Winter break is right around the corner and with finals in the impending future, students are already counting down the days and looking forward to the break. The University of Denver’s winter break officially starts November 23rd and goes until January 3rd. The whole break encompasses Thanksgiving until new year’s day, which is very convenient for students who have to fly home. Instead of taking four flights, they only need to take two.
With 6 consecutive weeks at their disposal, students can either take time to relax and unwind from a hectic first quarter and stressful finals, or they can choose to be more productive.
Senior Gretchen Bahr is using her winter break to further her professional work experience. “For this winter break I have an internship for Exposure Labs in Boulder so I’ll be going home for thanksgiving then coming back here to work.” While her winter break this year is more structured and focuses less on relaxing, Gretchen touches on the fact that it wasn’t always like that. “Sophomore and Junior year I just stayed home and didn’t really do anything productive that year.”
Just like Gretchen, many students at the University of Denver have seen their priorities shift away from relaxing and travelling all break, to getting jobs and internships since post graduation life creeps up on them.
Sophomores have a slightly more stressful winter break than freshman as well because they have to focus on completing a variety of different and time consuming study abroad applications. Juniors are just coming back from abroad so they have to deal with reverse culture shock and assimilating back into their lives in America.
Elli, a Sophomore, plans to be spending a lot of time on her study abroad location. “I Plan to write all the wonderful essays i need to complete in order to study abroad in Ireland.” The winter break is a time to be able to focus on other things outside of school work, and a great time to fully invest one’s energy into filling out applications in preparation for studying abroad as a junior.
Junior, Kevin, is currently abroad in Europe and plans to travel around with a bunch of his friends before taking finals December 10th and then flying back home to the U.S.
How students spend the six week break tends to break down differently by class. With freshman facing less pressure to gain work experience and look for a job, they can spend time at home, skiing, or travelling. Sophomores are focusing on filling out study abroad applications, and the Juniors are all returning home at different times depending on when their abroad institutions finish with exams. Most seniors have picked up jobs and internships and will be seeing less down time compared to their previous years. The duration of 6 weeks allows students to both recharge for the upcoming quarter, and to also spend it wisely if needed.
(This article was able to be written with help from my group member Sasha)
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