Elizabeth Helmkamp—Staff Writer

It’s that time of year again: when many students start to look for summer jobs and internships.

According to Dordt Career Center Coordinator Amy Westra, industries tend to hire for the summer in seasons. Accounting internships are often looking for people in September and October, while engineering internships tend to look for people in the fall. Agriculture, summer camps, and summer ministries are mostly looking for students around now.

“More of the social sciences are on the busy side now,” Westra said, “where some of the more technical things—like engineering, and accounting—were way, way, way earlier.”

While not everyone has their plans set in stone, some students have cool aspirations for their summer jobs. For example, Heath Brower—a junior and a secondary education major at Dordt—is hoping to be a camp counselor this summer.

“I was just thinking about what I was going to do, and it came into my mind because someone else was applying to be a camp counselor elsewhere,” Brower said. “I was like ‘Hey, I know this camp in Michigan that I went to; I wonder if they’re hiring.’ So I went on their website and sure enough, they had an application, and I had luckily found that out a week before they were due.”

Some students already have internships and jobs lined up.

“Over the summer I work for a construction company and I do a little bit of everything.” freshman Victor Julien said.

Other students are returning to jobs they have held over the course of several summers.  “I’m fighting fires in the summer,” senior Nathan Struyk said. “I’ve been doing this for four years, so this is my fifth summer doing it.”

“I will be working at Old Navy at home,” sophomore Julia Yoder said. “I’ve had [the job] for two years now; I started my junior year in high school.”