Your freshman summer will present you with a unique opportunity: a looong period of time - perhaps as much as fifteen weeks or, in other words, the equivalent of an entire school semester - away from academics.
For most of you, this will be the first time since you first went to kindergarten thirteen or so years ago that you will have this much time off.
What are you going to do with such an incredible opportunity?
Review Your Goals For Freshman Year
The first thing you need to do is take a look at the goals you set for your freshman year.
What did you identify as the things you hoped to accomplish during your freshman year? How many of them have you actually accomplished so far? Which ones might be things you could work on this summer?
Explore Your Academic Interests
What have you learned about your academic interests this year? Are there possible related careers you might want to explore this summer? For example, if you are interested in pursuing a career in medicine, do you want to try to get a job working on a research team in a laboratory this summer? Or working in a hospital? Or working for a rehabilitation center or a hospice care agency? Even if all you do is deskwork, you will be making important contacts and spending your time in furtherance of your interests and goals.
Have you identified a particular subject as a likely major? Is there a particular professor in that major whose work sounds interesting to you? Maybe someone with whom you might someday take an independent study, or whom you might use as your senior thesis adviser? Is this person hiring a research assistant for the summer? Even if he or she isn't, there might be other professors in the department who have books coming out or important articles in process that need research help. Again, this is a great way to forward your goals and interests while making money at the same time.
Explore Your Extracurricular Interests
Like music? Are you proficient in an instrument or in voice such that you could make a bunch of money teaching at an upscale summer tourist destination, such as Nantucket, the Hamptons, or the Outer Banks? If you are a huge fan of a particular band or musical artist who is touring this summer, have you given any thought to trying to get a job as a roadie or T-shirt salesperson with the band? Life on the road is full of adventures . . .
Are you a varsity athlete? What about offering one-on-one skills lessons in a sport like golf, tennis, soccer, or basketball at one of those tourist spots, where well-heeled parents are always willing to spend money to help their kids develop skills?
Explore Your Social Interests
If you determined that you want to try to become more social, you could take a summer job somewhere new, away from your hometown, where you will be forced to be social - working as a concierge at an inn or hotel somewhere, working as a waiter or waitress in a crowded tourist spot, leading tours of your college campus, or doing anything that will force you to speak in front of people and interact with strangers. Feeling comfortable in new social settings is a learned skill. If it is one you want to improve, dedicate some time to practicing it. Note that if you work as a waiter or a waitress for this reason, you are making money and advancing one of your goals at the same time.
Explore Your Interests in Travel, the Outdoors, or Physical Development
Do you love the outdoors and want to become more skilled in this area? Perhaps you could make some money this summer working as a national forest ranger or a fire monitor in a remote wilderness location, or working on a trail crew or for any of a number of wilderness preservation societies that are always looking for part-time summer help on specific projects.
If money is less of an object, might you want to combine your love of the outdoors with a spiritual quest or an effort to really get back in shape, by hiking part of the Appalachian Trail or the Continental Divide or any other part of the country?
Explore Your Interest in Politics or Administration
Are you a likely poli sci, history, or government major? Are you interested in attending law school or interested in a particular political or social issue? Or are you just a political junkie? Is this a campaign year? Could you hook up with a political campaign as a policy analyst, speechwriter, advance person, researcher, campaign worker, or media adviser, or in any of a virtually unlimited number of other capacities? If it isn't a campaign year, perhaps you could to look toward Washington, D.C., where you might land a summer job working alongside thousands of other college students as an aide, page, researcher, or policy assistant.
Do you love your college and have visions of becoming an admissions officer someday? If so, a summer working in the admissions office as an interviewer is a common first step to that popular post.
Are you interested in a social issue that is addressed by a particular local, state, regional, or national agency? Might you want to work there this summer to explore your interest in the subject?
Brainstorm
So now that you've had a chance to review your goals and interests and to kick-start your imagination, it's time to brainstorm. What is it that you want to accomplish with your freshman summer? Grab a pen or pencil and list a bunch of ideas. Then rejoin us to learn about a way to make sure you actually take action with respect to these ideas.
Okay. Now look at the ideas you brainstormed, pick four or five of them, and put them in an order of priority from highest (1) to lowest (4 or 5) by just writing a number in a circle next to them. Go ahead, do it now.
Putting It All Together - An Example
Now I want you to think really creatively here. How could you accomplish three, four, or all five of these goals at the same time in the same summer? And how amazing do you think you would feel if you could actually pull this off?
Let's Look at an example.
Suppose you identified the following as your freshman year summer goals: (1) making money, (2) getting in better shape, (3) spending some time in the outdoors, and (4) finding some time "away from it all" to contemplate the meaning and direction of your life. What could you possibly do with your freshman summer that would make you feel fulfilled and would further the pursuit of your goals?
Obviously, procrastinating about this decision and then defaulting to working as a file clerk at your mother's law firm, though it may pay some bills, is not going to advance your personal agenda very much. At most, you will be deferring the decision about what you want to do, which may increase your anxiety and put more pressure on you next year; you will also be subverting your desires to get back in shape and be outdoors to your desire to make money. And chances are, you end up feeling miserable and unfulfilled.
So get creative. What if you got a job working on a mountain trail crew in the Rockies? Instead of filing paper, you would spend your days hiking, clearing brush, repairing washouts and preventing erosion, and working outdoors in the wilderness. Nights would be spent in remote cabins, in tents, or under the stars. Because your meals and accommodations would be provided, your expenses would be limited to the costs of getting out there and back, and whatever incidentals you chose to incur. Now, instead of meeting a single goal, you'd be addressing all four of your priorities in a single job in a single summer.
How good would that make you feel?
You say you're not into cutting trails? What about working as a forest ranger? Or as a fire spotter? Or as an attendant at one of the cabins run by the Appalachian Mountain Club? Any one of these positions would allow you to meet all four of your stated freshman summer goals. And there are countless other jobs that would do it too.
"I worked at a dude ranch in Wyoming and had a blast," Carolyn recalls. "I spent part of almost every day hiking in some of the most beautiful mountains in this country. Honestly, my advice for the summer after freshman year would be to do something fun that can also earn you some money. I would not necessarily advise getting a job designed to help you get a job out of college. There is plenty of time for that later."
"I think something meaningful is something that does one of the following things for you," Jim noted. "One: something that makes you feel good by helping others; two: something that helps you make a career decision or helps you better define what you want to do; three: something that contributes significantly to your financial ability to attend school; four: something that helps establish contacts and experience that will help you land the job you want after school; or five: something, like summer study abroad, that enables you to have an experience that you may never again be able to enjoy."
"For me, what was meaningful the summer after freshman year was to go home," Zoe concluded. "I worked at an inn ten minutes from home, saved some money, lived with my parents, hung out with old friends, and pursued some romantic adventures. Just before school started, I flew out to Illinois and drove back to Maine with my roommate-to-be. Did I contribute to the greater good of the world or 'broaden my horizons'? Probably not. But I did have a great, stress-free time, and returned for sophomore year feeling rejuvenated and grounded."
Now Do Some Research
Once you've established your goals, thought about ways to make a few of them work together, and brainstormed a bunch of possibilities to produce the blueprint for an immensely satisfying freshman summer, now armed with this blueprint, head on over to your college career planning and placement office to find the ideal position for you. Don't just settle for something run of the mill. You have plenty of time to devote to this activity. Yes, it will take some time, but finding the right way to combine your goals and your interests will ensure that you'll spend a well-adjusted, meaningful, and happy freshman summer.
Campus Confidential Mentors and Uber-Mentors:
Campus Confidential contains the collective advice of a a diverse group of people who have traveled the road to college. Some are recent college graduates who can counsel you on the college experience as it is today. Other are a few years removed from their college days and can provide a longer view of the decisions you will need to make before, during, and after college. Here is a little bit about the mentors and uber-mentors in these articles.
Dan Bissell – Campus Confidential Uber-Mentor
Portland, Oregon
B.A. Middlebury College cum laude, 1993. Major: Geology
M. D. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Adler Scholar, 2002
Tom Teh Chiu – Campus Confidential Uber-Mentor
Brooklyn, New York
B. A. Yale University, 1993. Major: double major in Chemistry and Music
M. M. Juilliard School, 1995
M Juilliard School, 2001
Jim Bright – Campus Confidential Uber-Mentor
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
B. A. Duke University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1997. Major: History
Amanda Cramer – Campus Confidential Uber-Mentor
Paso Robles, California
B.A. Cornell University Phi Beta Kappa, 1993. Major: Mathematics
Graduate study in food science – Enology, University of California at Davis 1997-2000
Zoe Robbins – Campus Confidential Uber-Mentor
Gouldsboro, Maine
B.A. (1) Wellesley College magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1997. Major: Economics
B.A. (2) University of Pennsylvania, 2001. Major: Nursing
Carolyn Koegler – Campus Confidential Uber-Mentor
Hopkinton, New Hampshire
B. A. Tufts University, cum laude, 1993. Double major: History and Spanish
Erik Norton – Campus Confidential Uber-Mentor
Boston, Massachusetts
B. A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993. Major: Mathematics
Lyndsee Dickson – Campus Confidential Mentor
Concord, New Hampshire
B.A. New York University, cum laude, 2004. Major: East Asian studies
Kevin Donovan – Campus Confidential Mentor
Somerville, Massachusetts
B.A. Boston College, honors in the major, 1993. Major: English, Minor: Creative Writing
Tiffany Chan – Campus Confidential Mentor
Concord, New Hampshire
B.S. New York University, 2005. Major: Communication Science
Erica Eubanks – Campus Confidential Mentor
Memphis, Tennessee
B.A. Tennessee State University, National Deans List, 2003. Major: Criminal Justice
Dave Irwin – Campus Confidential Mentor
Carlisle, Massachusetts
B.A. Middlebury College departmental honors, 2004. Major: American Civilization, Minor: Education
Chase Johnson – Campus Confidential Mentor
London, England
B. A. Duke University, with Phi Alpha Theta distinction in history, 2005. Major: History
Aaron Paskalis – Campus Confidential Mentor
Magnolia, Massachusetts
West Point Military Academy, then transferred to UMass Amherst
B. A. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2005. Major: Legal studies
May Workbooks are Here!
Get Outside! 10 Playful Activities
