 Jumping off the porch like mom's not home What's up guys, it's Josh and we're back again with another video Summer is approaching very fast In fact, I'm in my last week of school right now, which is just crazy to think about Well, summer comes time to relax and think about the past school year But it also presents a lot of new opportunities When I was in high school, I didn't realize how important summers were Although I did get to do some cool stuff I never really planned them out in a way that would be both productive and worthwhile Summers are not only incredibly important to your own personal development But also to the college application process Did you know there's an entire section of the Common App Where you have a chance to talk about what you did with your summers There's five slots where you get to enter what you did And have like, I think, 50 words or so to explain the details The Common App is presenting you yet another opportunity To show who you are and what you're capable of So take advantage of it Don't let this go to waste In today's video, I'm going to share with you guys what I did during my summers in high school And hopefully leave you with some tips to make the most of yours Before we get into it, I'd like to talk about the sponsor of today's video Crimson Education If you've been watching my channel for a while, I guarantee you You've been recommended to at least one of their videos That have been created to make a student's dream of studying at top during college as possible Crimson Education's main goal is to connect students with a team of Strategists, mentors, and tutors That will help them create a successful college application Whether that be extracurricular and leadership projects College essay brainstorming and editing Or SAT prep and tutoring The best part is that it actually works As they've had over 460 offers to top 50 schools just since 2015 For those of you applying internationally, don't worry Crimson now has 25 offices across the globe If you've ever felt lost in your college apps Or just want to stand out in the growing competition I definitely recommend you go check out Crimson To create a custom plan that's affordable for you I'll leave the link down below You won't regret it All right, let's get into it If I'm going to be completely honest When it comes to how I spent my summers I did not do the best job at exploring all the opportunities possible There's a lot more I could have done And I wasted a lot of time being unproductive But hopefully my experience will give you a little bit of inspiration to go exploring on your own I'll start with the summer following my freshman year This summer was absolutely consumed by baseball At the time I was living in Abilene, Texas on Dias Air Force Base It was hot and miserable But yet I spent every weekend out in the sun doing what I loved I just made a new travel baseball team And we'd spend every weekend driving up to Dallas for tournaments and competitions In addition to baseball, I also got the opportunity to do an eight-week SAT prep course That was offered free through my school It was a Monday through Wednesday, 9 to 12 It was a great time I definitely did learn a lot through that course But the problem was the very next year They completely changed the SAT So it wasn't as helpful as it could have been That pretty much sums up my freshman summer though A lot of baseball and a lot of studying The summer following my sophomore year was a lot more eventful Right at the end of my sophomore year of high school My dad retired from the Air Force And we packed everything up and moved back to Herndon, Virginia That entire ordeal took about a month of my summer Between packing, unpacking, and the road trip across America It was worth it though Because if you haven't been able to tell, it wasn't the biggest fan of Texas I did manage to do a lot of cool stuff though Before I left Texas, I spent a week at the Dallas-Fort Worth Waterski School I normally spend a couple of weeks of every summer up at my grandparents' house in Michigan Where it's right on the lake I get to water ski and wakeboard every single day to my heart's content And it's something that I've really grown to love throughout my entire life So I got a chance to improve my slalom skiing With somebody who had won the world championship It was a really great time, a lot of fun I even picked up wakeboarding a little more than I already had Later that summer, I spent a week at the Air Force Academy Baseball Camp It was a great experience training with the players and coaches And it definitely prepared me for the next season My junior summer was probably my most eventful summer I started off the summer at Virginia Boys State Boys State is a program that is ran by the American Legion That takes the top high school students in the state And exposes them to government at the local city and state level It was really fun I got to meet the governor, make a lot of new friends And get a hands-on experience with politics Later that summer, I spent 17 days in the New Mexican Wilderness at Fillmont Scout Ranch Fillmont is pretty much the pinnacle of scouting And hosts Boy Scouts on ridiculous backpacking trips every summer Those two weeks were absolutely insane And definitely taught me a lot about myself Also, throughout the entire summer, I was teaching myself web design I was learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript Just trying to learn as much as I could about computer science To prepare myself for my first CS class that I was taking the next year And that was about everything that I did during my summers That actually went on to my college application My senior summer, although my senior summer was pretty eventful That was already, although my senior summer was pretty eventful That happened after college applications were already submitted So it didn't really matter that much Alright, so now we're going to get into my tips for making the most of your summer First of all, I want to emphasize that having a productive summer Does not require spending tons of money And going to some exotic place and doing some crazy thing Although hiking Mount Kilimanjaro would be a great story for one of your college essays So would volunteering at your local hospital I recommend making the most of every opportunity that you're given This means applying to every camp, conference, or scholarship that your high school offers Especially the ones that fall into the discipline that you're interested in For me, like I said, I did boy state The American Legion paid for me to go down south And spend a week talking to the state's top politicians That's wild You would be surprised how many opportunities are lying at your front door You just have to go out and find them Obviously these camps and conferences were a great time But something that I wish I would have done earlier was an internship or research I found that a lot of my friends here were involved in internships or research during high school Not only will research expose you to higher level scientific processes But it also shows a sense of maturity when it comes to your discipline Maybe you're not a STEM person Then go out and try to find an interesting internship A lot of companies, firms, and politicians are looking for free labor Especially when it's from somebody that's knowledgeable and passionate about their work A lot of my friends in high school interned with a congressman on Capitol Hill during the summer And they said it was one of the best experiences of their life All right, worst comes to worst You can't find an internship, can't find a research position You weren't accepted to any programs through your school You still have the chance to gain work experience or volunteer My friend Jacob who lives across the hall He spent his entire senior summer just working at an ice cream shop There's a spot on the Common App where you can list work experience Even if you're stuck working drive-thru at McDonald's That's not the worst thing in the world If working isn't your vibe or you're not a fan of having extra spending money You can always volunteer at your local retirement home, hospital, or homeless shelter College is really value community service in whatever form it takes Lastly, even with all this stuff going on You're still going to have a lot of free time on your hands Use it! Teach yourself a new programming language Get an early jump on SAT studying Start learning a new language I didn't realize this till my junior year But if you're motivated and passionate about what you're learning You can teach yourself anything The internet has all the resources you need Most of all though, use your summer as a mental break From the stress and pressure of high school Take some time to relax, hang with friends and family, and recover You worked hard the past year and you deserve it With that, I believe this video has come to an end If you got any value out of this video If it gave you new ideas about what to do with your summer Please consider dropping a thumbs up down below It helps the channel a lot more than you think If you have any questions, comments, concerns Please leave them down in the comment section below I promise I will try to respond to everyone If you're still stuck for ideas about what to do with your summer And how to make it the most productive Definitely hit up the guys at Crimson They should be able to find you something fulfilling to do during the summer That will strengthen your college application Highly recommend If you're new consider subscribing There will be a new college app related video every other Monday Along with vlogs and interviews, inter-supplies between I also made a bunch of college app related videos last August Like almost 40 of them So definitely go check those out if you haven't There's a lot of good content there Anyways, I'll be back again in a couple days with another video So see you soon