Alex Fleming
Contributing Writer
After a long and frigid winter, summer is finally on the horizon and the Keene State College school year is coming to a close.
Most students are packing up and getting ready to go back home for four months of summer vacation, if you can even call it that.
For many students, summer means a summer job, with not as much time for play. Graphic Design major John Keefe won’t even be leaving campus for most of his summer.
“I plan on living in Butler over the summer just to make up transfer courses that didn’t transfer here,” Keefe said.
Keefe transferred to KSC at the beginning of the 2014 spring semester from The New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, New Hampshire .
On top of school work, Keefe also said he was planning on finding a job in downtown Keene.
“I mean I guess it’s going to be what a lot of other people do, preparing for school and they’re just going to be earning money.,” Keefe said.
Keefe continued, “I get a few weeks off but for the most part it’s just going to be work,” Keefe said.
Junior Taryn Lazinski from Bellingham, Massachusetts is heading to Boulder Creek California for her summer job.
“My plans are to be a camp counselor at Camp Harmon in California,” Lazinski said.
There she said she will be working with children and adults with special needs.
According to the Camp Harmon website, their goal is to help build self-reliance, independence, confidence and
sarah Morrison / equinox staff
strong friendships for their campers.
Camp Harmon is a summer camp for people with disabilities located in Boulder Creek, CA and is run by Easter Seals Central California.
“It kind of [relates] to what I want to do in the future and stuff so it should be a good experience,” Lazinski said. On her downtime, Lazinski said she is planning on exploring the California area.
“I’m looking forward to being a senior next year,” Lazinski said.
Reflecting on her junior year she said her favorite parts were, “Meeting new people and also staying friends with my old friends as well. Going to my English classes have been interesting as well, becoming a better writer and learning new things and stuff.”
Communications student Brian MacDonald is among the students who will be graduating and completing their college careers on May 9.
“I’m going home for the summer to landscape and wait tables and in September I’m going to Thailand to teach English. I have a month long teaching course in a city called Chiang Mai,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald said he is local to Springfield, Massachusetts and works for a non-profit organization called Greenheart Travel, which according to their website, is an organization dedicated to providing cultural immersion programs that change lives, advance careers and create leaders.
Reflecting on his time at KSC, MacDonald said he really enjoyed his time both at and away from school.
“I was happy I got to study abroad, because that made me leave for a little bit, made me miss Keene so I could come back and appreciate it, if I’d stayed maybe I’d be more sick of it,” he said. MacDonald studied abroad in Galway, Ireland.
“Studying abroad is a great way to learn about the world, experience new things and understand different walks of life,” MacDonald said. “I would just encourage people to travel as much as they can. We always make excuses like ‘oh money and we can’t do this’ but if you can find the means to definitely do it, it makes you open your eyes a little more and [become] aware of what’s going on, it’s cool,” MacDonald said.
Alex Fleming can be contacted at Alex.Fleming@ksc.keene.edu
