Every May, students across campus pack their clothes, take down their posters and turn in their final assignments to make their individual treks home. Parents arrive in cars, PakMail loads up their trucks and keys are dropped off. For some students in Gambier, this isn’t the case, and instead, they prepare to spend their summer by the cornfields with President Julie Kornfeld. 

Not yet ready to say goodbye to campus after her first year, Macy Shelton ’29 stumbled upon the Admissions Intern program at Kenyon after looking for ways to stay on campus. Throughout the summer, students were working up to 40 hours a week. They spent their days giving tours, working the front desk, interviewing students and getting to sit in on info sessions. 

Shelton explained that she sees the summer as a way to experience campus without the stress of a busy school schedule. In an interview with the Collegian, Shelton described her day-to-day during the summer as a mix of working at admissions and having the freedom to explore Gambier, Mount Vernon and the rest of Ohio. “In the busyness of the year, there’s not a lot of moments where you let yourself truly [be],” Shelton said. “Being here this summer, I was able to do that.” 

Brianna Mortimer ’27 worked alongside Shelton in Admissions. Mortimer, who transferred to Kenyon in fall 2025, wanted more time in Gambier. In an interview with the Collegian, Mortimer described the town in the summertime as “its own bubble … completely separate from Kenyon during the school year.” 

For Maddy Revzon ’27, her Kenyon summer adventure also took her past the Gates of Hell and into Mount Vernon. Revzon worked for Knox County Head Start, an educational non profit serving Knox County families. As a local food systems intern, Revzon ventured to work on weekdays on the Knox County Transit bus, chatting with the drivers and becoming more and more entrenched in the Mount Vernon community. She described the summer as a flurry of events, whether it be porch concerts given by Kenyon students and Mount Vernon residents, attending food service panels or a four-hour float down the river, complete with bald eagles on Independence Day. Revzon emphasized how her internship in Mount Vernon helped her see the community in a different light, “All the things that are happening in town. … It’s really cool seeing what’s going on in a rural county.” 

Opportunities for learning on the Hill don’t have to come to a close after finals week; Charlie Menzel ’28 never left campus after submitting his final paper. Instead, he chose to join the College-funded Kenyon Summer Scholars Research Program, through which students work closely with faculty to further their academic interests across departments. Menzel worked directly with Associate Professor of Biology Natalie Wright researching bird sexual dimorphisms and flight kinematics. For Menzel, this experience was a long time coming. “I’d wanted to do a summer on campus for the past couple of years,” he stated in an interview with the Collegian. “It was a great opportunity to see if biology research was something I’d want to do long-term.” Menzel took advantage of his proximity to faculty, doing yard work after the summer’s severe thunderstorms. “It made me more appreciative of the spaces and the people I spend time with during the year,” said a pensive Menzel, ruminating about his time over the summer. 

Though these students might have had different experiences of a Gambier summer, one thing rang true throughout their descriptions: the complete and total beauty of the nature surrounding Kenyon. 

Charlie Menzel ’28 is an opinions assistant for The Kenyon Collegian.