atGeist.com

Many students in high school and college will be working this summer in normal, humdrum positions like bagging groceries, selling clothes and waiting on tables. But, hey, it pays for gas!

However, two young ladies here in the Geist area are lucky enough to work in extraordinary and adventurous environments this summer. Not only are they sure to have fun while gaining valuable experience, but they will also follow the paths of their dreams.

The first extreme summer position is a horse wrangler at a dude ranch in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Leslie Morgan, 19, graduated from HSE High School in 2007 and has just completed her first year at Indiana Wesleyan University. Leslie is majoring in nursing. Her older brother, Reid Morgan, worked as a wrangler last summer at a sister ranch in Colorado. But please don’t say, “Leslie is following in her brother’s footsteps.” Her mother, Stacy Morgan, says, “She doesn’t want to hear that from anyone anymore. This horse wrangling position that her brother got was all her idea.”

Leslie has always loved working with horses and learned of this wrangler position last year. When getting ready to apply for it, she found out that she had to have completed at least one year of college in order to work there. Since she was just entering her freshmen year, she did not qualify. However, her brother, Reid, who is one year older, decided to apply for the job. He got it! Although Leslie was happy for her brother, she knew she would have to delay her dream until the following year. Voila! Here she is a year later, preparing to leave on May 18th to Steamboat Springs, where she will be giving riding lessons to kids, taking them on trails through the mountains, soaking in her love for horses, and getting paid for it!

“I am so excited!” says Leslie. “I love working with kids. I have given swim lessons to children at the YMCA. I have also taken horseback riding lessons. Now, I have the chance to combine the two experiences into one job.” Leslie’s position will consist of working six days a week with 14-hour days. On some mornings, she will need to get up at 4:30 a.m. to take tourists on trail rides before breakfast. Most teens would find this wake-up time grueling. Not Leslie.

Leslie’s passion for horses originated from growing up around her Grandpa who owned horses and was a well-respected veterinarian who worked at Ellis Horse Track in Kentucky. She has always fantasized about owning her own dude ranch someday. Although she thought about becoming a veterinarian, she decided to go into nursing instead, so that she could be a mother and have a more flexible schedule.

Tiffany McLaughlin is another local teen who has landed an out-of-the-ordinary summer job as a musical/theatrical performer at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. Tiffany, also 19, and a 2006 graduate of HSE High School, just completed her sophomore year at Western Michigan University as a Musical Performance Theatre major. “This major is like a triple major,” says Tiffany, who won two HSE choir awards her senior year: “Outstanding New Edition Member” and the “Jesse Eastwood Memorial Scholarship Award.” Tiffany adds, “They train us to be the best that we can be in all three areas of voice, dance and acting. It’s a triple threat experience.”

If you venture to Cedar Park this summer, perhaps you will see Tiffany appearing in the Motown show “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” from June 7th-August 17th. This show will be performed 5-6 times each day, six days a week. (No shows on Thursday.) She has never had to perform in this many shows back to back before. “This will be a high intensity workout, helping to strengthen the vocal chords, stamina, and ability to pace myself” says Tiffany, whose eventual dream is to perform on Broadway someday. After she graduates, she plans to head to New York to audition for upcoming shows. Incidentally, she just found out that she will be playing the role of “Maria” in West Side Story at Western Michigan University this coming Fall. Tiffany is excited to work at Cedar Point where she can ride the roller coasters whenever she wants for free.

Although both ladies will be working long days with only one day off a week, they both will be spicing up their resumes’ while working towards their ultimate dream.