Traveling and backpacking across Europe, finding jobs, and learning new things can all be done over the summer.

   Three months may not seem like enough time to do all the things you want, but you can accomplish a lot in that time. You can find jobs and see new places with friends that you might be separated from in the following school year.

   College is coming up quickly for seniors and we are already planning our summers so we can squeeze in every friend and every place that we want to see before we are all spread out throughout the country.

   I have already started planning my summer. I found a job at a summer camp and I am trying to fit a trip to Europe in as well.

   The summer camp I work at is a sleepaway camp in Wisconsin called Camp Anokijig. I have been going there since I was in seventh grade and was a volunteer junior staff there for the last couple years.

   I am also hoping to go to Europe and Ireland to visit a few friends that I have made from camp. I would love to go back to Ireland and go to France, Spain, and Switzerland.

   Traveling to camps in or out of the US is extremely beneficial because you meet so many new people from a lot of different countries and learn new things.

   There are some seniors who have not even thought about summer yet and are just trying to survive the last few months of senior year and graduate. But then there are some who are looking for jobs and places to visit.

   If you have not started planning your summer already, you might end up with the same old boring summer you have been through before.

   Elise Rivkin, Div. 564, is going on a 10-day backpacking trip across Europe in June with two of her close friends from grade school. After that she is planning on getting a job at a bookstore or at a tattoo parlor.

   “My two friends were going, and my parents told me that my graduation present could be to travel somewhere and see the world before college,” Rivkin said. “So I asked if I could come along and [my friends] said yes.”

   Even if you do not have your summer planned, it is not too late to start thinking about it or making changes.

   If you do not have any idea of what you want to do this summer look into jobs, summer camps, internships, traveling abroad, or working abroad.

   Look outside your comfort zone and even time zone. There are many opportunities to work somewhere that is not Chicago.

   There are international camps where you help teach kids English and you get to see new countries while doing so.

   One program like that is Associazione Culturale Linguistica Educational (ACLE) in Italy. My brother worked there this past summer; he was able to travel and see different cities in Italy while working and making money. He did not even know any Italian.

   Through ACLE, he met people from all over Europe and made friends from different countries. When we went to London, we ran into some of his ACLE friends.

   For more information on ACLE, visit www.acle.org.

   Another similar program is CCUSA. CCUSA works with camps and work/volunteer programs in countries like Canada, Croatia, the UK, Russia, Africa, Latin America, Asia, and many more. It also has connections to camps throughout the entire U.S. You can become a counselor at a camp or get some work/volunteer experience in different countries as well as in the U.S. For more information on their programs and camps you can visit www.ccusa.com.

   All these ideas are great examples of what you can do during the summer. Going to camps and getting jobs in different places can teach you a lot about another country or help you build new skills. Plus, putting these kinds of things on resumes or applications for scholarships/transfers would look great. I know colleges and employers love to see you be flexible and doing a lot of different things. Continuing with certain programs and camps or doing similar work also shows dedication, which is another good quality to put on an application.

   Summer comes and goes pretty quickly and when you are doing different things in different places, it goes by even faster, but that is OK because you will have experiences and memories that will last a lifetime.

   Jobs over the summer can help with college expenses and can teach you different responsibilities. Working overseas or volunteering overseas, or even in another state, can teach you time management and how to take care of things on your own and without your parents’ help.

   I personally think that getting some job experience at a camp in the U.S. or another country would be the best because you would be killing two birds with one stone: seeing new places and making money with a summer job.