Summer is approaching, and as youth many of us have a lot of spare time because school is out. Most of us are in or approaching high school, and a lot of us are worrying about university application and resume appearances. After all, some universities and most scholarships don’t only look at academics now: extracurriculars, hobbies, and creative abilities are all taken into account. So how can we make ourselves a little more competitive and embellish our applications with the spare time we have in the summer?
The short answer is that you can do it however you’d like. If there is something you have a true passion for that you really enjoy doing and you’re highly skilled with, delve deep into it and see if you can publicize your passion by entering contests or sharing your accomplishments on social media. It doesn’t have to be fancy. As long as it’s unique and the quality of your work is high enough, you will gain recognition and eventually accomplishments from your passion.
But what if you don’t have a burning passion that you’re highly skilled with?
To answer that, I’ve compiled a list of 10 generally highly regarded activities for a free student summer.
**Note: Although the resume shouldn’t be your only reason for doing these activities (you should hopefully enjoy some of them a little), remember that it is totally okay to learn skills or pick up hobbies to streamline that application a little!
1. Learn to Code
Coding is an extremely high value skill in the current age of AI and computer science. A basic knowledge of coding can be very useful, and it opens up the doors to a whole world of digital arts and careers. If you love math, I strongly recommend you give coding a shot. Once you have a basic understanding, you can even gain employment with your coding skills. A few fields that you can go into as a student with a small knowledge of coding include:
- Web Design
- Graphic Design
- Education (many places like CodeNinjas hire youth to teach their students)
The best part about learning to code is that it is completely free. There are so many platforms to learn different coding languages on. From my personal experience, I would recommend Khan Academy for total beginners because of its user-friendly structure. Khan Academy offers JavaScript and an introductory course in Python, both of which are great starting points for a beginner in coding.
For intermediate and advanced learners, I would recommend Codecademy because it goes further in-depth for each language and topic, and there are many more languages to learn. Codecademy thoroughly explains the connections between the languages as well. However, this can be quite overwhelming, so make sure you’re patient and persistent.
2. Volunteer!
This one is a bit obvious. If you have free time, why not devote it to a good cause? If you are consistent, it looks quite nice on the resume paper as well. There are many volunteering opportunities and organizations for youth, so you have many options. It’s a good place to start if you don’t have a passion or hobby, because the choices are so diverse. Some of the options include:
- Youth Central’s Youth Volunteer Corps
- Municipal government (city-level volunteering)
- Public Libraries
- Community Centres
- Public pools
- Animal shelters
- Food Banks
- Physical activity spaces like the YMCA or public gyms
- Summer camps for children
- Hospitals/Clinics
**please note: the age restrictions may differ across different areas and institutions so make sure you read all of the position policies and fine text
3. Complete an Internship
Also a bit obvious, but if you know which career path you’d like to go down, why not complete a summer internship? It’s a good way to gain experience in the career path, admissions and hiring managers like to see that you’ve had exposure to whatever it is you’ve interned with, and the additional bonus? Many internships are paid!
Although the deadline for many summer internships has passed, there are still a few that have spots left. Check with your school guidance counselor for details, or sign up for Indeed and keep a close eye on keywords like “Student Position” or “High School Internship”.
4. Learn a New Language
Language fluency and multilingualism is such an underrated skill. While university applications and scholarship essays might not look for it, you can be certain that most employers will consider it an incredible asset. Communication is everything, and when you live in a culturally diverse country, communication becomes even more important.
There are many ways to learn a language, but I recommend Duolingo. For those of you who don’t know, Duolingo is a free language-learning app (there’s a web-based version too) where you can learn many different languages. It’s a great tool, and has honestly saved me pretty often when I’ve had to learn the basics of a language over a short amount of time.
Storytime: In Grade 9, I signed up to take Spanish in high school at the high school level in order to transfer to a different school from which I was designated. I didn’t realize how much Spanish I needed to know, but I did a few Duolingo lessons a day. Fast-forward to the beginning of August, when I heard that the course would be taught in both English and Spanish, and that the majority of the kids already spoke Spanish somewhat fluently. So I panicked, and then I used August speedrunning the Spanish course on Duolingo. I ended up doing pretty well in the high school course!
Of course, you can’t rely only on Duolingo to learn a language and it is certainly difficult to learn a language fluently over a few months. So here are some other ways you can learn a little faster:
- watch your movies and TV shows dubbed with other languages and English subs
- watch foreign movies and TV shows
- listen to mixed language podcasts
- write as much as you can in your daily life with the language you are trying to learn
5. Start a Fundraiser
“Fundraised [x amount of money] for [really great cause]” always looks pretty on paper. So if you’re passionate about a cause, spend the summer to help fund something you really believe in! Some generic fundraising ideas include
- bake sales
- bottle drive
- used [whatever] drive
- ex: clothing, batteries, technology, recycling, craft materials etc. etc.
- buy and resell products door-to-door
This one can seem a little daunting at first, so I recommend you try doing this with a team or a group of friends to make it a little more fun!
6. Start an Organization
Create a club in your community that gets together every week to pick up garbage. Start a volunteering organization in your own community. Create a card-making club that makes cards to send to the Children’s Hospital and cheer someone up. Whatever your idea is, being the founder of an organization or club in your community is very important for scholarship applications because it shows that you have initiative and you are willing to take action. However, it is also important that you are consistent and that you have some consistent members in the organization to make it impactful. Get together with some friends, and try your best to make it work! After all, if it doesn’t, you can just turn to another one of the ideas in this list.
7. Prepare for Contests
Personally, I’m a big fan of science and I try to participate in the annual citywide science fair every year. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Other contests that are highly regarded are math contests (University of Waterloo has a few) and debate contests. These kinds of academic competitions can be very nice to add onto university applications or scholarships because they show that you have a true passion for the subject. However, they can be incredibly exhausting and overwhelming when added to the pressure of schoolwork and exams once September rolls around and the season starts. For that reason, it’s nice to have a bit of prep work done to help aid your future self.
8. Join a Club/Organization
Although it might not look as impressive as starting one, joining organizations is also highly valued if you are consistent and contribute high quality work. It shows passion and drive for a certain cause. There are so many different clubs and organizations, so I’ll only name a few examples of organizations that you could join. Honestly it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing, so long as you are passionate about it.
- Community associations
- Book club
- Being on the committee that hosts block parties
- Knitting club
- Community sports teams
9. Tutor
This one is a little overdone, but that also makes it easier to execute. Most of you reading this article will have reached the age where you’re old enough to tutor someone else, should it be a younger sibling or the neighbor’s kid. Regardless of who you are tutoring, whether or not you are tutoring with a registered organization, or how old they are, teaching others is a valauble skill that many employers might look for on the resume. It indicates your patience and temperance with those around you.
You don’t have to only tutor in-person either. There are many online platforms such as Superprof that allow students to tutor or receive tutoring from online. The struggle with online platforms however, is that it’s hard to get recognized because there are so many tutors. You are also exposed to complete strangers, so it is important to stay safe and practice good digital literacy. If you’re able to snatch a few students in-person though, I would definitely recommend that over digital tutoring.
10. Get a Part-Time Job
This one is listed last mostly because some universities don’t care about your employment status. But some do, and there are also some scholarships that are offered solely for students who work at certain organizations. As well, who wouldn’t like a little extra pocket money?
That being said, it’s not wise to work tirelessly at a job you dislike as a student unless you really need the money. If working is simply to afford your biweekly trip to the movies with friends, then make sure that the job you pick is one that is worth your time. Students often take their free time for granted and work at underpaid, easy-hire jobs that don’t provide any sort of skill training or character building because we’re inexperienced and we don’t know the worth of our work. If you’re offered that kind of job and you don’t badly need the money… please don’t take the job. There will be other positions that will be better. Don’t waste your time on a job that you don’t enjoy and doesn’t pay well.
Here are some jobs that I do recommend for students:
- Lifeguarding/Coaching
- Typically higher pay
- Learn interpersonal skills
- Interaction with people of all backgrounds
- Show off your specific skill/proficiency in a sport
- Babysitting/Day Camp Counselors
- Interaction with children
- High-energy
- Entertaining
- Shows patience and interpersonal skills
- Retail
- Interpersonal skills
- Customer service skills
- Organization and Marketing skills
- Working under pressure/time limits
- Worker at McDonalds/Burger King
- In additional to all the same reasons as the retail jobs, McDonalds and Burger King both offer scholarship opportunities to their student workers
Some jobs that I personally would recommend to stay away from include:
- jobs under minimum wage.
- This should be self-explanatory. Don’t exploit yourself; your time is worth more than the $13.00/hr and you’ll find another job.
- amusement parks
- Typically transportation is far and expensive
- Outdoors it can get really, really hot in amusement parks full of metal rides and handles. Combined with stuffy costumes, cakey makeup, and the constant smell of sunscreen and sweat, these working conditions can be gruelling
- Customers are grumpier than even regular retail jobs from heat and exhaustion
- Risk of heatstroke
TL;DR
There are many different opportunities for students to upgrade their experience portfolio over the summer. However, be sure not to waste your time on less-rewarding experiences and focus on developing your skills in something that you like. The 10 activities that are ideal for students in the summer are:
-
- Learn to Code
- Volunteer
- Internship
- Learn a new language
- Fundraise
- Form an organization
- Prepare for contests
- Join a club/organization
- Tutor
- Part-time job