible, I cannot tolerate being in direct sunlight for more than 15 minutes or so. She was given a shirt that says “authentic redhead: do not expose to direct sunlight.”</p>
<p>Any kids doing study abroad summer between Freshman and Sophomore years? DS is, funded by part-time job from high school.</p>
<p>Two reasons we are giving our blessings: Chance for internship lower for this summer, engineering major may make getting abroad for a whole semester tougher later.</p>
<p>Assuming the middle east doesn’t blow up completely my son is going to do an intensive Arabic program. I really believe it’s the only way he’s going to get a language down, and since he plans on majoring in International Relations at a school that expects you to get fluent in a language he needs a jump start.</p>
<p>My S got a job at the alumni camp. They paid room and board plus a modest salary. He made a lot of connections there (and did some “partying” I’ve heard) which ended up in him finding one of his passions. He also met a lot of kids/parents that live near his college. They pay him big $ (at least for a college student) to babysit during the school year. He moved on after sophomore year, but still gets those babysitting jobs!</p>
<p>^I spent a year doing French before I started college so I think I have some sense of what he might be in for. He actually did intensive Arabic last summer, but got lost after about three weeks. He didn’t have any background at all at that time and everyone else in the class had at least some exposure. I also think living in the country where the language is spoken means you are forced to learn something even if you get behind in the class. I’m less concerned about credit and more concerned about him figuring out how you learn a foreign language. (It helps that Grandma has offered to pay. ) :)</p>
<p>Kind of tough getting internships after Freshman summer. Microsoft is the only major company I know of that has a program for freshman, and that’s for techie types. They generally are looking for kids who have been in college longer. My son got an internship working that summer working for a major political party, but it was unpaid.</p>
<p>I was being selfish knowing it was the last summer I could have whole family together so kids stayed home and we traveled. Everyone picked a vacation - younger daughter chose Universal - Harry Potter, older daughter chose Asia to see her roommate so husband arranged for an overdue business trip, husband wanted a health spa, I just wanted us all together. Mostly it was wonderful, occasionally it was a bit too much togetherness.</p>
<p>This summer older daughter is doing an acting internship so she won’t be home at all, younger daughter is doing volunteer work at the local nursery day camp and taking some classes for fun. Glad I got last summer!</p>
<p>I’ll be attending a 5-week French immersion program (flying out the day after finals week!) and then jumping into a 10-week, 35 hrs/wk internship for literally the rest of the summer. I was very lucky to find a paid internship, at a place where I volunteered during high school, that worked with my French program. I will probably take a few long weekends off to get away to a few conferences and go to the beach, then make up a week of work during Fall Break. (This is at a library–so, solidly in the realm of humanities/social science–and I hope to determine definitively whether I really want to get an MLIS.)</p>
<p>To answer the OP explicitly, I’d recommend looking for an unpaid internship since you can afford it. Getting paid really requires luck… I had applied for several summer counselor-type jobs, but was rejected from two and hadn’t heard a peep from the others. See if she can live at home and volunteer part-time (=unpaid internship, but try for the official “intern” title) at a local institution that she’s interested in helping–maybe a library, a small museum, or a political nonprofit. My roommate may be interning (unpaid as far as I know) at her local library, which “created” an internship for her. Local institutions are more likely to have this kind of flexibility, and also less competition for spots.</p>
<p>We also let our kids decide. S worked at a summer science program that had hours he loved–noon to 4 or 5 every day. He also liked the staff & had worked that job as a volunteer JR year after HS & for pay SR year as well. </p>
<p>D was the only one among her friends who had finished 1 year of CC (her other friends had just graduated from HS), so she spent the summer reconnecting with her HS buddies, going to grad parties & making plans, as well as a month in Taiwan on a youth study tour with her brother, cousin and many others from the US (especially CA).</p>
<p>The following summer, D got an internship with the public TV station & took 2 6-week terms of foreign language to fulfill her school requirement. Several of her friends after freshman year & before sophomore year got jobs in retail, food service or wherever they could. A few were able to snag shadowing jobs/volunteer opportunities, mostly through family connections. They tried to spend a lot of time together, chilling out at least once/week watching “Dancing with the Stars” together or some other inexpensive activity. Most came home rather than remaining in their campus towns in the summers after freshman & sophomore years & many had the same jobs after both school years. Our D was a did not get a job, though she said she was going to do some shadowing (that she never got around to).</p>
<p>Jobs are hard to find in my area, my son got one 3 years ago, while looking for summer work, by dumb luck after pounding the pavement for months and making phone calls. The manager of the store had someone not show up, was exasperated etc. and my son (who always looked like the nerd he is) said, “I am looking for work and very dependable” He had him come the next day and he worked without calling in sick, for 2 summers. Not a great job but the references helped a great deal later.</p>
<p>My girls who will be sophomores have at school jobs but nothing yet for the summer. Since we only have 2 cars and can’t afford another yet, that will make it a little more difficult but not impossible. I told them if they can’t get paying work, pick up what babysitting they could, pet sitting, things they did in high school and keep looking. An upaid internship or volunteer position, although not helping with tuition, can help in many other areas. You can show a good work ethic whether getting paid or not.</p>
<p>My kids did internships during the summer–paid if they could get it, unpaid if they couldn’t. Alternatively, a local job unrelated to their fields of study would be fine. Not only is it good experience, but it helps to build up the resume.</p>
I think it can be healthy to have a rejuvenating summer, reading for pleasure… I <em>don’t</em> think it’s healthy to have 3 such summers during high school and 3 more during college.</p>
<p>Just my opinion, but I do think for character building, contributing to the family, resume-building and a host of other reasons… summers should include work (paid, unpaid internship or volunteer), community service, academic activities. </p>
<p>Any one summer spent with zero responsibility may be fine. All summers spent that way… not so good.</p>
<p>Both my kids worked at a summer camp last year. Before that, one of my kids decided he liked a higher paying job, so he only wanted to tutor. It was a lot of work, always being available and the pay was sometimes unreliable. In the end, he concluded that he preferred a full time job as a camp counselor than as a part time tutor, even if the pay was about the same. This year, internships still don’t seem available, so he’ll probably go back to being a camp counselor. Even if they have a summer job where they have to get up at a certain hour, they need the spending money during the school year. Besides, how taxing is it to be outside, playing games until 3:00?</p>
<p>My D’s internship will allow her 2 weeks to spend at home before and 2 weeks at home after. That’s like getting 4 weeks vacation!! Twice what her parents get. I think that is plenty of time to lay around and get a tan. Given the sacrifices that we, her parents, are making to put her through college - the least she can do is support herself over the summer and earn spending money for the school year.</p>
<p>To go back to the redhead issue- it probably depends on the latitude you are at, cause I am a redhead ( strawberry blond- with blond lashes & brows-blue eyes) & work ( until sidelined by fibromyalgia/arthritis & osteoporosis) as a landscaper. ( I am @ the 47th latitude)</p>
<p>I dont think I have ever had a tan in my life- but I do get sunburned- however I drink lots of water, wear sunscreen & take PABA.
Hats help too.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the advice, it is much appreciated.</p>
<p>So I’ve been thinking- since it is so hard to get a job in this economy, do you think it would be smart to just take classes over the summer and build up enough credits so later on in junior or senior year (when the economy might be better) she can take a semester off and do a longer term internship/job that might lead to a real job after graduation?</p>
<p>^Only if she’s willing to actually take a semester off when it comes to it. It’s the same problem with 3-2 engineering programs at LACs; do you really want to sacrifice 1/8 of your college education? (From the student’s perspective, not the paying parent’s, of course.)</p>