Feb 2024 Editorial: Your Summers Are not to be Wasted…!

Article written by Jenna Ahn, Millie's Co-Founder & CEO

It’s that time of the year - (tiger) parents are thinking about the summer plans, and the educators are asked a dozen different variations of…

“What is the best summer program?”

This question is so vague that it requires a longer conversation. “Where are you thinking about?” “Are you interested in online or in-person?” “Are you looking for free volunteer opportunities or paid programs?” “What is your budget?” It’s impossible to know thousands of university / prep boarding school / private company led programs around the world, and sometimes you don’t know how to best advise them. We hear you. Here are some guiding principles as an educator and also a parent to think about when advising or choosing summer opportunities.

1. Start somewhere.

Oftentimes we see parents asking questions like “Is this good enough?” This could be related to a family favor internship (one may not do much other than shadowing or showing up) or that coding program you are not fully bought in.

Yes, there are always “better” activities to pursue. A big name company internship is better than a family favor job shadowing, for instance. But having internships consecutive summers showing progression in one’s ability is better than that one-off internship at a big name company. You see the progression here? At Millie, we like to say “Something is better than nothing.” and “Some things are better than other things.” You have to start somewhere to get to gaining that better something.

In a practical sense, US Common App has the extracurricular activities section that you can share up to 10 of your activities. It’s still better to have that activity that you were not 100% bought in, as opposed to leaving all those 10 rows empty. These seemingly not as good activities could build the foundation and skillset that the students would need to secure "better" opportunities in the future. So start somewhere.

2. Choose activities that show as many, and as much of your Excellence - Leadership - Service.

This statement applies to not only summer programs but extracurricular activities in general. When thinking about what is a “good” activity, think about how many areas amongst Excellence - Leadership - Service the activity touches upon.

For instance, you are thinking of going to an Art Camp as an attendee. That may show a low to medium level of Excellence (assuming you are going there because you are good at it) but not the other two. Now, let’s say you are invited to go to the same camp as a youth counselor helping younger students with their art as well as their day-to-day camp activities. This shows your Excellence (you are chosen because you are good at art), Leadership (you are teaching younger students, and you have the title as “youth counselor”), and Service (you are helping younger students with their well-being).

"You can build an incredible extracurricular portfolio even though you are not the “best” at something."

Any activities can be thought this way - whether it’s something academic, sport-related, or community service related. In a community service setting, you being the captain of that initiative, or being the founder of that initiative shows a higher level of leadership than those simply participating, and building a great fundraising website can also show the level of Excellence in your coding or web design skills in a surprising and eye-catching way.

To recap, don’t think Excellence is everything. You can build an incredible extracurricular portfolio even though you are not the “best” at something.

3. Learning what you don’t want to do is as important as learning what you want to do at University.

I will play you a scenario. You have a Grade 11 student who’s interested in both Law and Finance as her potential uni major. Her parents are torn whether to focus the summer activities on one or the other, because it is a big investment time wise (the only summer left before the university application) and often money wise (those 2-week summer programs at universities are thousands of dollars). This agony is driven by wanting to choose the “right” path. But what if I told you that spending 1 month deep diving into a major and realizing this is NOT for you is much better than you going into that major and career and spending 30+ years of life working in it? This is a huge mindset shift, and it will help you choose and commit to an activity during the summer knowing your time isn’t being wasted.

4. Think systematically.

"Think about 3 core areas you want to show your interest in."

Earlier we talked about the Common App extracurricular activities section having 10 rows. One of the biggest mistakes is trying to do one of everything. One music, one sport, one art, one volunteer activity, one coding, the list goes on – even when you absolutely hate sports! What’s worse is that this portfolio will end up looking like a hodgepodge of activities and that of someone who doesn’t know what they want to do.

Instead, think about 3 core areas you want to show your interest in. For instance, writing, swimming, and activism. Then pursue 3-4 of the activities within those core areas. These activities could be related to:

• Internship (in one of the core areas of interest; in this case related to writing or activism)
• Competitions (in one of the core areas of interest; in this case writing or swimming competitions)
• Research (same as above)
• Summer School (same as above)
• Volunteer work (same as above)
• Online activities (same as above)

By systematically thinking, the readers of your resume will think “wow so and so has true passion in X!”

To wrap up...

Now, we’ve talked about how to strategize summer activities. Want to learn about some of the most competitive summer programs and what to prepare to apply? Watch this webinar: MILLIE’s Guide to Competitive Summer Programs. Do you want to speak to education experts at MILLIE to learn about 400+ summer programs worldwide MILLIE has mapped out to learn what would be most suitable for your students? Book a call here to discuss further.

Lastly, a quick plug, for girls in Grade 9 & 10, join our very own MILLIE x Surval University Explorer Summer Camp 2024 in beautiful Monteux, Switzerland this summer.

See you in the summer.