Summer Plans—Hannah Callahan
Rectangles of sunlight seep in through classroom blinds. Summer waits just out of reach. You can see it in CHS students’ faces, lost in golden-glazed daydreams, or expressions of sleepless anguish, awaiting graduation and the end of APs. The future hangs over our heads, heavy like our backpacks.
This summer many CHS students look forward to volunteer opportunities, academic programs and trips abroad.
Junior Justin Elliot plans on going to Israel with a Jewish youth movement for six weeks.
“The first week,” Elliot said, “I’m traveling to Eastern Europe to see some of the concentration camps from the Holocaust, and then I’m going to Israel.”
Additionally, Elliot said he’s volunteering at a one-week away camp for kids with cancer, called “Camp Rainbow,” doing leadership training for his position as the President of the Regional Youth Organization, working as an instructor at Summer Quest, and volunteering at a sports camp for kids with disabilities during his two weeks home in St. Louis.
Like Elliot, Junior Elle Jacobs also plans to travel abroad.
“I’m going to Peru for a medical mission in the beginning of July,” Jacobs said, “and I might go to Italy with my family at the end of July, and I also might go to Italy to visit my friend. Two years ago I went to Peru to work in an orphanage, and now I’m really excited to go back and see all of the girls again.”
In June, Junior Helen Wiley plans to travel to Nicaragua with her father.
“I’m going down to a pretty rural part of Nicaragua for about three or four week period to work on my Spanish,” Wiley said. “In the mornings, I’ll probably do private tutoring to work on grammar. In the afternoons, I’ll go to the afternoon shifts of a public high school. It’s something I’ve always talked about doing.”
While Jacobs, Wiley and Elliot plan on keeping busy this summer with their opportunities abroad, Elliot says his summer will be both fun and productive.
“When my whole calendar for the summer came together,” Elliot said, “I was a little daunted by how little downtime I’ll have, but it’s not like it’s school. I’ll be enjoying the things I do this summer. So although I don’t have a lot of days in which I don’t have anything scheduled, the things I’m doing are enjoyable and relaxing.”
Wiley said she is also looking forward to her productive summer, in which she hopes to expand her understanding of Spanish, despite the future deficiency of hot showers.
“I’ve gotten grammar from Spanish class for years,” Wiley said, “but I’m excited about really getting my fluency down. I’ll have no choice but to speak Spanish. It’ll be a very different experience, and one that I’m sure will change my life.”
Elliot said he is “looking forward to expanding my Jewish identity as I go to Israel, and performing a lot of community service for Camp Rainbow, and, you know, enjoying my time off from school, although I’m be bounded by the author project for AP Lit.”
Junior Andrea Glik is attending an academic program at New York University for seven weeks, during which she will earn two college credits.
“I’m taking Art History, and a class called “New York as inspiration,” Glik said. “I’m looking forward to exploring Art History to see if it’s something I want to major in, as well as taking the class “New York as Inspiration,” to learn about all of the people who’ve used New York as inspiration, as the class title implies. You basically just get to journal for three hours, and then conference your work. It’s what I’ll do anyways, I’ll just be getting college credit for it.”
Like Glik, Junior Lily Gage plans on focusing on her academic pursuits– scientific research– this summer, in addition to a plethora of other activities.
“I’m doing a summer school program with Mr. Collis in the Tetons,” Gage said. “He’s taking four students to do cricket research. We are going to look at different ecosystems and look at some national parks there, for about two weeks.”
Both Gage and Glik look forward to expanding their productive summers.
“In the long run,” Gage said, “I’m definitely interested in scientific issues and helping with different environmental issues.”
Gage said she also plans on going to Copenhagen after the Tetons, where she will stay with family friends and volunteer at a summer camp at an international school, as well as co-directing her mother’s children’s musical, performed each year at Maremac.
Glik said she may also be working part time at PR events while in New York.
“I’m just really excited about getting a taste of college,” Glik said. “A lot of people go to college in New York and get distracted. This summer I’ll learn how to balance schoolwork, classes, internships, and my social life. If I get this down, college, college will be easy.”
It’s clear that even after the school year comes to a close and St. Louis’ humidity rises to almost unbearable extremes, CHS students will keep themselves busy with unique learning opportunities.