The summer after the last year of high school and before the first semester of college offers Convent of the Sacred Heart seniors the time to pursue their passions, explore new ideas, and prepare themselves for the next phase of their lives. Sacred Heart’s 82 seniors are pursuing a diverse array of activities, including participating in community service, holding jobs or internships, playing sports, developing creative projects, and traveling the globe.
“This is one of the rare occasions when you have uninterrupted time, because you’re too old for camps and you don’t have your coursework for college or adult responsibilities,” senior Gabby Giacomo said. “It is the perfect time to pursue that job, that internship, and finish that project; you can genuinely do whatever you want with your time and are old enough to make that happen.”
Nineteen percent of seniors will spend the summer working. Senior Jenny Blessing, for example, will be working on a STEM enrichment program to teach kids math and computer programming. Senior Gabriela Lopez is working at The Tokeneke Club as a full time receptionist during the day, and then at night as a hostess and server at Bertucci’s, an Italian restaurant. She will also be working on some of her film projects this summer.
Seven percent of all seniors at Sacred Heart are interning over the summer for companies and corporations in their fields of interest. Senior Grace Kennedy is looking forward to pursuing an internship in Art History, a field in which she has discovered great interest after taking the AP Art History class this year.
“Over the summer I’m spending the month of July interning for the Winston Art Group in the city. I got the internship through Mr. Favata connecting me with [Sacred Heart alumna] Isa von Hapsburg’s mom who works there,” Grace said. “I’m really excited and I can’t wait to see where this takes me, especially since I’m interested in Art History for college.”
Molly Geisinger will be spending July interning at Townvibe, a magazine publishing group building on the skills she developed through her journalistic career at the King Street Chronicle.
Another popular summer activity is traveling, which 18 percent of seniors are doing before settling into their dorms.
Senior Mary Grace Henry was selected to be a Hesburgh-Yusko Scholar at The University of Notre Dame. The scholars have the opportunity to participate in a summer program every summer before their incoming year at Notre Dame. This summer, Mary Grace will be participating in a Wilderness Leadership Expedition with Outward Bound.
“For 15 days I will be sea kayaking and alpine backpacking in the Pacific Northwest. It’s something completely different to anything I’ve ever done and I’m both really excited and a bit nervous,” Mary Grace said. “From talking to previous scholars it sounds like an incredible experience and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to participate in something that will really put me outside of my comfort zone and challenge me in new ways.”
Despite their graduation, many seniors will continue to live out the Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria through community service. Another large part of the senior grade (17 percent) is participating in such outreach over the summer.
Senior Maria Mikhail is going to Darmstadt, Germany where she will be helping in Kanaan St. Basilia home to the Sisterhood of Mary, by working in schools run by the nunnery and orphanages. Senior Abbi Wilson will be participating in a program at her college, Hampshire College, called The Institute for Transforming Social Justice.
“It is for a month and we learn about four different topics of social justice that are critical in the world today,” Abbi said.
Some seniors are pursuing their passions this summer in sports and the arts.
Senior Kirsten Parkinson is spending the summer honing her diving skills to get really for college level diving. She will be the Head Diving coach at Riverside Yacht Club and the Assistant Diving Coach at Newfield Swim & Tennis Club this summer as well.
Gissele Alzate will be using her extra time in the summer pursuing creative interests. She will be promoting her food Instagram, feedyoursoull, with some surprises in the Instagram account to come.
No matter what Sacred Heart seniors are doing this summer or where they are traveling, all of them will be preparing for the next stage of their adventure in college.
“The big thing is that I’m moving to Texas to go to SMU. So, I’m sure most of my summer will consist of huge Target hauls and many, many trips to the mall. I’ll go to orientation on July 7-8 and then start school August 19,” Grace said. “I’m so excited to finally be off to college.”
– Nebai Hernandez, Staff Writer
Categories:
Senior summer before college
May 20, 2015
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John D. Lawry • May 21, 2015 at 10:40 am
“Too old for camp.”?? Too bad. With “nature deficit disorder” becoming more prevalent in children and teens, I’m trying to get my granddaughter (Alex Dimitri ’16) to consider camp as an alternative to a summer office job/internship. She will probably spend most of the rest of her life in an office so why not spend one more year at camp before the demands of college and/or job become insurmountable.