Alternative ways to spend your breaks – What to do this summer

Deadlines for summer internships and job applications are fast approaching, and pressures to beef up resumes build with every unemployment rate report. The Hullabaloo investigated various ways to have a summer to remember, ranging from adventurous abroad programs to festival hopping. Here are six suggestions on how to kick off the first summer of the decade in perfect fashion:

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1) Explore the Green Republic. You could spend thousands of dollars on tuition for Tulane’s summer school, constantly live with large pit stains and struggle to entertain yourself in a ghost-town campus. Or, you could spend less money on tuition, receive six credits without signing transfer papers, and explore the biologically diverse country of Costa Rica with other Tulane students. The Stone Center for Latin American Studies offers trips to countries including Mexico, Brazil and Chile. “Nothing can replace really stepping on the ground and seeing it in person,” said Natalia Porto, the Stone Center’s summer program coordinator. Students traveling to Costa Rica will take weekly trips to cloud forests, rain forests, coastlines and volcanoes.

2) Extend a hand to Tibetan refugees in India. If Latin America isn’t adventurous enough, take an 18-hour plane ride to New Delhi and partake in the Center for Public Service’s summer program aiding Tibetan refugees. Students will have the opportunity to tutor English, work with the children of a Tibetan refugee nursery school, and engage with a group of Tibetan monks and nuns living in meditative seclusion. “The program is a great way to experience different cultures and apply social work studies to real-world situations,” said Craig Willie, the Center for Public Service program manager. This summer program fulfills Tulane’s second-tier public service requirement. You will miss, however, this summer’s airing of “The Real World.”

3) Intern as a Dove Deodorant Correspondent. Not interested in international adventures, but you love to blog about antiperspirants? Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Seventeen magazines are looking for college students to “blend a love for blogging, beauty, fashion and life,” said Dove representative Rachel Quenzer. The internship includes two all inclusive trips to New York City, a photo shoot to be featured in one of the three magazines and a blog posted on the Dove Deodorant Web site. There’s no better way to freshen up your summer experience.

4) Become the next Jack Kerouac. You don’t need to be an English major to write your own interpretation of life on the road. Grab some friends, pile into a truck and only make left turns. The sights you’ll see will predominantly consist of highway exit signs and golden arches, but if you make your own adventure the end product could be the next national bestseller. If not, you still avoided blogging for the Dove Deodorant Web site.

5) Festival hop. Every summer deserves to be the summer of love. Kick it off at Bonnaroo June 10, caravan up to Rothbury, Mich. by July 2, zip down to All Good in West Virginia the following weekend, and wrap it up with Lollapalooza in Chicago Aug. 6. Your wallet will be empty, your ears permanently ringing and your brain mushed, but your heart will be full.

6) Get a job. What’s the point of a stacked resume if you can’t afford rent? The fact of it is that the school year is equally, if not more, jam-packed with drinking and socializing than summer break. Send resumes to local restaurants and work two jobs if possible. Save up some money, pursue hobbies on the side, and start the school year without financial stress. It may not be a summer to remember, but your New Orleans experience will be grateful in the end.