<p>One has an internship on Capitol Hill and then goes on to a 4 week immersive Mandarin course in Shanghai.</p>
<p>The other will finish his senior year. It's not summer down here. I made him a list of 100 things he could do for Gap Year and one thing he couldn't do (live at home). Shall I forward it via pm? ;)</p>
<p>mom60-
I am hopeful that the Subway stint is not a career path, but its what he wants to do. DH was going to have him sign up for a second summer enrichment program-- he ran out and got a job first. Thats the fastest I've seen him driven to do anything in a while!</p>
<p>Older s's internship with GE sounds really fascinating. I am happy for him. However, the pay will probably go to paying the A/C bill in Houston for the summer! </p>
<p>cheers-
Congrats on those exciting adventures - from DC to shanghai-- thats kinda like going from nuts to soup :) (rather than soup to nuts). How'd you come up with 100 things to do in a gap year? That's incredible in and of itself! Has he picked one yet?</p>
<p>cheers - As a native Shanghai-er, I'd have to say the Mandarin wouldn't be quite so immersive there with the Shanghai dialect lol! But it still sounds like a wonderful opportunity (as does Capitol Hill!).</p>
<p>i'm curious to know what the 100 things are.</p>
<p>This summer college bound S will work as a lifeguard. Due to a shortage of lifeguards its very long boring hours sitting in the blazing heat. He is really happy that he won't be able to finish out the summer season due to Freshman orientation. HS D (Freshman now) will hang out with friends and will be traveling to visit family. We've told her that this is her last free summer, next year she'll be lifeguarding as well.</p>
<p>I haven't worked as a lifeguard, but the summer I was 17, I was the "secretary" to the caretaker at a county park, at a time when the caretakers actually lived there.
What a job! I got to wear my bathing suit to work if I wanted ( my " office" was in the lifeguard shack) the caretaker was a real sweetie, and aside from helping to clean the changing areas occasionally ( people are pigs) it was a blast-
boy things have changed- they even had cabins along one boundary that people could rent- but at that time the lake was full of milfoil and duck crap- you would have to be crazy to swim in it.</p>
<p>he park remained a popular swimming spot, but by the mid-1970s local thugs and hoodlums had taken it over as their home turf. In 1975 the county hired Bernard Benny Bennett as caretaker, and although hooligans pinned him against a tree at knifepoint during his first week on the job, he is credited with making the park more family-friendly by the end of the decade.
1975 was when I worked there- my family went there a lot during the 60s and 70s- we must have been pretty clueless though.</p>
<p>Taking clases over Sophmore summer with the majority of the 08s in Hanover, NH</p>
<p>Graduating HS S got a job with a local minor league baseball team..they hire you but dont tell you what job until orientation.He's hoping also to do some volunteering-internship type thing with them if possible.In his off time he'll be scooping Italian ices at a local shop.Needs to make mucho dinero..had a car accident and needs to pay us back for repairs.</p>
<p>Last summer, my two high school Ds and I spent a week in Guatemala volunteering for Safe Passage, a program that provides kids whose families make a living picking trash in the city dump with educational reenforcement. It is an excellent program. There were many longer term college volunteers from all over the world. Of course there is no pay but it was an amazing program. We sponsor a young boy there and it was great to meet him. Ds want to go back and we will. The college kids were amazing and if I were in college and did not have to earn money or went to a college that would give me a stipend for doing some important volunteer work, I would spend my summer there. PM if you are interested in more info.</p>
<p>Such interesting plans! My S will be happy to work in a lab n campus or CS company all summer. I think he'd volunteer, but fortunately its paid position.</p>
<p>My best summer job was in 1980, while I was in college.
I worked at the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore stocking the concession stands for the baseball games. It was a BLAST and I got to hang out and watch that great team warming up.
My advice: try for something that you really love or something where you can make some money.
The best option: a combination of both!</p>
<p>Junior S will be waking up by noon, walking around the house asking what's for lunch, playing his younger brother's computer games, answering IM, walking around the house asking what's for dinner, heading out for the evening with his friends, to return sometime after all the bars close.</p>
<p>He may occassionally head out for a job interview.</p>
<p>I am convinced that Maynard G. Krebs is his idol. WORK?</p>
<p>(Just kidding - he is staying at school to take a class and work.)</p>
<p>Hey UMDAD, you just pretty much described spring break at our house (except for the part about the bars!). Just add 50 episodes of Law and Order.</p>
<p>Any handy job ideas for a 15 year old? </p>
<p>He would prefer to take the summer off from his ADD meds, so nothing to officey/detailey ... he's incredible at sales; broke a record at a sales job he had two summers ago but it is only a brief one (3 weeks) and he wants an all-summer job... he's also good with physical labor...</p>
<p>I was thinking maybe a landscape crew would be a good suggestion, because in So Cal it would double as a Spanish language immersion. </p>
<p>Any other ideas?</p>
<p>Usual stuff--working at the fast food place, socking away the cash, mowing the lawn, hanging out at the pool, visiting grandma/cousins,
volunteering (unwillingly) at a convention, tormenting younger siblings, playing computer games, sleeping late, maybe a little reading for college prep . . .</p>
<p>our local camp fire organization has something called youth volunteer corps, that has lots of physical activities- building trails- helping with summer camps- painting bus shelters- no they don' tget paid but it is work experience, and might be more fun than working at mcdonalds</p>
<p>I mention it because younger teens can volunteer for positions they could not get paid for and it has helped older D get great for pay jobs once she was old enough</p>
<p>My current HS freshman will spend five weeks at a ballet program. It is in California (we are in Massachusetts), so she is very excited.</p>
<p>My seventh grader will spend two weeks at a filmmaking program and two weeks at a program with backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking, etc.</p>
<p>EK good point.</p>
<p>SBmom- It is hard at that age finding paying jobs. My son last year did hard manual labor for a friend's Dad who had a ranch. It was grueling work.
We also told them at that age that our goal is to not have them sleeping late and then getting up and turning on the computer or TV. If they can't find a paying job we have made them do volunteer work and we paid them a larger then normal allowance.
Depending on his interest he might also look into being a counselor at some of the different day camps. My two big kids have work each summer at safetytown for at least 1 session.</p>
<p>My D (HS soph) will be taking summer school & S (graduating senior) will be working as teaching assistant at university summer science lab school where he volunteered last summer. They liked him so much they offered to pay him this summer.</p>