When the spring semester ends some students go home until the fall, some study abroad, some travel for internships and others stay in Manhattan to work and save money.
Andrew Hall, May 2016 graduate in advertising, said he is currently working at THREAD while he saves up money in preparation of hopefully moving to Texas in December.
“I definitely wanted to build up some money because I’m planning on moving soon … I needed a pretty good amount of money, so that played a large factor into that – to get me where I wanted to go,” Hall said.
Emma Nassif, May 2016 graduate in fine arts, said she is currently working as a manager at Radina’s Coffeehouse and Roastery in Aggieville, where she also worked while she was an undergraduate student.
“Other than that, I’m just hanging out with friends, going to concerts and stuff,” she said.
Nassif said she will be staying in Manhattan until June 2017, when she will move with her boyfriend to Michigan where he will study guitar making.
Ben Garten, senior in mechanical engineering, said he is working an internship with Textron Aviation in Wichita but lived in Manhattan over the summer every year prior to this.
“This is my first taste of the ‘real world,’ where you have to wake up and be at work … at 7 a.m. five days a week,” Garten said. “It’s been quite different. I enjoyed the past summers where we got to wake up late and go camping during the week for a few days if we wanted to; however, I’m used to the schedule now and kind of like it.”
During the summers he spent in Manhattan, Garten said he worked at Subway and spent free time with friends enjoying the outdoors, typically at Pottawatomie Lake No. 2 or Tuttle Creek.
Pottawatomie Lake No. 2 is surrounded by 179 acres of wildlife refuge, according to Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. The lake is stocked with channel catfish during the summer via funding from the Urban Fishing Program in addition to a native population compiled of several different species of fish, and primitive camping is allowed near the lake.
“I’ve actually had some of the best summers of my life (in Manhattan),” Garten said. “Traffic is light and not many people are around, so I spent most of my time outside. We would go mountain biking, fishing, camping and longboarding.”
