Spring break is right around the corner! Which means the summer is fast approaching. Here’s Anthony Slade with a story on how USC students plan to spend their summer holiday.
With spring break right around the corner, many students have already begun making plans for the summer. And while my dream summer vacation includes traveling to Europe, meeting an Italian boyfriend and partaking in a whirlwind star-crossed romance some Trojans have other plans.
For example, here’s sophomore computer science and business administration major Hallie Faust.
FAUST: I’m going to do a software development intern at Amazon.
According to Zippia, roughly 60% of college undergraduates and recent graduates complete an internship -- at USC, this number is closer to 80%.
These career-related pressures have primed some students to panic at the very thought of summer plans. Valia Oliva, a senior sociology major, is one of these students.
OLIVA: When you ask me, what are your plans for the summer, my first thought was, how can I prove that I know what I’m doing? And I started thinking, like, do I have any internships? Am I doing any volunteer work? Am I working anywhere? And I was like, okay, I can say this and oh, this makes me seem like I’m very put together.
And, unfortunately for people like me, internships are actually largely beneficial for students entering the job force post-grad. The same study from Zippia found that students who completed an internship are 15% less likely to be unemployed in the first years after college. Moreover, entry-level professionals with internship experience earn roughly 6% more than their peers who do not have internship experience. My European voyage is suddenly looking like less of a priority...
Interestingly enough, one student has actually found a way to live my dream, while still maintaining her girl-boss status. Molly Ahyun, a sophomore law, history and culture major, will be crossing the Atlantic as soon as this semester lets out.
AHYUN: I’m going to Paris. It’s the public memory and ghosts of history class, so it’s like a credit for me. So I’ll be there for the first three or four weeks. And then my family is actually going to be in Europe after that.
But, students staying local shouldn’t fret. Summer break is the perfect time to wind down and decompress after two semesters of grueling schoolwork.
Paris-bound Ahyun made sure to take pity on me and proffer some valuable advice for those less fortunate:
AHYUN: If you don’t really know what you want to do, you don’t really even have to do anything. We’re really young, honestly. And so even just taking the summer to go visit family is so real. You can’t do that for the rest of your life. And internships will always wait for you.
With less than two months until summer recess, time seems to be running out for students without an internship already lined up. Don’t worry though -- we’ll have the rest of our lives to worry about clocking in hours and putting in the work. For now, let’s just enjoy spring break!
For Annenberg Media, I’m Anthony Slade.