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After spending the past year abroad with the Hamilton College Academic Year in Spain, Emily Powell '09 (Merion, Pa.) is putting her language skills to good use. Powell is working this summer as an undergraduate intern with the Safe Horizon Domestic Violence Law Project in Brooklyn, N.Y.. Her internship, she says, allows her to improve her Spanish skills and to learn about the dynamics of domestic violence, family law and public benefits.

Need a suggestion for a good movie? Ask Joshua Hicks '09, a rising senior from Newton, Mass. Hicks is collaborating with Professor of Religious Studies Stephenson Humphries-Brooks on a project titled "Romans, Movies, and the Disappearance of the Bible." The project is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant Program, which provides students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty mentors, researching an area of interest. The students will make public presentations of their research throughout the academic year.

While many of his fellow students worked in internships or in the library doing research, Stephen Rowe '09 (Niskayuna, N.Y.) was walking through the streets of Darjeeling and Calcutta. "I didn't want to spend the summer in an office," the rising senior said. Instead, he spent it experiencing monsoon season firsthand, walking through streets flooded with one or two feet of water to collect personal observations for his project on deliberative democracy. Rowe's research collaborates with Associate Professor of Government Robert Martin, and was funded by a fellowship from the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.

Patrick Hodgens '09 (Syracuse, N.Y.) has traded one academic institution for another – at least temporarily. This summer, the rising senior is working as an intern at the Syracuse University Press and learning about the academic publishing industry. Splitting his time between three different departments at the press, he is able to learn about how it functions as a whole.

Undergraduate research will again be the order of the day in the Science Center, as Hamilton hosts the seventh annual MERCURY Conference on Undergraduate Computational Chemistry. The conference, which runs from Sunday, August 3 until Tuesday, August 5, will include guest speakers as well as a poster session of students' research projects.

Summer for Hamilton students is not just a time to chill out on the beach. Summer internships are becoming more and more necessary for college students, letting them try out areas they might be considering as possible careers, and giving them valuable work experience. Students jump enthusiastically into summer internships in a wide range of fields, from federal regulatory agencies to nature preserve patrols to news stations, working with the professionals in their field and learning skills that they may use for the rest of their careers.

Texts like the Iliad may be old, but they are called classics precisely because they are timeless, turning up over and over again – sometimes in unusual places. Christopher Bouton '09, a rising senior from Beverly, Mass., is spending the summer researching the connections between Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and two slightly more recent productions: "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott and the television series "Battlestar Galactica" by Ronald Moore.

While many students use the summer to explore new professional opportunities, Susan Stanton '09 (Lafayette, Pa.) is sticking with what she knows. Stanton, who participated in the Hamilton Program in Washington last semester, started an internship with the National Organization for Women (NOW) in March and knew she was onto a good thing. "I really wanted to stay with NOW to continue some of my projects and working for causes that I truly believed in," she says.

Nietzsche and religious studies may not seem like the most logical companions, but for Deborah Pless '09 (Rockport, Mass.), the tension between them is fascinating. While other students have left the Hill for summer jobs and internships, Pless is researching "Nietzsche and the Dying-Reviving Cycle," a collaborative project with Associate Professor of Philosophy Todd Franklin funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant program.

For Kara Labs '09, getting to her summer job is not just a matter of a morning commute. The rising senior from Piermont, N.H. is interning in London at Taylor Herring PR, one of the largest public relations firms in England. Established in 2001, the firm's clients range from television shows such as Dr Who, The Apprentice and Britain's Next Top Model to Disney projects like Pushing Daisies.