While most students are out of school for the summer, what are their professors doing? Surprisingly, pretty much the same things we students do.

Stefinee Pinnegar, Teacher Education

Stefinee Pinnegar takes time out of her summer to visit family. It has become a tradition to camp on the beach at Santa Cruz, California, with her husband’s extended family.  They also like to take a trip to Pine Valley, Utah each summer. “My folks had a cabin there when I was a little girl,” she said. “After I was married, my husband and I spent a couple of summers there. My daughter was blessed in that chapel and baptized in the Santa Clara Creek. It’s a sacred place to me.”

Pinnegar also enjoys time around Provo during the summer. “Every summer, from when my kids were small, my good friends and I rent a cabana at Seven Peaks,” she said. “We sit, sip sodas and eat snacks while we watch the kids play in the water.”

While summer is definitely a time for fun, professors still have work to do. Pinnegar will join her colleagues in England this summer for a self-study research conference held in a castle there. “The conference is designed to give people an optimum opportunity to share their work and talk with their peers from around the world,” she said. On this trip she plans to see some of the sights of England and Paris as well.

David Wiley, Instructional Psychology and Technology

David Wiley and his family also enjoy summer holidays. Every summer they go to Trenton in Cache County to celebrate Pioneer Day. The town’s volunteer fire department brings out their truck and shoots foam into a field. “There is foam two feet deep on the field. People are running around and sliding in it. It is a highlight of the summer,” Wiley said.

Another of Wiley’s activities over the summer is running. He is on week six of a nine-week running program to train for a 5k. He listens to audiobooks to get him through the long runs. “Right now I’m listening to the Order of the Phoenix,” he said. “That is my favorite of all the Harry Potter books.”

Wiley spends a lot of his summer poolside with his kids. “We love to put goggles on and go down to the bottom of the deep end and look for stuff,” Wiley said. “Sometimes there’s nothing there, but sometimes you find a quarter. It’s just the adventure of the discovery.”

Like most professors, Wiley spends much of the summer getting ready for fall classes. “I look at what I did last year; I look at scores and I try to make them better,” he said.

Ramona Cutri, Teacher Education

Ramona Cutri’s summer is full of hiking, trips to the beach and neighborhood block parties, but she says spending time with her family is her favorite. “I love having a little more time to do the regular mom stuff. Being home with my kids is the most fun for me,” she said. She loves to watch her kids swim and cheer them on at their soccer tournaments and rock climbing competitions.

Her family also likes to spend time at their cabin and visit extended family in California. Some of her time is also spent working. She is busy redesigning one of her 2-credit courses to a 3-credit course.

Eula Monroe, Teacher Education

When Eula Monroe gets time off, she likes to go home to Bowling Green, Kentucky. “We always have a family reunion with each side of the family in the summer,” she said. “We visit, look at pictures and eat.” On the menu at the Monroe family reunion are fried catfish, hushpuppies, coleslaw white beans and homemade blackberry ice cream.

Although Kentucky has a pretty strong hold on her, Monroe also enjoys summer activities in Utah. “One thing I really like to do is get out into the mountains,” she said. She loves to go up to Mirror Lake and hike. She plans on celebrating her birthday at the lake with her daughter and son-in-law.

Monroe also enjoys her time spent on campus during the summer. “Two things I really like about summer are you can usually find a parking space on campus, and it gives me a more relaxed time to be in my office and get a lot of my writing and research done,” she said. With a lightened class load, Monroe said she has more time to devote to helping graduate students on their work and to finish some of her own.

July 24, 2012