Summer Employment while in College

soozievt
Tue, 10 May 2016 13:48:16 +0000

I’ll just comment about my own two kids’ situations. They worked every summer during college (and one during grad school too) in their respective fields AWAY from home. We did not support them financially over these summers. So, they had to get jobs that at least broke even, and there wasn’t aways a profit after that (sometimes there was). All these summer jobs in their fields certainly helped to build their resumes, let alone gave them invaluable experiences. Paying to play or having mom/dad’s financial support wasn’t an option for my girls.

Back to my MT daughter…trying to remember those four summers during college. The first one was the one I mentioned on this thread already…the only summer she did summer stock and it was in CT and included housing, but not food. All her remaining summers (and life so far!) were in NYC.

The summer after sophomore year, she got cast in what is called NYU’s Reality Show. This job came with full housing and 10 meals per week, and a nice salary. Those in this show spend the summer writing the show (including songs) and rehearsing, and then perform in it during orientation in August. During a vacation break, my D came home to direct/teach a MT program she co-created and ran the summer after high school graduation, with a friend, for two weeks and that was lucrative.

The summer after junior year, my D was again cast in NYU Reality show with room and board provided, but besides being a writer/performer, she was also the musical director which came with very good additional pay. The show is brand new every year. The next two things I will mention I can’t recall if they were after sophomore or junior year, but she also was in a musical in NYC for no pay. As well, she was also in a new musical workshop for NYU Grad MT Writing. Oh, and since the free housing was in a dorm and my D had an apartment, her older sister had a paid internship in her field that summer in NYC and so she sublet younger D’s share in that apartment from her, while MT D lived in the free housing provided by her job.

The summer after senior year, while my D was cast immediately following graduation for an Equity tour, it didn’t start until the fall, so she had lined up a summer position. This time she was working on NYU Reality Show for the brand new Abu Dhabi production. She lived in her own apartment that summer. She turned down writing/performing in the show since she felt she had had that experience and was now a graduate. However, she was the musical director of the show which paid very well. She went to Abu Dhabi for the performances. NYU Reality Show is a fantastic show (I’ve seen one edition of it) and I think looking back on it, that besides performing, my D gained a lot of experience at writing original songs and lyrics and musical directing. Plus she got to work very closely with Tony nominated playwright/director, Liz Swados, who became a significant mentor in her life, and who unfortunately passed away recently. As an added plus (LOL), my D’s now fiancé, was also in NYU Reality Show with her those 3 summers, and was Asst. Director of the Abu Dhabi version that summer.