Ideas to Make the Most of Your Summer Break (There's Still Time)
There are so many ways for high school students to engage in summer activities that can have a huge impact on them personally, and on a college or university admission officer. With the ongoing impact of the COVID global pandemic, many traditional summer programs have moved to an online format and, for some students, that just doesn’t hold the same appeal as in-person. However, there are other exciting summer opportunities to consider that can also be meaningful, so let’s review a few:
Apply for an internship. This can be a fascinating way to explore fields of interest that may, or may not, relate to your possible choice of major. A summer internship is usually an unpaid position, but it can open doors to future work within a business, non-profit, laboratory or research facility, or a government setting. Internships can be highly selective and competitive, so researching and applying early is important. The Chegg Internships website is a great resource, although some listings have been filled already. Here are some examples from Chegg:
· The Institutes for Systems Biology, Seattle WA
· Memorial Health System, Marietta OH
· Northrop Grumman, Redondo Beach CA
· New York State Assembly, New York NY
Embrace your entrepreneurial spirit. This could be the summer that you start your own business. Maybe it’s selling your homemade cakes and cookies to raise money for a favorite charity or towards your own college costs; creating a babysitter’s club with your besties and sharing the proceeds; walking dogs; conducting computer classes for the very young and the very old; setting up a small local moving company or junk hauling business; becoming a personal companion to an elderly person. A frequent summer job for teenagers is landscaping and lawn care. Another, depending upon where you live, is to work as a local tour guide or foreign language interpreter for a local tourist area. Other young people may work as house painters or window washers, serve as tutors to younger students in a variety of academic subjects, or coach youngsters in their sport.
Get a job. This is a tried and true way of impressing colleges and your bank account. Many businesses rely on students’ availability during summers. Look for positions that really matter to you. If bookkeeping is your interest, talk to your parents’ accountant; call a few small local businesses to see if they’d like help over the summer; apply for work at your local parks and recreation office. Local supermarkets use summer staffing while their permanent staff take vacations; lifeguarding is a fun opportunity; customer service can be waiting tables at the local beachfront lobster shack or in a fine city hotel or working the rental desk at the local gym, beach, pool, or golf club.
“Think about approaching organizations where you might be able to continue volunteering after the summer – colleges love to see consistency and commitment.”
Get involved in community service. The summer holidays can be the perfect time for you to engage in something that you really care about. Think about approaching organizations where you might be able to continue volunteering after the summer – colleges love to see consistency and commitment. Visit the elderly, volunteer at your local wildlife park/zoo/animal shelter, work at a refugee resettlement or community center helping new arrivals understand documents and paperwork or volunteer at your local hospital. Stay local and you’ll still impress.
Hit the books. Another way of making the most of summer is to work on your academics and your applications. It could be really exciting to take a community college class over the summer, take a free online class through edX or Coursera, complete a standardized test prep program, or read essay prompts from last year’s application season and start a notebook with brainstorming thoughts on what you want to draw upon when you start your essays. An academic summer may also include college visits, informational sessions with admissions counselors and taking as many college tours as is reasonable.