The summer after high school is a time of transition, closing the door to 13 years in school and opening the way toward whatever comes next.

Some teens hang out with high school friends before parting ways for college in the fall. Others travel or work toward saving money for their education, sometimes setting out on their own for the first time without parents to guide the way.

According to a recent study based on 2004 statistics from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, 79 percent of high school graduates had post-secondary education plans. Almost 19 percent of high school seniors went straight into the work force and 2 percent did something other than work or school.

We spoke with four recent graduates about how they spent their summer.

The sunrise over a nearby river reflected red, blues and purples as the rural Romanian community awoke. Roosters crowed "good morning" as chickens clucked in the street and stray dogs searched for breakfast scraps on the roadside.

Mary Bander

Mary Bander's host family prepared breakfast: a slice of bread, a piece of ham, warm cheese and mineral water "that tastes quite sour if you are not used to it."

Bander, an 18-year-old graduate of Rockwall High School, went on a weeklong medical mission in western Romania with her father, Steve Bander, a family practice doctor. Their June trip was part of the Footsteps Missions program; their family has been involved with organization since 1998.

Before this summer, Mary Bander had helped others much closer to home.

Nine years ago, Mary and her mother, Karen Bander, started Throwaway Ponies, a horse rescue program in Rockwall that offers a safe haven for abused horses. They rehabilitate the horses and use the animals as therapy for abused women and children from local shelters and orphanages.

"The horses are super responsive to the humans and help show them how to get back in touch with their bodies after abuse or neglect," Mary Bander said.

In Romania, Bander and her father started work after breakfast by arriving at a local church to start sort medicines for a clinic. Around 10 am, the patients started pouring in from villages all over the area.

The consultation room where they spent five hours each day was hot and smelly and the building without air conditioning could become unpleasant as outside temperatures reached 90 degrees.

"It can be very frustrating because we do not speak much Romanian, so I always keep a translator close by," Bander said.

After Romania, Bander spent two weeks traveling in Italy, London and Wales with two of her friends who are already in college before returning to her family's farm in Rockwall. She plans to study vocal performance opera at Oklahoma City University.

Godley High School graduate and tuba player Stephen Jusko used his summer to participate in the Cavaliers drum and bugle corps, part of Drum Corps International, a competitive league of marching groups. It is like professional marching band but the participants do not get paid.

Stephen Jusko

The seven-time world champion Cavaliers, based in Rosemont, Ill., include high school and college students from around the country. Jusko, from Joshua, an hour south of Fort Worth, auditioned in the early spring for several corps before setting on the Cavaliers.

Jusko and the corps practiced for three weeks, about 12 hours a day, in musical rehearsals, visual and physical training, and formations on Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Field. The days in Illinois were long and hot, but Jusko said the men rarely wore shirts and used lots of sunscreen and water to stay cool.

"It's incredibly mentally and physically draining. I honestly think it's harder than football and I did play football," he said. "It's one of the hardest things I've done in my life, but I love it a lot."

The Cavaliers started touring around the country in mid-June, with stops in places like St. Paul, Minn., Denver and San Antonio. At each stop, they competed against other national drum corps for recognition as the best in the country, concluding with the DCI World Championships in Indianapolis in August. The Cavaliers remained one of the top groups in the country for most of the season, winning either first or second place in all but their last three competitions. They ended in fourth at the World Championships.

After Indianapolis, Jusko will settle closer to home. He plans to attend Texas A&M University in College Station and study liberal arts, but hopes to switch to mechanical engineering after his first year. Although he does not plan to be in the Aggie Band, he hopes to minor in music and stay in drum corps for the next three years.

The brightest light in the large, cool room in downtown Fort Worth was from a single spotlight shining on the hardwood stage in the corner. A DJ plays reggae, hip-hop and jazz by candlelight as Birdville High School graduate Italo Etkin, 17, takes the stage in the Fort Worth National Poetry Slam.

Italo Etkin

Earlier in the day, Etkin worked his normal day shift at Sonic on Highway 26 in North Richland Hills. But he asked to get off from his night shift at GameStop in Hurst to make his way downtown for the slam.

"The people all know each other, so it's very friendly," he said. "It is hard to enter the building and find a bad vibe."

He and other professional and amateur poets from around the Dallas-Fort Worth area are judged on presentation and content of their own work. He writes his lines about all sorts of topics: politics, movies, his busy work schedule and even his own creative process.

i ask for a cigarette break,

a time to scribble poetry

on company napkins --

boss says no.

the few poetic lines scrambling

in my head disappear.

Etkin has written poetry for year and participated in slams in Dallas and Fort Worth. A creative writing professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder recently invited him to attend a poetry slam in Denver. He was accepted to that school and several others, but he decided that even with student aid, those campuses would be too expensive.

He will be attending Tarrant County College in the fall and plans to pursue a degree in creative writing, with his eye on becoming an English teacher or creative writing professor.

Meanwhile, he's facing the issue of financing his education. Etkin works an average of 60 hours each week between two jobs but does not receive benefits from either employer. Etkin, whose parents are divorced and live out of town, has lived with a roommate in an apartment in North Richland Hills for more than a year.

"I needed somewhere to live, otherwise I would be homeless. So I got an apartment and I got a roommate so it kind of worked out," he said. "My mom has mental issues so she went to a mental hospital and I kind of had to go so I just left."

Even at TCC, Etkin has encountered roadblocks. He wanted to take classes to get a few credits out of the way during the summer, but his 13-hour-a-day work schedule prevented him from registering in June. He still intends to take classes starting in the fall, trying to balance work with school and poetry.

"In the fall, I am going to start going to school mostly full-time," Etkin said. "I'm still going to work part-time and still keep up with whatever I do on the side with my writing."

Etkin shrugs off his busy work schedule and fluctuating college plans. He is honest about the cards he's been dealt.

"That part just happens. That's just the life I got thrown into. Believe me, if I didn't have to do all this stuff I wouldn't," he said. "I just happened to fall on this path so I'm taking it."

The Texas sun beat down on the young men and women in dark blue shirts with the small seal of the U.S. Marine Corps. Triple-digit heat did not stop the new recruits from putting their all into the flag football game at Brookhaven College in Dallas organized by recruiters to prepare them for boot camp.

Tristan Fick

Through the Marines' Delayed Entry Program, many high school students and graduates are preparing to leave for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. The Pentagon says that armed-forces recruitment is up all around the country. In June, all active branches had met or exceeded their monthly recruitment goals.

Dallas-area recruits who haven't left for boot camp meet every Thursday to keep in touch with recruiters and stay in shape. Most recruits attend these sessions for months between signing up and shipping out. Some flag football players were here for the first time, others were about to leave. Tristan Fick, 17, a Lake Highlands High School graduate, left for San Diego in July.

"I signed up last October and that was so long ago. I never thought I would see the day where it was actually coming up," Fick said. "I don't think there is anything else I can really do to prepare for boot camp. I just have to go and do it."

Fick spent the first part of his summer relaxing and working out in preparation for boot camp and will spend the rest at basic training. He will be an infantryman after he completes basic training.

The young Marines are filled with pride and honor about their decision to enlist. They express no fear as they talk about leaving.

"It is just being the best. Just going in there and doing what you can to help others and serve your country," Fick said. "It is what gets me going."