Finding great summer internships can help your career in a plethora of ways. You can make excellent contacts, learn how to work in a business setting, ascertain if this is a good fit for you, gain knowledge about your chosen field, and more. Some students try to fit in summer internships in their summers before they graduate, so that they have a broad range of experience and contacts when they start their job search. 

Whether you are taking a gap year, spending a year abroad during university, or doing an internship in another country, working and studying abroad are wonderful ways to broaden your horizons, open yourself up to new challenges, and gain new experiences. Taking a year abroad could be the start of a lifelong love of traveling, and perhaps even a career as a travel writer.

Mexico’s famed Riviera Maya – a long stretch of land along Highway 307 in the state of Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula – is much more than tourism in Cancun. It’s a perfect place for adventurers, families, history buffs, divers, ecologists, foodies, and luxury travelers.

 5 surprising things about Riviera Maya

Got the travel bug? Always planning your next big trek? I have had it bad, but as a teacher, funds were limited. Sigh...

I decided to feed my travel bug by sponsoring overseas student tours, which gave me an opportunity to see the world (for free) as I exposed my students to life beyond our northwoods community. Traveling with teens was a joy (well, mostly)—their enthusiasm great fun. 

Some books come into your life and stay with you. For whatever reason, they strike a chord and fit right in. And while this is rare, it does happen. One book that is forever lodged in my heart is Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks, by Mark Woods. It's a personal look at natural spaces, at family and friends, at moving and doing, at being in nature. It's a thoughtful record of exploration and listening and thinking, of love, of essence of place.

Publisher's note: Today, in Orlando, there are 170 young people coming from 20 countries, speaking 12 different languages. They are coming to compete in the World Ballet Competition. And while it is breaking our hearts to face this tragedy, we can't let that overcome the beauty in life. We welcome these young dancers, as they are the ones that will bring us forward.

 

Cleo Reiss is a 22-year-old University of Delaware graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing. She has spent her first year out of college teaching English as a language assistant at a bilingual high school in Madrid. In her spare time, she is learning Spanish, blogging, volunteering, and traveling around Europe. She will continue teaching next year in Madrid and is looking forward to another fantastic year filled with challenges and adventures.