For many students, summer is the time to let loose and ignore all education. Yet for other, more wise students, summer is the time to get ahead. Without school setting the rules, we can learn in their own in ways, and sticking to these five tips will help do that with ease.
Get outside more often
Simply going outside and spending time alone with your thoughts is an extremely educational, meditative and enlightening experience. It’s been a long year of studying, stressing and partying: Now reflect on these experiences and also ponder future ones. Go for a walk, find a nice place to sit down, take some big deep breaths and spend some time with yourself. It’s been a while.
Read more news
Being informed means being intelligent. We live in a scary, yet beautiful world full of endless stories, and keeping up to date with these stories is essential. This isn’t always easy, so download Circa, a great news app that gathers stories from nearly every news site all in one place.
Drink water
If you’re dehydrated, your brain is dehydrated, and that’s not good. Start every morning by chugging a huge glass of water and make a habit of carrying around a water bottle underneath summer’s hot sun.
Learn more
In an increasingly competitive job market full of college graduates with identical degrees, students have to do whatever they can to get ahead. Acquiring skills in addition to those we learn here at DU will help you stand out from the rest, and summer is a great time in which to dial those skills. Whether it be a new language, photography, Microsoft products, blogging or public speaking, learning something new will open doors to new and unexpected opportunities.
Make plans
You could be working at a McDonalds this summer or diving into the internship of a lifetime, but you can never be too prepared for the big world ahead. One of the best ways to do this it get set up on LinkedIn, which is essentially the Facebook of the business world. It will help get your name out there and develop connections you would have never had. If you don’t have an account, make one, and if you do have one, make it better. Include relevant classes that you’ve taken at DU, write a thorough description of yourself and what you want to do in the future, and fill in any other blanks you can to make your profile as information as possible for future employers. In addition to LinkedIn, work on your resume and cover letter. Many job opportunities in this spontaneous world pop up randomly, so be prepared.
Staying sharp doesn’t mean reading Shakespeare and playing with Rubik’s cubes all summer. This is simply a time to explore new and less traditional ways to gain knowledge. It costs a lot of money for DU to train our brains, so don’t let everything you’ve worked for fade away this summer by sticking to these tips.
