Nick Manny '09
Nick Manny traveled to Switzerland and Austria to work on several organic farms. He participated in this venture through an organization called Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF). Over the course of the summer, he worked at five farms in Switzerland and one in Austria. Manny was motivated to participate in the program because of his dual interest in horticulture, particularly organic techniques, and travel.
The program involved farm labor, in Manny's case mainly weeding, for four or five hours a day, five or six days a week. When he was not working, he managed to spend a great deal of time exploring the areas where he was staying. He appreciated this approach to travel because it allowed him to "see the way people actually live," he said. He said it was more fulfilling for him than conventional tourism. Although Manny speaks High German well, he ran into a language barrier while trying to communicate with the Low German-speaking Swiss farmers.
Manny's summer experience made him think critically about the state of modern agriculture and where people actually get their food. "I gained an appreciation for humans' connection to their food," he said. "I feel we've lost that in the hyper-industrialized society we live in." As a result, Manny has cultivated an interest in harvesting his own food and growing a small vegetable garden.
Bier Kraichak '08
Bier Kraichak spent his summer in Thailand teaching and studying natural history. He instructed junior and senior high school classes on the subject and also participated in field research. Kraichak said his goal was to immerse himself into the "new" culture of the people there and to learn how people interact with natural history. He was able to participate in this program through the financial assistance of the Freeman Foundation, which funds grants for students to study in Asia.
Kraichak chose to go to Thailand because it is his country of origin. He found that his close relationship with the country proved to be an asset in his study of natural history. His contacts and relatives in Thailand allowed him to meet people who assisted him with his studies.
One of his favorite experiences was returning to a school he had not been to for over 10 years and reuniting with a teacher he knew. He enjoyed exploring the countryside.
"I did a lot of one-man travel," he said.
Kraichak said he encountered a different perception of natural history than he was anticipating, which forced him to radically adapt plans for research. He said that Thai people, over half of which still farm the land, see natural history as an integral part of their life and culture.
Kraichak plans to integrate his summer research into his education this year by doing an independent study and a research paper that analyzes the data he gathered during his visit.
Charles Stern '09
Charles Stern '09 traveled halfway across the world to Tibet in order to teach English for a month and a half. He discovered this life-changing opportunity through friends of a friend, and he had been planning it for a year before he left.
To finance his trip, Stern met with Anne Shields, director of the Career Planning Center (CPC), who introduced him to the Freeman Foundation, a national foundation that provides various universities and other educational causes in Asia with funding. Stern, who was particularly interested in the opportunity since it incorporated many of his interests such as anthropology and education, gratefully accepted the grant.
In Tibet, Stern headed off to the Lucky Start School (Tashi Garma in Tibetan) to teach English and play with elementary school kids each morning. This task was especially difficult for Stern at first, because he was unfamiliar with Tibetan. However, Stern quickly picked up some key phrases. After leaving Lucky Star School each day at around 1:30 p.m., Stern attended Tibetan language classes. These classes served as compensation for the English classes he taught from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Lhasa Kungshon Language School for adults.
"I learned how to teach and come up with different [educational] strategies," Stern said.
Stern believes he could have undergone some of these daily exposures from teaching at a high school in Brunswick, but he thinks his overall experience in Tibet is incomparable to one he could have had anywhere else. While he noted that Tibet had the same modern conveniences available in the United States, he gained first-hand experience and knowledge of the political tension between China and Tibet.
Stern said that the Lhasa Kungshon Language School is always looking for English teachers and any Bowdoin student is eligible and in high demand for this position.
Susan Morris '07
Susan Morris spent her fourth consecutive summer working with Denver SummerBridge, a program associated with Breakthrough Collaborative. SummerBridge provides highly motivated low-income students with the opportunity to attend summer school for free to keep up with their education. Morris teaches mathematics to seventh, eighth, and ninth graders.
As much as it is a rewarding summer post for Morris, she said the program allows students to be "extremely passionate about their own education." She especially loved the experience of working with students and watching them progress.
One of Morris's favorite experiences was working with two African refugees in the program, because she said they were "extremely grateful and the most enthusiastic" students to teach. She was also able to use her Spanish-speaking skills, because she had to make phone calls one time each week to the students' parents, many of whom could not speak English.
Because of her work at Denver SummerBridge, Morris has decided to become an education minor at Bowdoin, and she plans to pursue a career in teaching after college.
Yessenia Torres '09
Yessenia Torres worked at the Reading to Kids office in Santa Monica, California. The non-profit organization holds reading programs for students and workshops for parents at four different schools in the downtown Los Angeles area during one Saturday of each month. At the end of the program, every child and parent receives a free book.
As an intern, Torres spent her five hour shift recruiting book and money donors, entering data into a computer, and translating brochures and posters into Spanish. She also had the opportunity to visit schools and work with kids.
Torres recalled one of her afternoons reading to a group of third grade boys: "The boys were really crazy, but the minute I started reading to them, they quieted down. At the end of the program, a little boy came up to me and said he wanted to finish reading the book [I had started]."
Torres chose this internship from several others that the CPC had suggested.
"It [gave me] the opportunity to have office experience and to work with kids," she said.
Torres hopes to start her own non-profit organization in order to help women facing acts of violence.
John Hall '08
As an intern at A&E, John Hall '08 gained experience in the world of web analytics, an industry he may pursue in the future. Hall only discovered this internship opportunity late last spring. While working at Bowdoin's graduation last May, Hall received an email from the CPC's eBear database alerting him of the internship. He sent his resume before the May 31 deadline, and two weeks later he found himself in a cottage in Samford, Connecticut, interning there for three days a week and New York City for the remainder. Hall worked in the web analytical department, which was headed by a Bowdoin alum from the Class of 2000.
An average day's work consisted of tracking the company's three network web sites and making conclusions about various website traffic periods and demographics.
"You hear stories about internships where people [are just] coffee-getting," Hall said, "[but I] was treated like an employee."
Hall's main project was setting up a program on Microsoft Excel that allows any A&E employee to view all the web statistics from the previous day with the click of a mouse. Interns were also invited to weekly luncheons that A&E held for their interns in New York City. Each luncheon was complemented by a lecture delivered by company figureheads such as the president of one of A&E's televisions channels and the company president. Interns were also asked to participate in various panels, during which they were shown an array of different web sites and asked to help gear A&E's three web sites to a younger demographic.
"They really cared about us," Hall said. "I really felt like I made a difference...I could even see some of the changes on the websites [as a] result of the advice we gave."