Although jobs are hard to come by in today’s economy, some Sacramento State students have been privileged with summer jobs that will prepare them for their future careers.

Marty Valentine, senior mathematics major, spends his summers as a youth camp counselor.

“For the past five summers I have worked at two summer camps here in America,” Valentine said. “The first being Camp Winthers in California and the second called Camp Taconic in Massachusetts.”

Valentine said having these camp counseling positions is helping him realize what he wants to do later in life.

“Summer camp is something I want to do pretty much for the rest of my life,” Valentine said. “My goal is to someday be a director and own my own camp.”

At camp, Valentine said, he is rewarded for his rambunctious attitude.

“This is the only place where I can act as crazy as I want and get away with it,” Valentine said. “I am actually idolized for my ridiculous behavior.”

This summer, Valentine landed a summer job at a camp in Germany called Camp Adventure, which runs through a program called Camp Europe. This program, he said, sends people from Canada, Australia and the United States to camps across Europe as counselors.

“This is a summer camp where the kids in Germany are trying to learn English,” Valentine said. “I did this because I wanted to do something different this summer and travel the world.”

Diana Gonzales, graduate career counseling student, said her summer job as a Sac State orientation leader, is helping her develop skills she can use in her future as a counselor for upper education.

“My job, as an orientation leader, is to help both transfer students and incoming freshman chose the classes they need to earn their degree,” Gonzales said. “To learn this process is like a training tool for when I become a professional in the counseling field.”

It is real-life training, she said, because making sure the students know exactly which classes to take is crucial.

“If I were to give transfer students a wrong piece of information, then I could possibly set them back a semester,” Gonzales said. “The same goes with a freshman – if I give them the wrong information and enroll them in a wrong class, then it could set them back as well.”

Even though orientation is a large responsibility, Gonzales said helping the incoming students is something she loves.

“As orientation leaders, we have to take a semester-long class just to understand all of the information we need to guide these students,” Gonzales said. “Even though this job can be challenging, I find this very rewarding.”

Valentine also feels a sense of fulfillment from being an inspiration to the children at the summer camps.”Knowing that these children are going to remember their time at camp for years to come is just an awesome feeling,” Valentine said.

Since maintaining a job during the school year is challenging, both Valentine and Gonzales said having a summer job is an important source of income.

“With all of my internships and classes, it is hard to find time for a steady job during the school year,” Gonzales said. “Summer is a great time to have a job and make money to save for the school year.”

Kiersten Hansen, sophomore nursing major, is one of many students taking classes during the summer instead of working.

“I wasn’t able to have a job this semester because I have to take seven units of summer school due to the fact that I can’t get into certain classes at Sac State during the fall semester,” Hansen said.

Not having a summer job, Hansen said, is negatively affecting her finances.

“My hours at work during the semester were cut, so I don’t have that much in savings,” Hansen said. “I have to go a couple of months without income and it’s not going to be easy.”

To help save more money during the semester, Hansen said she used the light rail to school as transportation to cut down on fuel costs.

“I commute over 20 miles to get to school and this helped saved a lot of money,” Hansen said. “I was also able to save money from not buying the ridiculously expensive parking permit just to park on campus.”

Even though she is happy to get ahead with some classes, Hansen said having a job during the summer would have relieved some of her economic stress.

As for his position in Germany, Valentine said he will actually be losing money this summer.

“I will barely make enough money to cover the plane ticket to Germany, but it is worth it,” Valentine said.

Seeing how summer camps operate in a different country will change his perspective on summer camps altogether, he said.

“Since I plan on running a camp, I need to gain as much experience on summer camps as I can,” Valentine said. “It’s a chance of a lifetime.”

Erin Rogers can be reached at [email protected]