s/o Summer Experiences: everybody else?

[regentrude]

I feel it would be disrespectful to divert the other thread, so I am starting a new one:

what are all your college students doing this summer?

 

Mine is doing an internship at a science museum on the west coast, working with children doing chemistry and physics demonstrations.

She is the perfect personality for the job, loves interacting with people and teaching, and has a science background, but it is also exhausting to do for long hours. 

The internship is unpaid, and we do have the expense of housing for her, but it is a good experience for her, enough hours to make it worthwhile, and she likes the city. She is living completely on her own for the first time, an experience in itself.

I am glad she is not taking classes over the summer, because I feel that a break from the grueling school will be very good for her.

[theelfqueen]

Mine is living in the house he rents with friends in his college town; where he and one of his roommates have started a lawn care business, in which they use only push mowers and electric tools. (really started a business - filed with the state, organizing taxes, etc). He's also doing a couple of classes for his new second major over the summer.

 

[Pawz4me]

DS is in the last week of a six-week study abroad course in Copenhagen (actually, it was two three-week courses). As part of the course the students spent last week in Latvia learning about the economy of an emerging market. He took side trips on his own or with other students to Sweden, Germany and England. He'll earn several credits for the courses and hopes the international study and travel will help beef up his application this fall to his university's business school.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Pawz4me

[creekland]

Middle son is in Rochester leading/managing his research project (quite enjoying that he has students working under him now).  They're working on the particulars of how young children acquire meaning to words - inferences they make and learn, etc.  This is a nicely paid job.

 

Youngest son is working here as a paid intern at a local branch of a national Christian club.  At the moment he's at the beach chaperoning high schoolers at an event.  Since that's not full time he's also enjoying some pick up landscaping work for various people (including us) - and he still helps hubby with engineering field work.  His goal this summer is to see if he wants to work with youth full time or not.  He's super good at it, but the pay for that sort of thing is rather low compared to some of his other options.  He'll have to weigh his options over the next couple of years.

 

Oldest son isn't in college any longer, but he just made a job/location switch.  He's now going to be working in IT - with a handsome pay raise - and has moved sort of near Atlanta from Chattanooga.  He's excited about his new job, so naturally we're happy for him and wishing him the best with it.  No more trips to Chattanooga (for us) though.  That seems a little bit like the end of an era since he was our first to head out for college six years ago.  Sometime this winter we'll probably begin to explore Atlanta more.  It's been mainly a drive by for us in the past.

[Gwen in VA]

Mine is winning the "miles driven while not seeing any sites" prize! She drives over 500 miles each week juggling two jobs in two states. The jobs are both wonderful, and she says they are worth the commute, but she has definitely learned a lot about how to stay alert while driving long distances!

[raptor_dad]

Middle son is in Rochester leading/managing his research project ...

 

Amusingly...despite knowing your son is having a great time at UoR, I read that and thought "Oh, He's at Mayo this Summer, what a great fit". A good example of familiarity bias or something.

[Jenny in Florida]

My son has finished the steps to get accepted back to the community college, where he will finish up an associate's and technical certificate before (we hope) transferring to the state university to complete his BFA. It took far too many e-mails and phone calls and two in-person trips to the campus, but he finally got registered for fall classes last week. We are now in the process of combing through the requirements for the BFA and comparing them to the offerings at the community college to see if there are any more classes he could potentially knock out before applying for the transfer. He is considering adding one more course for fall, if he can fit it into his schedule.

 

He's still enjoying the job he started at the beginning of May and is looking forward to his 90-day review. Assuming that goes well, he'll be eligible to cross-train for the position he really wants.

 

Meanwhile, he auditioned yesterday and was cast for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. Fortunately, although orientation for the theme park is coming up in just a week or so, rehearsals don't begin in earnest until after the community theatre production he's doing wraps up. But it does mean that, beginning in late July/early August, he'll be juggling rehearsals for HHN with the regular job and, of course, classes. It should be well worth the trouble for him, though. I think he will love getting a backstage view of how that event is run, and he hopes to make some contacts with folks in the entertainment division there that might serve him well in the next couple of years.

[creekland]

Amusingly...despite knowing your son is having a great time at UoR, I read that and thought "Oh, He's at Mayo this Summer, what a great fit". A good example of familiarity bias or something.

 

Mayo is one of his med school apps.  If successful, it could be Rochester to Rochester.  I think that's easier for my brain to remember...

 

It's difficult to get accepted there though, so only time will tell.  I think it would be a great fit TBH.

[Frances]

My son left today for a three month paid physical chemistry research internship at an university in Germany. He received a DAAD scholarship from the German government. The only bummer was that he couldn't do the optional two week free German language program in Berlin prior to starting research due to all of the start times being in May while he was still taking classes on the quarter system. He fell in love with Berlin while backpacking in Europe last summer and can't wait to get back there.

 

In two months we will be going to visit him. We'll spend a long week-end in the city where he is based and then spend a couple of weeks traveling without him, although he will meet us in Prague for a long weekend. Between backpacking last summer, a fellowship for a spring break conference on international human rights and social justice at Oxford, and this internship, he's been to Europe three times in less than a year

[creekland]

Speaking of med school apps and middle son, we caught up with him by phone a couple of hours ago and he's already getting secondaries* in.  Some are fairly automatic from the schools (probably nice money makers).  Some others aren't.   :hurray:  Out of 20 schools he applied to (recommended number from his research/MD mentor), he has 7 secondaries (so far).

 

* For those not familiar with med school apps, a "common" app is generally used to apply to schools first.  Then, schools that are interested in the applicant send them a secondary application that requests more info tailored to their school.  There are, of course, fees with both - hence - some schools seemingly using them as money makers.  If schools are still interested, the applicant will be invited to interviews, but those are down the road yet.  At that point one can sort of - kind of - start getting more hopeful, but hey, we're cheerleaders for this so we're doing our job and cheering.   :coolgleamA:  From his 20 applications (for MSTP), we're told to hope for 1-4 acceptances, though he could get med school acceptances without MSTP offers too.  He's expecting 18-20 secondaries as he should "meet the bar" for pretty much everywhere.

 

Beware too (for those thinking of med school down the line) - some schools want to see ACT/SAT scores on those secondaries!  (Middle son called to double check his scores.  It's been a few years.  Glad we kept them on our computer!)

Edited June 30, 2016 by creekland

[The Girls' Mom]

Well, my college student still lives at home and goes to CC, so her life didn't change much other than not going to class.  She's working at the library, which is the same job she has when school is in.

 

 

[anne1456]

My daughter is studying for the NCLEX (nursing boards), which she is taking July 14th. She has a job offer, a roommate and an apartment all lined up, but she has to pass the test to make it all work. She also just registered for her fall semester classes for getting her BSRN, since she only has an associates. She had been insisting she was going to go to school full time and finish her BS in a year, while working full time. But she saw the light and only registered for half time for the fall, which sounds much more doable to me.

Edited June 30, 2016 by anne1456

[elegantlion]

Ds is currently exercising his right to do nothing productive except mow the lawn and other sundry chores.  :toetap05:

 

Granted he did spend two weeks in Japan, we are getting ready to move so we're in the "lull before the storm" phase of that, and he has been slowly reading up on investing and calculus. Plus once we get moved, his dad wants to start helping him get his driver's license. 

 

As for me, I'm taking two classes, including an independent study for my honor's project. Right now we're reading medieval Latin charters. :thumbup1: I attended a history conference last week, which was a blast. Tonight, I attended an opening exhibit at a museum that one of my fellow students worked on as part of an internship. 

[Matryoshka]

My dds are just starting college full-time in the fall, but they've both managed reasonably decent summer gigs.

 

Dd who wants to be an archaeologist is working as a research assistant for the professor she took a summer field school with last summer.  She's been putting together this incredibly detailed sketch/diagram of the site. She's also going to go back to the field school as an assistant rather than a student this year.  That's all unpaid.  For money, she's working in food service. :)

 

Her twin sister who is going into Computer Science is working at a local maker-space type place teaching robotics to kids.  That's paid, too. :)

[Laurel-in-CA]

My post-college BFA girl is working as a graphic artist/social media person for a bug-killing company (oh, the come-down, but hey, it's a full-time job). She's also working on some watercolors for a small gallery show this summer, as well as leading 4H horse project (new foal at the stable) and collecting more bruises.

 

My upcoming senior continues his job as a zipline redwood canopy tour guide this summer. He's hoping for an internship in the fall and then to finish off his senior year via a semester at sea...for which he has to raise the funding. So, he's saving instead of spending on Kickstarter.

 

My 19yo finished her first year at CC and is working 2 jobs this summer - lifeguard @ a local senior center and home aide for disabled people/seniors needing in-home care. Boy, is she putting the miles on her old junker. She, too, is saving, for a new car that's easier for her clients and their equipment to get in/out of.

[8filltheheart]

Ds is not quite a month into his 10 week REU. He spent the first couple of weeks reading 100s of pages research. He is now writing code for the theoretical portion of his research and designing the test for the lab. It has something to do with shock waves and echoes of helium particles. (And my understanding is really limited to 4 words: shock waves, echoes, helium, and mostly I can relate to the word something!)

 

He is having a great time and is loving it. He has met a bunch of the other REU guys that are as much into board games as he is. (I told him to pack some of his games to take with him. Some of them did, too. One guy's parents are visiting this weekend and are bringing up his.....so this is definitely something that they have going on that they are all enjoying.)

 

We won't get to see him except for a day before school starts. His REU ends right before school starts. He will travel down from the REU and pick up his car that has been here all summer and turn around and head back to school. But that is OK bc he is forging his path and loving every minute of where he is going.

Edited June 30, 2016 by 8FillTheHeart

[MysteryJen]

Ds1 finally got all the job stuff worked out. He is coaching and life guarding, working very hard and is tired at the end of the day. It has been very nice having him home.

Dd1 swam at Olympic trials this past Sunday and Wednesday and is on the road with Dh to the summer session at Virginia Tech. We said good-bye yesterday and I felt like crying the whole 7 hour drive home. We are missing her hard today.

[BlsdMama]

DD (20) took this summer off from classes.  She found summer classes last year very overwhelming.  She was trying to work a lot to save $$ and take four summer classes, lowered her GPA and was just overwhelmed.

She bounced back this year and did great, worked hard, but I admit I'm very glad she's not taking classes.

 

Essentially she's just working a lot this summer and spending the rest of the time with someone special.

 

DS (17) had a 90 hour internship with a civil engineer who works at an architectural and design firm.  He finished up on Wednesday.  He really enjoyed the firm and the internship as a whole.  It did cement his want to study civil engineering.  More importantly, they told him to keep in touch.  They told him of a college internship at a firm here and said they would put a good word in for him to get a college internship.  One of his instructors at CC also worked there and would vouch for him.  It also showed him how important networking is, kwim?    His summer goal is to now work as many (paid, lol) hours as possible because he doesn't like his current car.  :P ;)  Other than that we are working on ACT prep this summer and finishing his social studies requirements so that he doesn't need to work on classes at home next year while doing CC and Mock.

[Luckymama]

Dd21 is working as the directing intern at our state's Shakespeare festival and networking hard :) That's 4-6 hours a day, excluding Mondays. She's also working about 20 hours a week at her retail job.

 

Dd16 is studying her language intensively this summer in a program that does not accept high school sfudents :D She's also tutoring some older students, her first paying gig.

[swimmermom3]

Ds, who is off to college next month (gulp!) is once again grateful to spend his summer out on the water getting paid to teach sailing. The instructors have use of sailboats, kayaks, and longboards in the off hours so ds was able to take our Spaniard (back for his third summer) out kayaking.  We have our Spanish student two more weeks and our French student arrived last night.  Today, they are all off at the beach and in a couple of days, we'll go camping. 

 

It was fun and rewarding to hear ds fire off an explanation in Spanish to our French student,  who also speaks Spanish, to explain something I said in English.  Our Spanish student also speaks French.

[hornblower]

Dd is working f/t in the job she has p/t throughout the school year. It's a great place, work she loves and feels passionate about, and it pays OK.  I think she'll get a solid 17 or 18 weeks of work. 

She's also working on getting a professional certification related to the work - but that's a self teaching thing plus passing an exam.  She's wanting to get that done before the next term starts. 

 

Edited July 18, 2016 by hornblower

[SkateLeft]

My oldest is working as a software engineering intern at the same company she worked for last year. They even gave her a substantial pay raise this year, and have told her that they want to hire her when she graduates, so that's pretty nice!

 

#2 has worked for the last four years, but she just quit life-guarding in May, so she's enjoying some downtime before heading off to school in August.

[FrogMom5]

It's fun hearing about all the great adventures and activities your kids are having this summer!

 

As for us, my oldest is interning at the National Magnetics Lab and taking a math class this summer.  At the Mag. Lab he is developing a program to test the affects of magnetism on iron alloys ( I don't really understand all this, but I think that is what he said).  The math class is an extra class that he says will help him in an upcoming physics class. 

 

He got hit by a car while riding his bike home from the Mag Lab one evening.  He was pretty banged up, but ok.  We had to get him a new bike.  His wounds were still healing when he almost got hit again.  Now he is taking the bus or Uber when he works late.  Otherwise, it has been a fun summer for him. 

 

My younger two are doing light school work, helping me with a huge clear out of our house, swimming and playing with friends. We took them to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL a couple of weeks ago.  If you haven't seen the Lincoln sites, they are well worth the trip.  The museum is fairly new, at least to me, and is very well done. 

 

I hope the rest of the summer is fun and relaxing for you all!

Denise

 

 

[regentrude]

He got hit by a car while riding his bike home from the Mag Lab one evening.  He was pretty banged up, but ok.  We had to get him a new bike.  His wounds were still healing when he almost got hit again.  Now he is taking the bus or Uber when he works late.  Otherwise, it has been a fun summer for him. 

 

Oh, no, that is scary. Glad he is OK.

[creekland]

He got hit by a car while riding his bike home from the Mag Lab one evening.  He was pretty banged up, but ok.  We had to get him a new bike.  His wounds were still healing when he almost got hit again.  Now he is taking the bus or Uber when he works late.  Otherwise, it has been a fun summer for him. 

 

Ditto the "glad he's ok" part that Regentrude said!

 

All the rest falls under my "like."

[*LC]

This is fun to read. Well, except for the getting hit by a car part. I am glad your son is better; I hope you, mom, are too. My senior commutes to an internship by bike. Last year was almost completely on a bike bath. This year is almost completely, 20 something minutes, on the road. I will admit I was glad to hear a good portion of the road is now only open to local car traffic due to road construction. There are also buses available, but she likes the flexibility of biking. (She uses a company-provided bike, as she flew to her internship.)

This is her second year interning in Silicon Valley as she loved her time there last year. She is with a different company as she wanted to experience working at a smaller company than the huge company she worked for last year. She had a hard time turning down an offer to return this year. In the end, she ended up at a bigger company than she originally wanted, but she loves it too. (Who wouldn't love a workplace with its own free (allergy aware) ice cream shoppe?) This year she is working on an internal project, whereas last year she worked on something she could show us.

She ended up with a part-time internship for a small web company, while studying abroad this winter/spring. So, she was able to try out 3 different types of companies before she starts interviewing for a full-time job. She does not plan to go to graduate school, as it doesn't seem the norm in her field. Of course, things can change.

 

She will fly home on the day that her freshman sibling moves into the dorm at college. I guess we will drop her car at the airport, before move-in. I dont think we will be back in time to pick her up. She will drive to school a few hours away the next day, since she lives off campus. If she cankt fit everything, I will drive back to college and take my frehman to dinner.

 

P.S. we went to the Lincoln Museum in 2014 and thought it was well done. It showed me that personal attacks have been involved in politics for a long time, unfortunately.

[bettyandbob]

 

 

Just been really frustrating.  Both are saying they should have gone to public high school because they would have better social skills, and we should have made them get a job in high school.  ( Never mind how academically unprepared they would have been...)  

 

 

No. I have two public high school graduates. One is socially inept. He lacked social skills during the years we did homeschool. Knowing social stuff was a problem I made sure he had plenty of opportunities to work on his lack of social skills. Nothing. 

 

My other public high school graduate just interacts with people better. She's introverted and that can be a little problem, but she is able to negotiate stuff on her own successfully. 

 

Being a student in public high school may force someone to interact with a lot of people daily, but it does not mean a student will learn social skills from the daily interaction with multiple people. 

[Frances]

Yeah, I agree but they don't. Also, this is my math/science geek. They offered AP chemistry but none of the kids took the test year he did because they had no chance of passing. I can't remember but there were 31 AP tests taken and only 7 scores were a 3 or higher and I'm betting most of those were 3's. He took 7 AP classes through AP Homeschoolers and made 5 5's and 2 4's. He as more than prepared academically for college. At our local ps, half of the kids do not even take the ACT/SAT and out of that 1/2 of those do place into remedial classes. I know several that are in the honors track that had to take remedial math. Something is wrong if you have had trig and you get placed into intermediate algebra!!!!!

 

Middle one used to thank me all the time as he just scoffed at our local kids. However, then he went to college and felt like he didn't have the social skills to deal with it, though he learned and actually made friends pretty quickly. He may change his mind about it. I don't know. He is 19 and convinced he will be a much better parent.

 

Oldest did go to public school until 4th grade and I sometimes wonder if I should have just left him in there, but I don't know. Don't have a time machine to find out.

It sounds like they had an excellent homeschool education. Hopefully with time and maturity they will take personal responsibility for any social skills they perceive as lacking and work to correct their deficits. Hugs to you in the meantime.

[FaithManor]

Mine is going back and forth between apartment and home so he can enjoy family activities and yet keep up his tutoring on campus. He has a road trip coming up to St. Louis (2nd one this summer and the young lady in question appears to be rather special to him,so I wonder if this will become a regular excursion).

 

He may have more physical therapy for his leg.

[hsbeth]

My two college girls are doing well. Oldest is doing an engineering internship in SD this summer. I was able to spend about a week with her when UA let out, but she'll fly straight back from internship to school without a return visit. I'm planning a trip to go see her a few weeks after classes begin. My second girl chose to stay on campus for the first half of the summer and take two classes. She is working on her apps for the upper division Nursing program right now. Now that her summer classes are done she is back to lifeguarding and being the nanny for a local family. That's been her go to jobs for the last couple of summers.

[-M-]

Our daughters, 20 and 18, will be juniors (psychology and physics, respectively) at their transfer university this fall. This summer, they are working as swim coaches and instructors and are enjoying something many peers don't: a fixed work schedule. I remind them often that they are very, very lucky. The older daughter also volunteers at a therapeutic riding facility (she should be able to earn PATH certification while at university) and is keeping up with her music studies. The younger daughter is taking a four-credit physics course that completes a four-course sequence at the transfer university. She is at the mid-term.

 

In between work, music practice, the volunteer gig, and the class (and all of its homework), they've had time for a few adventures with us, including trips to the John G. Shedd Aquarium (for a penguin encounter), the Field Museum (for "China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors"), the Milwaukee Zoo, the Illinois Railway Museum, and the Art Institute. We also saw the six-hour marathon event, Tug of War at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Terrific stuff!) and will return for Jonathan Pryce in The Merchant of Venice. Our family book club read and discussed The Sparrow and hopes to complete Wuthering Heights before move-in day. All of us are participating in the public library's summer reading program, too.

 

Typed out, it doesn't look like much, but they seem to be having a good summer. *smile*

[TravelingChris]

My dd is taking two summer classes at the local university. Other than that, she is enjoying being home and has fun with us and her older brother.  She enjoyed visiting her sister and brother in law at their house last weekend.  We went too.  It was fun.

[swimmermom3]

No. I have two public high school graduates. One is socially inept. He lacked social skills during the years we did homeschool. Knowing social stuff was a problem I made sure he had plenty of opportunities to work on his lack of social skills. Nothing. 

 

My other public high school graduate just interacts with people better. She's introverted and that can be a little problem, but she is able to negotiate stuff on her own successfully. 

 

Being a student in public high school may force someone to interact with a lot of people daily, but it does not mean a student will learn social skills from the daily interaction with multiple people. 

 

I have three children, ages 18, 21, and 23.

 

My mother is forever on my case about "socialization" for our youngest who has homeschooled for nine years with one semester and occasional classes at the public high school. It's all I can do to hold my tongue and point out that "socialization" at the local public high school did not serve either of my older two kids very well. 

 

The youngest may be shy, but he has participated in team sports since he was 7 and has held a paying job for three summers now where he coaches sailors of all ages from six to over 60. He even coaches the pissed off middle-aged men who failed the club's sailing test that is required in order to rent boats. :tongue_smilie: He is a good host to our exchange students and flew on his own to Spain last summer to stay with one of their families.  He's also light years ahead academically.

 

I am not saying that social skills aren't necessary, but I am fairly sick of hearing how public school is the end-all, be-all answer to that issue.

 

[anne1456]

Just wanted to update to say my daughter passed the nursing boards and is officially an RN!  :party:

Now her summer plans are signing a lease on an apartment and buying a car, since she starts work at a hospital in 3 weeks. She will be moving about 1 1/2 hours from home, which is far enough for her but not too far for us.

Edited July 18, 2016 by anne1456

[Lilaclady]

Congratulations !!!!!!!'n

[hopskipjump]

Mine is lifeguarding (which has turned into far more hours available than she or I really anticipated. We forgot that the last time she lifeguarded, she was not yet 18... so we'd just assumed she'd get about 20 hrs a week...)

 

She's enjoying it, though. She did an internship last summer, which she loved... but we thought it'd be a good idea for my somewhat-sheltered senior heading far-away to college to spend the summer meeting a bunch of "new" teenagers and twenty-somethings. And, it has been a good decision and she's having fun despite working more than planned.

 

So, between working out, trying to make sure she's not missing anything for college (paperwork, etc), buying everything for college... she pretty much has zero time left for anything else because she's so exhausted! lol

 

 

[Ivey]

Ds21 flew to Bangkok in early June, and has a flight booked home from Hanoi on August 16th. Last we heard, he was somewhere in Cambodia. You're only young once, right? 

[creekland]

Ds21 flew to Bangkok in early June, and has a flight booked home from Hanoi on August 16th. Last we heard, he was somewhere in Cambodia. You're only young once, right? 

 

I wish I could have done half the things our youngsters do back in my youth.

 

I'd settle for pretending to be young to do them now.  I still look at our finances occasionally and wonder how I can tweak them.

[Lolly]

DD21a is currently working 3 jobs, getting very little sleep, and running herself ragged. Job 1 is swim coaching. Fortunately, that will be over soon, and she will not be continuing in the fall. Job 2 is mermaiding. This one is summer only. Job 3 is diving at an aquarium. She just started training for this month and will continue come fall as a replacement to coaching.

 

DD21b is also mermaiding. She is taking an online class and getting everything lined up to start clinicals in the fall which require getting certification, scrubs, insurance, and other stuff that I only hear about in passing. In addition, she is visiting the doctor every two weeks for antibiotics. This week's visit turned up a positive strep test. Thinking this is the cause for the entire summer, but antibiotics aren't getting it. Hopefully, the more aggressive approach this go around will knock it out!

 

Dd23 spent the first two weeks in Japan sight seeing and attending concerts. She is finishing up a summer internship (with pay/for credit) and will graduate after this semester. She should be being given a job offer with the company she is interning with sometime in the next couple of weeks. If rumors are true (and based on the hourly rate she is receiving as an intern), she should be set for living a comfortable life... She will take a 6 month break between the internship and starting work to try to get some answers to her health issues that have been plaguing her for six months of so. The week she comes home, she has many visits lined up with doctors with many more to be made. Hopefully, she will be able to get off antinausea meds and eat more than potatoes and rice as the majority of her meals again. Part of me doubts it though. Testing so far has yielded no answers.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2016 by Lolly

[MariaT]

This is a wonderful thread!

 

DS19 is in India for 6 weeks working at an education company. He is making short films to help teachers in the countryside become better teachers. He is staying in Mumbai but takes trips with staff to other parts of the country. He has already come down with a stomach bug-- the rest of the staff (other interns from UK) is acclimated to the water, and he felt he needed to do that too, for some reason. They sent him home to get better. He loves India, and he said he finds the work very rewarding, although he is looking forward to eating a thick, juicy steak when he gets home. He sends us very short films, just a minute or two, showing the street with the puttputt cabs, or a stray cat, or the bidet. 

 

Maria