News Highlights

Summertime is work time for many students

Their plans are as varied as the majors they study and the career paths they will soon follow, but for the most part, area college students will spend much of their time this summer working.

2006-05-17
By Bronson Pettitt [Special to The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 5/17/2006]

MANKATO — Their plans are as varied as the majors they study and the career paths they will soon follow, but for the most part, area college students will spend much of their time this summer working.

Some call those 15 weeks of academic freedom a time of utter relaxation when tanning, swimming and barbecues are everything, while others still go to class and work full time.

For Minnesota State University sophomore Amber Smestad, her plans fall somewhere in between.

Smestad, a dental hygiene major, will work at a  motel in her hometown of Windom. She is a jill of all trades at the Guardian Inn: cleaning rooms, washing windows and working the front desk. Although she'll work full time there, Smestad said the job is pretty lax.

"There's a lot of free time," she said. "Last year I did homework for summer school (for a different college) when there was nothing else to do."

The hardest part of her job, she said, is doing the laundry. "The folding makes your back and arms sore."

Smestad's boyfriend, MSU student Blake Crow, also will return to Windom to work. Crow works at Dennis Johnson and Associates, a city engineering and land surveying firm that tests concrete in hog confinements.

Needless to say, the job literally stinks, especially after working 60-hour weeks, but Crow pulled in about $9,000 last summer. The management major said he likes the job because he travels around several states. The best part, he added, is "getting to be a part of inventing things."

Crow said the firm develops air filters for hog barns to help ease the smell.

Like Crow, Bethany Lutheran College sophomore Rebekah Fehr will work long hours, but she won't be returning to her hometown of North Sioux City, S.D. Instead, Fehr will work at Seneca Foods in Montgomery for about $7 per hour.

Her days will begin at 4 a.m., when she'll drive to seven corn or pea fields (depending on the season) and collect a total of about 140 pounds of raw produce. Then, back at the factory, using a large machine, she'll test the sugar-water content of the crops to see if they're ready to be harvested.

"It's pretty hard, but it's fun at the same time because you get to hang out with your peers and talk to them," said Fehr, an education major. The job messes up your schedule, she said. "You have to go to bed by 8 p.m. and you can't go out at night." But the good thing about that, Fehr said, is seeing the sun rise. She's taken many photos and even painted a picture that hangs in one of Bethany's student art galleries.

Besides working, Fehr said she plans to visit her cabin in Wisconsin, see her sister's baby to be delivered in June as well as attend her brother's wedding.

MSU sophomore Travis Michels also plans to work during the summer, but he will intern at an engineering firm that tests construction materials. He applied for about five internships, but said the one he got — in his hometown of Rochester — was his top choice.

"I'm looking forward to it," said the civil engineering major. "It'll be nice to do something different."

As if his weekend job now wasn't already different — he drives a Zamboni. But after working at his other job, a land surveying job for several summers out in the open sun, Michels said his internship will be a good change.

Not all college students are going home to work. Colette Bruce, an MSU junior, will continue working as a waitress at Boomtown and Waters in Mankato.

"It's good money, it's a good atmosphere and I love the people that come in," said Bruce, a secondary education major. Although she's from Texas, Bruce said she'll visit home in August as well as take a trip to Michigan to see family, but most of her summer will be devoted to saving for her out-of-state tuition. She'll also take two summer classes.

"They're easier," Bruce said. "It's not quite as hard of work, but there is less time to do it."

Texas may seem like a ways away, but try Pakistan. First-year graduate student Ali Malik, one of MSU's 457 international students, will visit his home country for the fourth time since he began his undergraduate degree.

"I'll go home and relax and have good food," said Malik, a first-year graduate student pursuing his MBA. "I'm tired of McDonald's."

During the five weeks he'll be gone — taking care of his sick dad, visiting old friends and fishing — Malik said he will miss the safety of the United States.

Malik is one of MSU's few international students who goes home regularly, according to the International Student Office. Restrictions are different for each nationality, but in general, a lot of paperwork is involved for students to maintain their academic status.

"Till now, my situation has been fine, but it varies from person to person," Malik said. He added that international students often face complicated visa restrictions, financial problems and graduation timetables if they want to return to their home country frequently.

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