Wayne natives and Wayne State College students Brooklyn Kruse and Logan Miller probably could write an entire book on "what I did on my summer vacation."
The two left Wayne May 31 and got back Aug. 17 after spending the summer as interns on a military base in Vicenza, Italy.
Logan's mom, Audra (Sievers) did a Camp Adventure summer internship similar to this when she was in college through University of Iowa.
"After COVID, they (the college)couldn’t get students back, so they stopped doing it and the University of Toledo picked it up," Logan said.
This was the second year for this program at Toledo University, which is known as Rocket Kids. It is recommend for college students who are education majors but all students are accepted.
The program involves an internship through the University of Toledo with the children and youth services of the military.
The two women lived in Ederle Inn hotel on the Caserma Carlo Ederle military base.
"Other locations included Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They are looking to expand to new locations," Brooklyn said. "We took part in a summer program, but they also do fall and spring sessions."
For their efforts the two earned 15 hours of college credit and were required to write reflections, evaluations, and papers for homework.
"We worked in the school aged center (SAC) with children ages from first - fifth grade. There were also interns working in the child development center (CDC) and middle school teen (MST). There were a total of 18 interns placed in Vicenza," Logan said.
Each intern was given a Stipend of $25 a day for food
These centers were located on Villaggio Della Pace military base.
"We were given bikes by the outdoor rec to use over the summer. We had to bike almost two miles to the other base every day," Brooklyn said.
The women worked 40 hours a week as summer camp leaders. All activities for the children they were responsible were planned out ahead of time and they "just had to execute them in our classrooms."
"We were in a classroom alone with up to 15 children at a time running the activities. In addition to the classroom, we went on a field trip every week. These included things like amusement parks, movies, bowling and laser tag , the planetarium and a Military Police station," Brooklyn said.
On the weekends, the interns were free to travel, but could only travel by train or bus.
Among the places they were able to visit were Venice, Lake Garda, Villach, Austria, Cinque Terre, Rome, Verona, Lake bled, Slovenia and Florence.
Tracy Kruse and Audra Miller, the girls' moms were able to visit them from June 19-July 1.
"During the time they were here, they traveled around during the week and took us to Austria and cinque terre on the weekends," Brooklyn said.
Both girls enjoyed the experience and would "do it again."
They encourage anyone interested in such an experience to fill out an interest form on university of Toledo website: https://connect.utoledo.edu/register/rocketkids.
