We can’t all have culturally or intellectually interesting summer jobs like Kristen, Peter, and Roxana.  Someone needs to staff the positions that enable everyone to have summer fun!

Liz was up in the lifeguard’s chair around a pool:

My favorite summer job was being a lifeguard, and my favorite lifeguarding gig was at a private psychiatric hospital in Vermont.  Yes, you heard me right.  The hospital had an outdoor pool that was available in the summer to patients who had earned the privilege, but they couldn’t come into the pool area unless they were with hospital staff.  (I was trained only on pool-related issues, not mental, physical or emotional ones.)  Also, the pool was only four feet deep.  By my second summer there, I was the senior lifeguard and didn’t have to work weekends anymore.  During the week, patients visited at fairly regular intervals, spaced out throughout the day.  When no one was at the pool, I would swim, read, sunbathe, or nap.  When it rained, I moved my chair into the fairly spacious pool shed; and when it was so stormy that it was unsafe to stay outside, I’d hang out in the hospital cafeteria.  My boss was fantastic, I befriended some of the hospital staff, who would come visit me on their breaks, and (for the most part) the patients were really great, too.   I spent four summers lifeguarding at the hospital.  As summer jobs go, it was the best — I made really great money and got to spend my day outside by a pool.  What could be better than that? =)

Jeff, was also in the lifeguard’s chair, when not scooping ice cream:

Aside from less interesting college internships, I held two great summer jobs.  Throughout my childhood, my life revolved around the pool, so it was only natural to become a lifeguard.  Summers in high school were spent working two blocks away from my house. I could literally roll out of bed and be “at work” (I use that term loosely) within five minutes.  It was a great gig – free food throughout the day, nice tans, and numerous visits from friends.  On the other hand, it sometimes got quite boring as the pool was rarely used:  the patrons spent 90% of their day on the golf course.  I guess my job was really more about getting a tan and eating, than it was about saving lives.

Another summer job I held (which also involved eating) was scooping ice cream at our local creamery.  It was only open from late spring to fall, and it was literally a shack with picnic tables off to the side.  During the long, hot summer months, the lines of customers seemed to never end, but we always had  a great time.  There were usually about four of us on a shift, happily serving customers while singing, dancing, and gossiping.  The best part of work was the chance to treat ourselves to ice cream throughout the day.  As ice cream is one of my favorite desserts (it’s a tossup between ice cream and chocolate chip cookies), nothing could have been better.

As for me, for five summers, you might have found me at the foot of the lifeguard’s chair at Jones Beach State Park, near my childhood home on Long Island, NY.  I was a “state worker,” which referred to all the people (aside from the lifeguards) who kept the park running.  In my first summer, I did the worst of the work:  picking garbage up off the beach, cleaning bathroom facilities, collecting parking fees.  For the following four summers, I was promoted to foreman, which meant a combination of telling other people to do the worst of the work, and doing a little of it myself.  Jones Beach is an extraordinarily busy place (maximum capacity on a hot summer’s day was 250,000 people), and I learned a lot there about the best and worst of humanity.  (It is indeed true that there are people who will leave a child in a baking-hot car while they go for a swim.  Fortunately, there are also people who will call the police when they spot the child.)  It was a funny time in the world of summer jobs, and our staff was made up of college students for whom this was a job of choice.  The money was good, the hours were consistent, and it was very social, even if the work could be smelly.

And there you have it.  When you meet us, judge for yourself whether our summer jobs with manuscripts or ice cream shaped the way we approach Admissions work.  Or share your own stories with a comment on this entry.

Summer always seems like the best time for the blog to introduce our staff to future applicants and students.  For this warm mid-August week, I’ve asked my admissions pals to describe one of the jobs that kept them busy in a previous summer.

Kristen gets the prize for classiest job.

One of my most interesting summer jobs was as an intern in the Books and Manuscripts department of Sotheby’s. While the title makes it sound dusty and dull, the pieces that came through the office were anything but.  Just before I started, Sotheby’s held the auction of the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  I was shocked to learn that even the simplest or strangest of items — the President’s leg braces, for instance — commanded the highest of prices.  And so began my education.  I was able to see a Napoleonic-era Treaty that was in the midst of an international police investigation.  I talked to countless people who knew that they — without a doubt, no questions asked — had an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.  (No, they didn’t, but they were likely inspired by this story.)  And I got to see countless fine antiquarian books, famous and esoteric, come in for evaluation.  It was a summer that took me out of my reality.  And as with any experience that removes you from your day-to-day rhythms, I was reminded of all the unique subcultures, idiosyncratic enthusiasts, and deep wells of knowledge that exist out there in our fascinating world.

All that said, nothing had a bigger impact on me than my summer job at a movie theater.  It gave me:  a) a deep appreciation for customer service; b) an excitement for the college days that lay ahead; and c) an enduring distaste for movie theater popcorn.  All invaluable in their own ways!

And Peter gets the prize for most international summer job.

More than a decade ago, I spent the summer living in a small town in Southwestern France teaching English, leading activities, and coaching sports for French children at an English and cultural-immersion summer camp in the Pyrenees Mountains.  It was modeled after the typical American summer camp:  boys and girls “cabins” (in this case, dorm rooms in a converted convent), sports and activities, trips to the pool, etc. with a few cultural quirks thrown in.  The students had to attend English classes twice a day (French kids, like most other kids I know, do not like attending classes in the summer), and each day was inspired by an American holiday or theme, such as Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, or The Wild West.  The campers played flag football, made dreamcatchers in arts and crafts, and were served “American” food (hamburgers, pizza, tacos, turkey, etc.) prepared by a French chef.  It was an interesting concept, but it was a bit surreal to find myself teaching baseball on an old field, surrounded by an ancient stone wall down the street from a crumbling chateau, or to watch a group of French children practice their country-western line dancing in an old French convent.

Meanwhile, Roxana has the most Fletcheresque summer experience.

While I was in college, my parents were living overseas, and every summer I would fly to where they were located. The summer after my freshman year, I was able to lounge around the house for about three days — just long enough for my jetlag to disappear — before my dad told me I had to apply for one of the summer internship positions at the Embassy.  I was not looking forward to being a “gofer” for Foreign Service Officers all summer.  As it turned out, I was more than a gofer, since the summers are when there’s high Embassy staff turnover, and they needed help filling in for the missing personnel.  I actually had a lot of fun…despite having to get up at 5 a.m. when my dad went in for an early shift.  (I’d take a two-hour nap on the couch in his office until it was time for me to start work.)  I got to meet interesting people, look at cool passports from different countries while helping process visas, and see how we deal with fraudulent visa cases.  I helped plan the annual Fourth of July Banquet and participated in the menu tasting (yummy!), and also dealt with the stress of a computer program that kept corrupting the 1,000+ name guest list.  I nursed my paper-cuts from stuffing the guest invitations and enjoyed the staff BBQ’s.  My list of assigned tasks took me through the summer and made me look forward to working there again the three following summers.  Overall, the exposure to the ins and outs of a U.S. Embassy was a wonderful experience and has helped me in my work. But, thank goodness, I don’t have to get up at 5 a.m. anymore.

Later this week:  Summers at the beach or around the pool.