For many high school juniors and seniors, summer is a time to relax. No classes to attend, homework to study or tests to take. It can be a time to take things easy, sleep in and hang-out with friends. While you should certainly enjoy this freedom while you have it, there are many things you can do during the summer that will benefit you now and in the future. 

• Volunteer. Find an activity you enjoy and find an organization matches your talent. For example, if you play the piano, see if you can play at your church, perform at nursing home or even score an internship at your city’s symphony. If you are a writer, see if you can intern at a local paper or help with a non-profit organization’s newsletter. Not only will you be starting an early habit of giving back to the community, you will be gaining real-world experience which will look good on a college (or job) application.
• Attend a camp. This doesn’t have to be the “back to nature camp in the woods” you may have experienced when you were just a little kid. Rather, there are a variety of specialized camps catering to teens with a variety of interests including music, sports, artists and, inc case you actually enjoyed the “back to nature” camps when you were a kid, you can always camp in the wilderness again as a teen.. Whatever activity you choose, you’ll have a chance to do something you love and meet others with similar interests.
• Find a job. O.K. you’ve probably heard this enough from your parents, so I’ll keep this section brief. Whether it is a job that requires you to say “would you like any fries with that?” or a job more aligned with your career or academic goals, you’ll be getting extra spending money, and build positive work habits. More importantly, you won’t have to hear your parents nag you to get a job because you’ll be at work!

Enjoy the summer off from school, but don’t let it just pass you by, get involved in something that will serve you well, now and in the future.

By David Plowman
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 8:26 am and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.