(2.5 Min Read)
Summer 2022 is here.
Another year of high school is history. It’s the time to give Summer a Purpose.
So, I looked into my various podcast conversations with College Alumni and Students to find the different types of summer activities or projects they engaged in.
Here’s what I came up with. I have organized their summer pursuits, by Purpose, into 5 buckets:
Advance a Skill
Teach a Skill you have
Volunteer for a Cause
Explore New Things
Entrepreneurial
1. Advance a Skill
If you have a passion or interest that you want to chase and learn more and become more proficient, summer is the time to do it.
Rebecca Youngers [Incoming Freshman at UT Austin] played softball during the summer.
Luke Neureiter [Swarthmore] trained for soccer every summer.
2. Teach a Skill
If you are good at something, a skill, a God-given gift, then teaching others that skill may be a great way to spend the summer. When you have to teach someone, you learn the skill and nuances better yourself!
When Thomas Athey [Davidson College, Rising Junior] was in high school, Thomas and his buddy ran a summer camp for middle schoolers to teach them basic financial skills that would be useful for the rest of their lives.
When Sri Hari [Union College, Rising Junior] was in High School, he created hands-on modules in Physics to teach mechanics in a fun way to underprivileged high school students in India.
3. Volunteer for a Cause
If you have a social cause or goal that drives you, summer is a great time to translate that into action. Opportunities abound all around you - social, health, education or any other aspect of society. - whether it is with the elderly, the sick or underprivileged.
Rifat Mursalin [Emory Alumni] worked in collaboration with Grady Hospital in Atlanta to teach inner city middle school kids about domestic violence, healthy relationships.
Aidan Arasasingham [UCLA Alumni] worked on getting the safety lock in their high school fixed because of a shooting attempt at a nearby high school. Aidan helped organize a door-to-door campaign to get additional funding, to fix the locks in their school district.
4. Explore New Things
Summer is a great time to experiment, try new things. You can take the time to check out a profession that intrigues you. Learn something new. And then decide for yourself if that is for you.
Kayla Suisse [USU Alumni] was interested in Biology and wanted to see if research was for her. So she worked at the University of Idaho Aquaculture lab the summer after her junior year in high school.
Gobi Dasu [Stanford Alumni] was interested in research. He spent a summer in high school at UC Santa Cruz in the astronomy department lab in the hopes of discovering a Planet.
5. Entrepreneurial
If you have been noting down ideas for new products, or problems to solve, summer may be a wonderful time to get that started. Here are a couple of different types of examples for you to consider.
Thomas Athey [Davidson College, Rising Junior] started a community with a couple of buddies one summer to advise members on Stocks and Options Trading, as well as Crypto. They built courses, created written guides and live workshops for a monthly membership fee.
Iowa State University offers a cool program for high schoolers called Innovation Fellows in Training (I-FIT). It is a virtual workshop taught by ISU Faculty and student teams define a problem they want to solve and develop creative apps to solve it during the summer.
Hope one or two of these types of pursuits get you excited enough to work on them. If you are not sure, that’s ok. Pick one and try it.
Have a Great, Purposeful Summer!
June 2022 Podcasts Curated For You
1.Maya: Economics and Finances Shaped her NYU Experience
Maya Brooks was in High School at the time of Great Recession of '08. It impacted her family's finances. So, Maya went to NYU to study Economics and get a good job upon graduation.
Key Takeaways:
Personal Financial Situation limited her college activities
Maya stayed away from Startup Tech while at NYU, because she did not realize that it has a large number of non-tech opportunities
Professors are a huge resource while on campus and Maya regrets not taking advantage of that opportunity while a student.
Listen to Hi5s. Podcast Highlights with Maya Brooks on NYU. (2.5 Minute Listen)
2. College Major: What is Sociology?
Jeanne Mekolichick is a Professor of Sociology at Radford University. When Jeanne started college she had no idea what Sociology was. She took her 1st Sociology class and was hooked.
Key Takeaways:
Study of Human Behavior and Social Interactions
Curiosity, Analysis and Critical Thinking Skills needed to Study Sociology
Broad range of Job Opportunities in Marketing, Banking, Government, Environment and jobs where Critical Thinking is required.
Listen to Hi5s. Podcast Highlights on the Primer on Sociology with Prof. Jeanne Mekolichick. (3-Minute Listen).
3.Tyler Sant of AIS: Relationships is the Key to Counseling
Tyler Sant, Head of College Counseling at Atlanta International School (AIS) jokes that there isn't a College Major on how to be a College Counselor. For his part, he found that he just loved working with High School Kids.
Key Takeaways:
Counseling AIS Students on College options in the US as well as outside the US
Taking the time to educate parents of the current college process
Building honest relationships with his students and their parents
Listen to Hi5s. Podcast Highlights with Tyler Sant of AIS on College Counseling. (3-Minute Listen).
4.Britain & Ethan: UG Research was just what their College Journey Needed.
Britain Meade and Ethan Hensel are undergraduate students at UW Whitewater.
Ethan was unclear what he really wanted out of college, so he journeyed through 3 different schools and 3 different majors. Britain wasn’t ready to jump into a 4-year degree program after high school.
Britain and Ethan independently discovered Undergraduate Research.
Key Takeaways:
UG Research helped Clarify and Choose their Major
Developed writing & communicating skills that helped get grants for research, share their work with others
Building strong relationships with Faculty and the Communities they touch, with their research
Listen to Hi5s. Podcast Highlights with Britain & Ethan on UW Whitewater. (3-Minute Listen).
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Thank You! Have a Wonderful July,
Venkat