With summer almost coming to a wrap-up, and the fall quarter just around the quarter, one can‘t help but wonder what Davis students have been up to all this time.
Emily Mraovich was the assistant director this summer at Cal Aggie Camp – a camp sponsored by ASUCD for children aged 5 through 17.
“I assist the director with whatever he needs, organize the hiring of the new counselors and pretty much plan the two weeks of camp,“ Mraovich said.
As assistant director, Mraovich had a set pay of one hundred dollars every two weeks for the time she worked. The money, she said, was not an issue because it was only a side job.
“It‘s just good to be with the kids. That‘s the important part,“ Mraovich said.
Mraovich is also interning at the Sacramento Air Quality District. She applied to at least five internships before landing this one. “It‘s like a ‘whoever steps up‘ sort of thing,“ she said.
Tracy Jalaba, a senior exercise biology major, was also involved with camp leadership as an administrator at Camp Kesem – a student-run camp organization specialized for children whose parents have had cancer, survived, or passed away from it.
“My role was basically to help keep camp running smoothly,“ said Jalaba, who said she enjoyed the unpaid summer job. “Because of their unique situations, many of [the children] are wise beyond their years and I always learn from hearing their perspectives on life.“
Taking a step away from summer camps is Erik Moon, a senior political science major, who was an orientation leader for Summer Orientation.
“I help incoming students – transfers and first-year students – get acclimated to the campus and choose their first classes ever,“ Moon said.
Internships were also available for college students this summer. However, according to the National Association of College and Employers, internship hiring fell 21 percent since last year.
Daniel Ooi, who interned at Brocade Communications Systems this summer in San Jose, encourages students to send out their resumes for anything they could be qualified for – even if it doesn‘t seem appealing.
“I‘ve had a few past internships and jobs where I wasn‘t completely thrilled about the work, but I gained valuable experience and got to network,“ Ooi said, a managerial economics major.
He said that the best thing about his job is the pay. And the worst?
“The work,“ said Ooi, “I was stuck on spreadsheets where the amount of rows have been maxed out – like 65,536 lines – and I worked on them for two weeks straight. I can safely say that I do not want to work in Excel anymore.“
Students working at the original location of the ASUCD Coffee House throughout the year were still safe in this past summer‘s campus job market – even though the place is being heavily renovated.
“I‘m getting the same amount of hours–but since we moved, it‘s been less busy,“ Ryan Bigler said, who works at the Coffee House.
Lizzy Lopez, a student manager at the Coffee House and a fifth-year, said that many students applied to work at the new “temporary“ location of the Coffee House.
“We didn‘t really hire new people. We have enough workers from before the summer already,“ Lopez said.
Siddartha Aradhya, a junior, has also spent his summer working on-campus. He is a student outreach assistant for the Early Academic Outreach Program, which is located in Dutton Hall.
Aradhya completes administrative work, such as filing in grades and preparing lesson plans for students.
“I work about 15-17 hours a week, and the pay is alright. I could use more, but I get by,“ Aradhya said.
Students with these summer jobs said that although they weren‘t studying abroad, or relaxing at a beach somewhere during the summer, they still had fun and found their experience rewarding.
“I can say without any hesitation that it has been one of the most fun and rewarding experiences I‘ve had in my life,“ Moon said, who has been an orientation leader for the last two years.
An important future summer job tip for students is to start early, said Jalaba. She applied for the job during her sophomore year, so she said it was not difficult for her to get the job back this year.
“There are a lot of qualified students out there looking for jobs right now and not enough work for everyone,“ Jalaba said. “Even getting a position as a Camp Kesem counselor, which is unpaid, is highly competitive.“
Her tip for students is to start doing some job research as soon as they can.
“Try and see if there are any specific qualifications the employer is looking for that you can work on improving during the year,“ Jalaba said.
Another tip for students who did not find work this summer would be to check out the Fall Internship and Career Fair, which will be held on November 18th at 10 a.m. in the Activities and Recreation Center Pavilion.
VANNA LE can be reached at features@theaggie.org.
