With the short-term in question, many kids are wondering what they should expect for their future. The reality is, no one (not even Dr. Fauci) knows what exactly is going to happen, so we recommend taking this one day at a time. And today, we should focus on the summer. Camps everywhere are cancelled. While that’s devastating to the businesses that run them and while you may miss your friends, it’s going to be okay. Here are some ideas on how you can be productive this summer.
Find a Hobby
We always encourage our clients to spend their summers productively, but that doesn’t mean doing something you don’t enjoy. Find a hobby that doesn’t easily translate to a line in your resume. While that might sound crazy, we encourage students to treat each part of their resume differently. What we mean by that is you shouldn’t show redundancy. Don’t write about something in your essays that obvious on your resume. Use that space to demonstrate another part of you. So, focus your hobby on something that, after being built out, is potential material for an essay. Some of our students have planted gardens. Others have raised chickens or tried every recipe in a cookbook. Some have created personal book review websites, and on and on. Most importantly, whatever hobby you choose should fall in line with an interest you’ve already demonstrated. If you are a math kid with the intention of pursuing engineering in college, pick a hobby under that umbrella.
Read a Book a Week
In the same vein as the above, land on a genre or topic that fits into the academic interest you’ve carved out for yourself throughout high school and intend to pursue in college. If you’re an aspiring poli sci student, read Doris Kearns Goodwin, Chernow, and Isaacson. If you are an aspiring journalist, read the works of the past years’ Pulitzer Prize winners. Most of all, you should consider reading books about race in America and or/books by Black authors. Here are some good ones to consider:
“How to Be an Antiracist” Ibram X. Kendi
“White Fragility” Robin DiAngelo
“The Fire Next Time” James Baldwin
“Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower” Brittany Cooper
“Black Friday” Nana Kwae Adjei-Brenyah
“Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” Ibram X. Kendi
“Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth” Dána-Ain Davis
“So You Want to Talk About Race” Ijeoma Oluo.
“The New Jim Crow” Michelle Alexander
“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” Bryan Stevenson
“Between the World and Me” Ta-Nehisi Coates
Do Something Academic Online
We often advocate for our students to take in-person summer courses at universities that are rigorous in nature that fall in line with their academic interests. Now is a good time to take advantage of the myriad options online. Do something via Coursera or EdX. Find another online course that extrapolates upon your academic interests. Most colleges are going to have online components at this time, so it truly has never been easier to take a quality course. The only rule here is to make sure it’s a serious one.
Be Useful Around Your House
No, seriously. Help out around your house as though it’s your job and do it every single day. Hear us out. The point of the college essay is first and foremost to demonstrate a characteristic about yourself—a part of your personality—that’s not evident anywhere else in your application. But the secondary and perhaps more important point is to connect with the reader. You only have the length of a sheet of paper to establish a connection with an anonymous adult. We often encourage our students to pick topics that are universal, like cooking, or to establish humor whenever possible. Housework is relatable. It can also be humorous. Your reader is likely a hardworking, underpaid adult. They can relate to doing the dishes and keeping up with the endless cycle of tidying one’s home during the pandemic.
Need help crafting a standout essay? Reach out to us. We are great at helping students demonstrate their unique personalities through applications.