Whether students are planning to live in East Lansing, stay at mom and dad’s or pack their bags and tour the globe, they are preparing for a summer of familiar sights and new adventures.

Résumé building
Jeff Stackhouse admits New York City was overwhelming when he visited last month.

“The first time I went, I was just like, ‘Oh, my gosh. So many people, so many cars,’” said Stackhouse, a nursing junior. “But now, it’s kind of like a challenge. I’m excited to take it on — like a goal to overcome.”

Stackhouse is one of many MSU students headed into real-world working environments to gain experience in their aspired career fields. He will return to New York City in June to work at New York University Langone Medical Center as part of the hospital’s nurse extern program.

Comparable to an internship, the medical center’s externship program will offer Stackhouse the opportunity to assist registered nurses and learn the ropes in a medical setting.

Stackhouse said the externship will give him the experience one only can obtain off campus.

“Working full time in a hospital, compared to just doing the classes and clinical rotations, is going to be huge for me,” Stackhouse said. “We only get so many hours in the hospital per week (in Lansing), and we have other assignments, too. So, our focus is a little bit different.”

But students don’t have to take on big-city life in order to get job experience under their belts.

Bill Morgan is the coordinator of Internships @ State, a program at MSU that allows students to obtain on-campus internships in areas of study they wish to pursue after graduation.

“(The program) takes it up a notch,” Morgan said. “It’s not just showing up and punching the time clock and doing what you’re told. It’s useful experience.”

Morgan said about 165 students currently are taking advantage of the program, which means the opportunity for it to grow has great potential.

Morgan also said, although most employers began searching for interns in January, hundreds of internship opportunities still are available through MSU’s MySpartanCareer website, which lists job and internship posts exclusively available to university students and recent alumni.

Heading home
For students looking for part-time jobs and free rent, moving back in with parents might be the best summer housing option.

Liz Witcher, a no-preference freshman, is one student who is packing her bags and heading back to her hometown at the end of finals week. But she said Kennett Square, Pa., is no ordinary place.

“We are the Mushroom Capital of the World,” Witcher said. “I’m not kidding. Some place in Japan stole the title, but it still says it on our water tower.”

Witcher said her town, which earns its nickname because of its mushroom production, is about a 10-hour drive from East Lansing and has the typical East Coast landscape of rolling hills and plenty of trees.

Geneviéve Goldberg, a human development and family studies sophomore, also will be moving back in with family, but she has a much shorter trip home.

Goldberg will be moving back to Ann Arbor, something she said isn’t too far of a stretch after living in East Lansing.

“We have a lot of similar things to East Lansing because it’s also a college town,” Goldberg said. “But it does get a bit boring because I’ve been there my whole life.”

Goldberg will be resuming her position as a lifeguard at a city pool — a job that entails more responsibility than just sitting in the sun, she said.

“You have to be actively watching the (swimmers),” Goldberg said. “You can’t just be chilling and you can’t do anything else when you’re (on duty).”

Witcher said she is on the hunt for a job after all three of the jobs she had last year did not rehire her for the summer months.

“I’m looking into restaurants,” Witcher said. “I’ve worked in convenience stores before, so I’m applying to those, too.”

Jet-setting
This summer, Billy Palazzolo plans to conquer three countries on two continents in five weeks.

Like many MSU students, the construction management junior is utilizing MSU’s top-ranked study abroad program.

As part of Palazzolo’s international experience specific to construction management, he will visit South Korea and Turkey — countries that will provide distinctly different settings to examine.

In Istanbul, program participants will study old churches and synagogues within the ancient city, which spans between both Europe and Asia. The city’s timeworn architecture greatly differs from the modernized South Korean landscape, Palazzolo said.

“We’re seeing two perspectives of construction,” Palazzolo said. “One from the old world and one from the new world.”

After his program concludes, Palazzolo will spend a week in Rome with five friends from the program. He said he doesn’t mind his group has no concrete plans for its time in Italy.

“We don’t have a set itinerary yet,” Palazzolo said. “We’re probably just going to wing it — it’s the best way to do it.”

Cheryl Benner, communications manager for the Office of Study Abroad, said each student takes away a unique experience from studying internationally, but all students have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned to their future careers.

“It depends on (students’) personal goals,” Benner said. “But the skills that they get from studying abroad are really important in today’s world.”

She said students who study abroad typically learn problem-solving and cross-cultural communication skills, as well as gain self-confidence.

Living in East Lansing
With more empty seats on the bus and a relaxed atmosphere around town, Courtney Fectau said she could get used to summers in East Lansing.

“The campus is beautiful during the summer,” Fectau said. “It’s nice having the town a little quieter with not so many students.”

Fectau is among many Spartans who choose to stick around during the summer months and enroll in courses. As a graduating senior, Fectau said her classes this summer will allow her to walk and participate in May graduation.

But for John Reid, an advertising sophomore, the lack of students around town will be the low point of the summer.

“I’ve never been in East Lansing without all the students being here,” Reid said. “That will be the biggest change for me.”
Reid said he will be taking classes to catch up on his graduation requirements after he switched majors in November.

Although Fectau enjoys the calmer East Lansing atmosphere, Tim Hinds, an academic specialist in the College of Engineering, said the seasonal laid-back attitude doesn’t transcend into the classroom.

Hinds has taught summer courses at MSU for about 10 years and said it can be difficult fitting a full semester’s worth of curriculum into one summer session.

But summer coursework can have its benefits for students in other ways.

“You get to know students a little bit better,” Hinds said. “They get better instruction, and it’s more personalized.”