Whether crossing the globe, living back in the home, or staying put for a sweltering Baltimore summer, Hopkins students spend their time off in wide and varying ways. Some work hard waiting tables to make money for college, some spend their glorious days of freedom soaking up rays on the beach with friends, some travel and others get summer internships. A select few manage a complex and intricate combination of all these things. But all good things, summer being one of them, must come to an end. I believe Adam Sandler said it best when he uttered the immortal words, "Back to school, back to school to prove to dad that I'm not a fool."
Welcome back to campus, where in the first few days, you'll see a lot of hugging, squealing reunions and hear a lot of, "How was your summer?" Thankfully, you probably won't find yourself having to write any "What I Did This Summer" essays at Hopkins but sometimes it seems that you might as well go ahead and print out copies to have on hand for everyone who asks.
One answer you'll often get to the "what did you do?" question is "research." Many stay on for the summer to hit the books in the library and work the labs at the Medical Center, and Hopkins, being the feisty and innovative "First Research University Ever" University that it is, certainly encourages its students to do so.
Others move to the big city and get internships in various fields. There are always a contingent of future corporate financiers, one of the few internship fields in which the interns are actually paid and paid well at that.
Carmine Petrone, a senior, for example, worked for Citigroup in New York City.
"I think [the Citigroup internship] is the best program of its kind, which is why I chose to work there this summer over other places," Petrone says.
Perks like free admittance to any NYC museum, meals, sedan service home and free gym membership, certainly helped offset the 90 plus hours per week that Petrone worked.
Other New York City interns, paid less but more rested, included senior Emily Stecker, who worked at the headquarters of Teach for America, senior Audrey Pinn, who worked at Hilary Rodham Clinton's campaign headquarters, and senior Emily Mayer, who worked as a production assistant at WPIX, New York City's local WB network television station.
Still, many Hopkins students aren't satisfied to intern within the continental United States. They have to go global. Senior Anna Stirgwolt spent her summer interning in the Office of Naval Research for the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile after spending her junior spring abroad there. Stirgwolt put her engineering background to use and collaborated with local scientists on developing lithium battery technology in Chile. Government positions like this are not only fantastic experiences but are also opportunities to meet top political personalities. Stirgwolt met Secretary of State Colin Powell along with several other foreign dignitaries during their tour of the country.
Rushmi Ramakrishna, a junior, interned at a bank in the south of France through a summer study abroad program. According to Ramakrishna, the language barrier wasn't too much of a problem, although it was two weeks before she realized she had been using the men's room because the bathrooms weren't labeled at all.
Fellow classmate Arielle Goren took advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Cuba through the Center for Cross-Cultural Study, since the usual Johns Hopkins Cuba Exchange Program, in conjunction with the School of Advanced International Studies and the University of Havana, was cancelled this year. According to Goren, the best and worst part of being in Cuba was being in Cuba.
"It wasn't an easy place to be, coming from the States," Goren says. "It was very eye-opening in terms of differences but more so in terms of similarities."
Then there are the proud few who stick it out for a summer in Baltimore. These folks usually balance a combination of classes and local internships. Julie Barro, a senior IR major, took a grad school prep class and worked at Legg Mason. With a background in finance that she calls "nonexistent," Barro was able to learn as she went and had a great time, all while getting a few credits out of the way to help her graduate early.
Hopkins students are an enterprising lot. Go ahead and ask that acquaintance what he or she did this summer.
The answers you'll get will show you that you don't have to wait for school to start after all; you can use the summer to prove to your dad that you're not a fool, year-round.
