Tyler Kendall
Features Editor
For senior Julie Newton, who is currently applying to colleges, the past summer has taken on a new dimension than previous ones. “School played a huge factor in my vacation, because I’m going through the college process,” she said. “I still had to make some visits while balancing summer work for school, writing my college essay, and filling out applications.”
It is not just seniors who feel that the school year and summer vacation have become more intertwined. For many students, summer is supposed to be a break from the turbulence that high school presents, but it appears that July and August have taken on a new form as students try to balance their summer workload with relaxing. “School definitely played a role in my break,” sophomore Carl Fagerstal said. “Really, it feels like I never even left.”
For junior Brian Huff, his assignments directly altered how he spent his summer. “I worked as a counselor at a sleep-away camp so I had to take time away from having fun with my group so that I could get my work done,” he said. “It became a burden.”
However, for some students, the school work assigned did not faze or even alter any set summer plans. “I managed to balance my work and still relax this summer by just putting off the work,” sophomore Sarah Lovejoy said. “I didn’t start it until three weeks left of vacation and by then I already had a lot of time to relax and have fun.”
AP Biology teacher Jessica Zych said she assigned summer work for her incoming students due to the constraints of the class. “For AP Bio especially, the class is strictly time management.The AP test is in the middle of May so that shortens the time we have in class,” she said. “In order to not be at a disadvantage I assign summer work; it allows me to better pace the material during the year.”
The blend of school assignments and the summer can be hard to embrace at first, but the work soon becomes inevitable as the start of school creeps closer. “No one wants to think about school during summer, and I’m no different,” junior Andrew Penchuk said. “I would usually do my summer work in the mornings or late at night. That way I would not let it get in the way of things I wanted to do during the day.”
Even though school work can possibly take a lot of effort, many students find that the way it is handled can alter the load for the better. “Even when I was working, I was always listening to my favorite music so that I was still in a mellow and relaxed state of mind,” Carl said.
Once a student begins the summer assignments, it appears life becomes a balancing act between jobs, sports, social life, and school. “I wanted to make sure that at least 75% of the work I had due within the first week of school was complete before preseason began for swimming,” Julie said.
Other students agreed that setting deadlines for summer work helped with the efficiency of completing assignments. “I made it a priority to get my school work done early so then I could relax the rest of the summer,” junior Virginia Farley said.
Carl agreed. “I feel like I’m always having that high school mindset, trying to manage my time as effectively as possible and make sure that I completed everything I wanted or had to do each day,” he said.
Ms. Zych says that summer work can be managed efficiently, depending whether or not procrastination is involved. “If the student starts early in the summer when they get the assignment, the work should be reasonable,” she said. “If they wait until the week before school then that’s when it gets difficult to complete.”
Due to the systematic management of work, summer can remain peaceful for many. “School work didn’t inhibit me from relaxing and having a good time this summer. I managed my time correctly, so it really didn’t feel like a burden,” Virginia said.
Summer work, in many aspects, can provide positive benefits to students. In addition to maintaining sharp learning skills over a vacation period, or taking advantage of not having a full course load interfere with learning new materials, summer work allows for students to ease back into the school year. “I decided to start doing my summer work to get back into that school mentality because I knew we would be in school soon enough,” Sarah said.
