4 Ways to Make the Most Out of Your Summer
By Jody Bell
Our wagon was stacked with a boogie board, an inflatable swan, a frisbee, a badminton set, and a volleyball as we pushed it down the street. My best friend, Sophie, was at the helm of this wagon, pulling it, while I pushed it from behind in our voyage to a river near my house.
To the neighbors that drove by, it probably looked like we were going on a month-long adventure into the swamp lands given how much stuff we had stacked in our small wagon. But to us this was a normal summer day that we would spend swimming, hanging out, and passing the time between our sophomore and junior year of high school.
While I cherish these laid back summer memories, I wish I had balanced them out with doing something more fulfilling with my time. These summer months are an incredibly rare opportunity where you have complete jurisdiction over your own time; even in college there is an expectation to hold meaningful summer internships every year. These high school summer months give you the freedom to learn something new without the pressure of grades, shadow at your dream job, or start a business and truly immerse yourself in it. The positive long-term effects of these choices are limitless, and there’s no better time to invest your time into them.
Here are just a few ways you could maximize your summer to get a leg-up down the road.
1. Take a college course… or a few!
Did you know that you can take college courses while still being in high school?
Your school most likely offers college credit bearing classes, which are referred to as AP courses. These are usually very fast paced classes that are challenging when accompanied with a full course load. There is also dual enrollment, which allows you to attend a local college along with your high school.
Personally, I knew that I wasn’t ready to dive into college-level courses while also juggling my other commitments and classes. So, I attended my local community college during the summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year of college!
Not only was this a great way to get exposure to what college courses are like right before I attended, but I was able to skip 6 classes during my first year because the credit from my local community college transferred over. That may not seem like a huge deal, but that’s one of the fundamental reasons why I have the space in my schedule to double major while I’m in college!
If this is something that you’re interested in, chat with your family and schedule a meeting with your guidance counselor to figure out the specific logistics.
2. Intern/shadow with a trusted professional in your community
Are you unsure of a college major? Or maybe you’ve always had a career path in mind, but you’ve never actually seen what the day-to-day of that career looks like.
Well, the summer months of high school provide a great opportunity to shadow/intern with a professional in a potential industry and test out the waters. Having this sort of experience before college provides invaluable insight into your undergraduate career and can make your classwork feel more meaningful.
Ensure that whoever you might be working with is a trusted member of your community – I would recommend searching for these opportunities through your direct network of family, friends, and teachers.
3. Learn how to code
Coding is truly the language of the 21st century, and knowing some basic coding can open hundreds of doors for you.
The learning curve to introductory coding is steep, but once you understand the basics you’ll notice it’s highly intuitive and repetitive. Plus, there are amazing cheap and free resources out there that can teach you coding skills in a fun and engaging manner. Data Camp is one of my favorite self-paced options because you can complete modules but also projects in niche areas that interest you. Of course there is Girls Who Code which provides a more structured and communal approach to coding education.
4. Start a business
Would this even be a Girls With Impact blog post without mentioning the awesome-ness that is entrepreneurship? I don't think so.
Entrepreneurship is all consuming in the best way possible. When you truly engage with your venture development and the issue you’re trying to solve, you become completely immersed in it. Having the opportunity to do this during the summer means you can really give into that feeling and make huge strides in the development of your venture.
When I was building my Girls With Impact venture, I did it during my junior year of high school. The more I worked on it, the more I just wanted to ignore classwork and give all my energy to this initiative. Once it became summer I hit the ground running and built the website in a week, before working non-stop doing media relations. The release of my venture took up most of that summer and it was one of the most exciting times of my life.
If you have an idea for a business, or you’re already in the process of building one, consider joining the Girls With Impact Academy to help structure your business plan. You may have all the motivation and time in the world, but true impact is unlocked with the mentorship and strategic planning that Girls With Impact can teach you.
While I’m a huge proponent for maximizing your professional/development during the summer months, it’s also important to have a balance. The summer is about recovering from the stress of the academic year and making lifelong memories with your friends. While I wish I had done more professionally during my summer months, I wouldn’t trade my memories of lazy summer days by the river for anything.
Jody Bell, 20 is Girls With Impact’s Editor in Chief and a program graduate from Greenwich High School. Girls With Impact is the nation’s only online, business and leadership program for girls 14-24, turning them into tomorrow’s leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators.