As soon as the last day of school comes around, students are on summer vacation, and many of them have busy schedules. From sports or summer jobs, teenagers in Wayne County are using summer activities to prepare for success in their futures.
Many have summer jobs. Ethan Miller, a rising senior from Richmond High School, is working as a lifeguard at the Cordell Municipal Pool in Richmond.
“My typical day includes teaching swim lessons in the morning and afternoon, enforcing the rules of the pool, making sure nobody drowns, and taking care of any first aid issues that may arise,” Miller said.
Lifeguarding is a popular form of employment for many teenagers.
“My favorite part of working at the pool is the close-knit community I have with all the other lifeguards, managers and bosses. Having people like them working at the pool makes it so much more fun and entertaining,” Miller said.
Jobs are a good way for students to make some money while they are not in school.
“I am pleased with the amount of money I am making, but I have not gotten a pay increase for working multiple summers,” Miller said.
Other teenagers have jobs with larger organizations. Kyle Sheard, who will be a senior at Centerville High School this fall, has a job with Wetzel Auto Group this summer.
“My job is to go to all of the Wetzel dealerships (Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler and Honda) and take parts to the customers at their mechanic shops,” Sheard said.
Sheard also had a similar job last summer as well, and had a good experience there and hopes to continue this line of work in the future.
“I would try and just keep moving up if possible. It’s a very good company, they treat you right, and they always treat their customers well,” Sheard said.
Sports are a big part of many teenagers’ lives, and many athletes continue their sport over the break.
Marrisa Cates, a recent graduate of Northeastern High School attending Indiana Wesleyan University in the fall, will be continuing her career as a cross country and track athlete. She is starting this experience by training over the summer.
“Summer training just looks like [running easy miles] and going fairly slow. This training helps get a base [level of fitness] and later gain much needed speed from workouts. [Running in the summer] also helps me keep endurance so that the speed workouts are actually beneficial,” Cates said.
The transition to college from high school is always a big adjustment, but is even bigger when a sport is a factor.
“I think that college training will consist of obviously higher mileage, but also higher quality workouts with maybe less easy mileage within the workouts compared to high school,” Cates said.
Some teenagers wish to take classes over the summer. Krisha Patel, a recent graduate of Richmond High School, is taking the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program through Ivy Tech in Richmond.
“I decided to get certified as a CNA for multiple reasons, the main one being that the course was free. I also want to be a doctor, and this would help me go into the medical field,” said Patel.
Patel is studying human biology at Indiana University Bloomington in the fall, and she hopes to go to medical school after graduating.
“These classes are going to help me in my future because I am learning things like taking blood pressure, and patient relations. I will be gaining connections that I will find very useful when I am searching for a job after I graduate,” Patel said.
A version of this article appeared in the July 12 2023 print edition of the Western Wayne News.