After graduation, seniors will flock out of South and travel the world with their final breath of freedom, on a quest to enjoy their last summer. Some seniors will prepare for their future major with unique jobs and programs related to their interests.

Senior Jon Hernandez is one student preparing for college right away. Hernandez says he will attend DePaul University next year where he will study journalism. However, Hernandez decided on a very different path from his fellow future journalists for the summer.

“I’m majoring in journalism at DePaul University but after that, I plan to get my Masters in social work and become a licensed clinical social worker to work specifically with kids with autism,” Hernandez said.

Because of this, Hernandez will spend his summer at a camp assisting children with special needs to prepare himself for his college major. According to Hernandez, his job is to help the children learn social skills.

“My job is to integrate [these kids] into being young adults and pre-teens,” Hernandez said. “The majority of my time goes towards helping them learn how to socialize properly.”

But Hernandez says he has been preparing for his major for a very long time by attending the camp in previous years.

“Getting this training in now gives me a good idea and a really good grasp for what I will be doing the rest of my life,” Hernandez said.

Senior Max Klemm will be attending Case Western University next year where he will major in biology. Fortunately for Klemm, he was able to find a trip perfectly tailored to his major.

“[The trip is] in the Caribbean where you do scuba diving and marine biology for three weeks,” Klemm said.

According to Klemm, the excursion will go to the British Virgin Islands and will last for three weeks. Participants will get to study different aquatic animals in their natural habitat.

“We do turtle tagging where you dive down and catch sea turtles and bring them up to the surface and tag them for conservation purposes,” Klemm said.

According to Klemm, he hopes to attend graduate school to study marine biology. Klemm hopes to gain some experience in this  field prior to officially studying it at a university.

“It gives hands-on experience in what a marine biologist does depending on what you want to go into in marine biology,” Klemm said.