Spring break: is the party over?

A crowd of spring breakers on Panama City beach Photograph: Andrew Testa

Sondra West, 20, communications student from Ohio “I came here with 10 people in two cars. It took us 13 hours and we were all bundled together. We are all sharing to cut costs. We rented a $2,000 (£1,430) cottage and split it between the 10 of us and then each chipped in $20 for food. I am about to take up a paid internship to help out with costs back in Ohio. I have got a job at a children’s hospital. I will be answering the phones and things, but I will get paid. That is important because I worry about jobs and money all the time now. But we came here to Spring Break to get away from all that. We just want to relax and enjoy ourselves. And who knows, someone you meet here might give you a job. I mean, MTV is here!” Photograph: Andrew Testa

A girl drinks from a plastic baseball bat filled with beer. Upon finishing she has to spin six times and then hit a beer can with the bat, if she misses she will have to start again Photograph: Andrew Testa

Arthur Haug, 18, student from Iowa “I am very worried about what the job market will look like when I graduate. I hope it is really different for me when I get out there in 2011. But I also worry about things now and how they might hit me and my family. If one of my parents lost their job then I might not be able to afford college any more. My whole family is worried. We talk about it all the time back at school in Iowa. In my economics class every day, the first thing the professor talks about is the headlines from the newspaper that morning. But at least at the end of it all America might be more fiscally responsible. I hope so anyway. I would love to run my own business one day.” Photograph: andrew testa/Andrew Testa

Students cheer as a girl goes topless on a hotel balcony Photograph: andrew testa/Andrew Testa

Clinton Mosley, 22, student from Mississippi “Oh man, it is so beautiful here. Everyone is so friendly and everyone is so nice and out to have a great time. Most people will never get to see a beach as beautiful as this one. I am graduating this summer and I am a senior in communications. I want to go into the radio field. I have my own show on my college radio station: my DJ name is B Smooth. As for the job market, I am terrified. I really am. It is so hard out there to find a job. But you know what? I remain optimistic. Internships are the key and I have an internship lined up in Texas. I know that working hard at that opportunity is the key to getting a job. So I am scared but I am also very confident. I really am.” Photograph: Andrew Testa

A girls v boys drinking competition Photograph: Andrew Testa

Shannon Larotunda 21, student from Pennsylvania “I am having fun down here. I have been having an amazing time every day. I have been working out each morning and then spending the day on the beach and then going out to all the clubs in the evening. I am absolutely having fun. The recession has not really affected me at all, or my family. It is not that we are that well off: it just does not seem to have been much of a problem. So I do not really worry about it. Besides, if I decide to go to medical school it could be another seven or eight years before I get out of college and by then perhaps things will be a bit better economically. Or perhaps even completely different” Photograph: Andrew Testa

Students bury each other in sand on the beach Photograph: Andrew Testa

Students doing backflips on the beach Photograph: Andrew Testa