Students and faculty share their plans for a fun summer

By: Josh Bates

Staff Writer

Students and faculty are looking forward to what the warm weather has in store for them as the semester comes to an end.

Mechanical engineering student, Will Quackenbush, plans on going up to Lake George with his mom and his aunt where they reserved a house for a week.

Every summer break, Quackenbush goes down to the Jersey shore for about a week to spend  time with family and friends while they rent out a beach house. He suggested that the Jersey shore is a great place to visit during the summer.

Aside from having fun, Quackenbush plans to work.

“I definitely want to start working again this summer,” Quackenbush said. “I was thinking maybe I would start working at the Colonie Country Club,” he said. “I worked there during my senior year of high school.”

Mike Schroeder, digital media major, plans to go to Daleville, Virginia, where he will be seeing a childhood friend.

“I will be seeing “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” probably hiking and possibly some sightseeing,” Schroeder said.  

As a summer suggestion, Schroeder recommended staying within the Capital Region, especially if you’re not big on travelling too far.

“[Go to] Thatcher Park in Voorheesville because it is a good hiking spot: There is a waterfall that you can walk under,” he said.

Another suggestion that Schroeder made for short summer travel is going to Kaaterskill

Falls.

“It is an hour south of Albany and worth the trip,” he said. “The beautiful falls are really awesome.”

In the meantime, Schroeder is looking forward to working on personal digital media projects and some independent projects in commission.

Carol Hammond, a writing specialist at Hudson Valley Community College, works in the Writing and Research Center of the Marvin Library.

Hammond says she will be working shifts in the Writing and Research Center to help students who are taking summer courses. In addition to her job, she will be traveling to multiple places.

“I hope to go to Iceland again, or maybe the Southwest and I’m going to be taking a ceramics course again which I often do down at the art center,” Hammond said.

She would also like to go to Utah where she would visit the Flaming Gorge National Recreation area that is located in Northern Utah and Southern Wyoming.

Hammond has been to the Aztec ruins of Tikal in Guatemala and the prominent Basalt steps of Reynisfjall in Iceland.

“Iceland has some amazing waterfalls and some really nice canyon areas,” Hammond said. “When I was there [in late August], the weather was perfect,” she said. “I also liked Reykjavik, the cultural environment, the people there, etc.”

Hammond enjoys photography and loves to take landscape pictures of the places she goes. She majored in cinematography and has been doing it for 15 years.

Richard Hartshorn, an English professor, has both a busy and calm summer prepared.

“I want to get personal work done, write a lot and be in the woods as much as I can,” he said. “My partner and I will also be bringing a child into the world, so parenting is what I’ve got planned from August onward.”

Hartshorn also plans to take a trip to Maine and the Adirondacks.

“I like the woods behind my house and the lake behind my parents’ house,” he said.

Additionally, Hartshorn plans to teach some summer courses and perform some freelance editing work over the summer.