By Keya Nijhawan
Junior Anna Fow faced the stress of finding a summer job before the beginning of summer. While dealing with exams in the spring, Anna and her mom checked out the Lovett Get Engaged page for ideas. “Somewhere along the lines, we ended up finding the camp [Haverty Hollow] I ended up working at,” she said.
Going into this summer, Anna did not want to work a job at all. “It feels like you’re taking my summer away; I want to go out and do things,” she explained. Another concern was that she had an unpleasant first job experience two summers ago. She said her boss was insistent on not giving her time off.
Nevertheless, she knew she had to go through with the camp job because “I am getting to the point where my parents are not paying for the things I want anymore, so I need money.” (For Sephora runs, of course, we both joked.)
Before beginning at Haverty Hollow, Anna had to submit a resume and complete an application. We both recognized how crazy it is that we are (now old enough to have a whole resume.) The good news is that Anna’s first resume got her the phone call of acceptance; she then had to complete an online lifeguard course and safety sessions.
Of course, I had to comment on how Anna literally learned how to save a life through a computer screen, which led to a conversation about how, after completing this course, the camp had her come in for a “practice day,” which was much more helpful than the course that didn’t involve any actual water. After her practice day, Anna was not worried going into the summer, especially due to her previous experience teaching kids how to swim.
Anna was then able to begin her summer at Haverty Hollow. A typical day for her started at nine and went till 4. Upon arrival, she went to hang out with all the kids on the playground for around an hour. Then, her day continued with running the pool; the kids rotated through three 40-minute activity blocks.
After the three blocks, the kids had story time following lunch, and then three more activity blocks followed by a free swim. And then, of course, since Anna was an employee, not a camper, she had the privilege of getting to “stay and clean up after the campers left,” she said with great enthusiasm.
Even with the mess that the kids left, Anna still loved getting to work with them. “They say the funniest things,” she said, “a lot of the kids made me happy, and it helped that I liked the people I worked with.” She explained how many of the other employees were around her age (16), but some were younger and some older, the oldest being 23. She liked this age range more than her last summer job where the other employees were all in their 20s.
Of course, before leaving her driveway (where we talked) for my dinner waiting for me at home, I had to ask her if she knew any other employees beforehand or made any friends. Ironically, one of the other employees also went to Lovett but, as Anna sheepishly told me, she did not find out until the very last day.
