After finals, what next? Interim options

[Erin Kelleher]

I took my last final today for this semester!  I'm not leaving until Saturday though because of RA check-outs, but I am excited to go home and see family and friends.  I remember having 5 weeks of break freshman year which I was looking forward to, until after week 2 when I became bored and missed my friends from Albright.  Ever since then, I cut my break from 5 to 2.  Why would anyone want to do that?  Because learning is fun!?  Well, no; because your friends come back too and there are a lot of options at Albright in order to get ahead or catch up with your academics or resume.

For me, I took my sophomore year  interim as an opportunity to gain experience in the hospital by doing the Scribe Program at Reading Hospital Emergency Department.  It continued through the spring semester as an internship for 8 hrs. a week, and it was a great learning experience.  My junior year, I worked with my friend Erika and Dr. Hamann, my organic chemistry professor, lab assisting a wine and cheese course for non-majors which was a big hit!  And this year, I am doing my ACRE, which I previously wrote about.

So, what can you do?  Well, besides a course for 3 weeks here at Albright, you could take a field course to maybe Hawaii to study humpback whales, Peru to go to Mayan Ruins, or perhaps Ecuador to brush up on some spanish and experience the culture.  Other majors besides biology/pre-med kind of have externships, like education majors who do observation hours in the classrooms, and of course, you could work.  Public Safety, the gym, and the dining hall are popular on campus jobs that always need someone, so you could get some extra money before the semester starts.

What Interim basically comes down to though is coming back to hang out with friends, both old and new.  It is a very relaxing atmosphere in my opinion and a nice transition into the spring semester.  Of course, I'm sure relaxing at home may be a good option too.