Some advice from parents would be great

geek_mom
Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:19:49 +0000

Sounds like you’ve gone through the “bigger pond” awakening. You’ve moved from the tippy-top of the heap at your broad-sample high school to somewhere in the middle of the pack in your uber-selective, uber-achieving college student body. That’s normal. Frosh year anywhere is a huge adjustment; it can take a while to hit your stride. A 3.29 in your first year does not mean your life is over! In fact, it’s darned respectable. It shows you adapted well to dorm life away from home, didn’t lose yourself to the party scene, and held your own academically among top students from across the country and around the world. Congratulations! You’re not in high school anymore. Acknowledge the success of your first year of college.

Now, if you can’t find paying work at home, that doesn’t relegate you to a summer of watching your old pals drink themselves sloppy. How about volunteer work? Any youth centers in your area, or Meals-on-Wheels type organizations? Or maybe your local community college has some interesting classes. Is there a course that would help you come up to speed on something you felt shaky on during your first year of college? Or even something non-academic and totally out of the ordinary, like ballroom dance, auto maintenance, or lifeguard training. If you find something productive and interesting to do with your time, you’ll find yourself spending more time around other productive, interesting people. That should help you get through a jobless summer.

If an internship is what you want, when you get back to your college in the Fall, spend some time making connections at the Career Center and (more importantly) with your faculty. Make it known that you are hungry for summer work next year, and keep your eyes open for internship leads from the start of the year. At my university, the best internships never hit the Career Fairs and job boards – the companies come straight to the faculty and ask for recommendations. You can be the one recommended if you’re doing good, solid work and you’re known to be interested and enthusiastic.