Super Summer Jobs

Some Dallastown students and staff members worked through their summer breaks.

Photo submitted

Beth Boyd (Intermediate School, CSN), left, and Whitney Sams (High School, CSN) at Bongiorno Conference Center, Carlisle PA.

For high school students, summers are a welcome break from homework and tests, but not everyone chooses to spend their summers work-free.

Many students and teachers at Dallastown take on summer employment to earn extra money and encounter new experiences.

One of these students is senior Melinda Blum.

Blum worked as a Dining Associate (DA) at Country Meadows, a local retirement community. Although Blum considered Giant and Nell’s, she chose Country Meadows because it paid the best.

Some students choose not to work because they are afraid it will take away their free time. This was not a problem for Blum because of her status as a PRN, which is a Latin phrase that stands for pro re nata and means “as the circumstance arises.” As she was free, she could fill in for coworkers who had called off.

During the school year, Blum holds this same position, generally only taking the evening shift on Saturdays. “This way, I can spend ample time with my friends and family both during summer vacation and during my busy school year,” Blum said.

Another reason students can be hesitant to get jobs is that they won’t like them. In Blum’s case, this was also not an issue. “I like [my job] because I like working with food and the residents are usually nice,” she said.

This is Blum’s first real summer job. She has done summer yard work since she was 14, but she seized the opportunity to get a real job and suggests other students do the same. 

She believes students considering a summer job should find one. She also thinks that a good time frame to begin working is between the ages of 15 and 16. 

Several of Dallastown’s staff members also have summer jobs, including Miss Whitney Sams, the high school’s head nurse.

Sams has worked as a nurse at various camps around the country (Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Hawaii) over the past few years. This past summer, Sams was the nurse for 2 high-school camp, but in the past, she has done as many as 4 weeks. These overnight camps last from Monday to Friday and are sponsored by The Penndel Ministry Network using the Bongiorno Conference Center in Carlisle.

As far as Sams’ daily activities, she explains: “We wake up in the morning and I give my routine AM meds to students. Then [we] have staff meetings where we talk about the day’s plan for activities…I provide nursing care for such things as cuts, scrapes, headaches, and stomach aches.”

One of the most interesting places Sams has visited with her summer job was Hawaii. But even though she had to travel almost 5,000 miles from home, she found a place not unfamiliar.

“Kids are the same everywhere. Everyone has the same struggles and victories to celebrate,” Sams said.

Sams is not new to the camp nursing profession. When she was a high school student, she assisted the head camp nurse, and when she graduated from nursing school herself, took over the main role. Sams decided to take the job because it was a way for her to serve others using her talents and skills.

Nonetheless, camp nursing was not Sam’s first job. Beginning when she was 16 and continuing throughout high school, she and her sister worked in their hometown of Everett, PA at The Igloo, an ice cream shop shaped like an ice cream sundae!

Sams understands why students may be hesitant to get a summer job, “Try and find something that brings you joy, if that’s working with your friends or helping others, but don’t let a high school job consume your life,” she said.

Some Dallastown students took part in a summer internship to learn more about a field of study they are interested in. One of those students was senior Dominic Mumma. 

He interned at The Voith Group at their Turbo location in York, where they design, manufacture, distribute, and service a vast array of Voith products. Mumma got this paid internship through Dallastown High School’s career fair.

He spoke with his guidance counselor about the fair and how he should prepare for it. Mumma came to the fair with a resume to present to Voith, who became interested in taking him on for the summer.

In doing this internship, Mumma got a crash course in what engineers at Voith do on a daily basis, from working with drawgears to using a jib crane to transport large parts. 

Dominic Mumma Summer Jobs Article
Voith makes components of the above drawgear which helps to prevent wear and tear of the couplers on train cars. (https://www.aquaproduct.co.jp/english/product/coupler.php)

Mumma also worked in the office with the application engineers whose job is to design tooling for the shop to make their job easier and more efficient.

“I learned about problem-solving and design and also what goes into making a component in the design process,” Mumma said.

Mumma’s internship was a full-time job. He worked from about 7:30-4:00 every day 5 days a week, which was a lot, but it was all worth it.

“My internship confirmed what I wanted to do post-high school because I want to get a degree in mechanical engineering locally to become an engineer and the engineers at Voith all graduated from Penn State York which was one of my higher choice colleges,” Mumma said. 

Mumma definitely recommends students should try to get an internship or take part in a shadowing experience before they start college.

“The internship has been one of the most beneficial things I have done to prepare me for after high school and even college because I got first-hand experience of what that would look like and was educated during it,” He said.

So even though summers can be a welcome break from homework and tests, many choose to spend theirs in productive and exciting ways.