Tips to enhance your college apps during quarantine!
The current situation with Covid-19 throws a spanner into those summer plans and makes it difficult to plan for anything beyond the confines of one's home. Your school life has already adjusted to a new normal – the online classes, reduced face time with your friends and teachers. In all likelihood, summer will look vastly different from what you know.
How can you make the most of a summer defined by COVID? Read on!
Remember the key is for you to demonstrate your commitment to the world at large and the community around you. Engaged citizenship is an excellent attribute for applicants to colleges worldwide that encourage you to treat every day and every situation as a learning.
● Hyper-local is the new global: Communities around you are probably in need of help, and as a citizen, you can plug into existing volunteer networks through social media or just simply, make a list of all elderly citizens in your vicinity and reach out to them to offer support.
In public schools, community kitchens are set up to help migrant labourers and homeless- consider volunteering at one. Reach out to your local community spokespersons – RWA heads, local clubs, societies to figure out how you could help or even start your own initiative.
Not only will you actually contribute to someone’s life positively, but you may just make new friends along the way as you get to know your neighbours!
And while you’re at it, think about how you can use this experience to talk about your social commitment and responsibility for the world around you.
● Summer Research Project: If you’ve ever been fascinated by a new topic, and never had the time to delve deeper, this is about the right time to fuel your curiosity.
First, if there is a particular topic that interests you, go ahead and draw up a short syllabus for yourself. Prepare a research outline and ask yourself the “why” more than “what” and “how”.
Are you a history buff? You don’t have to look far to discover historical facts. Try and map the history of your neighbourhood – Who is it named after? What was it like 50 years back? What events have shaped the place so far?
Identify information that interests you, and make a list of questions you might still have.
Try talking to an expert in the field, or reach out to some advisors in your schools to guide you. Keep a research journal to document what you did, and what you learnt. You can follow some easy steps here.
Not only are you learning about a cool topic but you get to showcase your academic curiosity which really helps later on in college.
● Fundraise: You might be surprised but fundraising is one of the most important skills in the world, under any context. Particularly now, in this moment of crisis, fundraising for vulnerable members of society, for medical equipment, for the homeless is more important than ever before!
As a social media savvy millennial, you can create fundraising campaigns for organizations crowdfunding on platforms such as Milaap.
You don’t have to start a campaign yourself, find one that you like and figure out a way to promote it. Set an internal fundraising goal. Use your existing networks, social media, digital canvassing to raise funds.
Not only are you making a difference by helping those in need, but this is also an opportunity for showcasing your creative and passionate side to Admissions officers!
Other Ideas:
● Do you have an interest that defines you or do you want to learn something new? Try starting a podcast to interview experts and share with a wider audience. Learn something new while exploring a new format of storytelling!
● Use this time productively and get cracking on some hard skills. The Zoom-ed world is your oyster. You can take classes in coding, in foreign languages, in philosophy and whatever might interest you!
● Is there a story that you want to share with the world? Nurture the budding writer in you. Check out the Open University's two-week course and other online options designed to help you write your own fiction novel.
You could even earn free statements of participation with some of these courses which can always help you with your resume.
Still not sure about what to do? Reach out to Writers Qi and we will help you plan a summer that is not just productive but also fun!
Here’s to a new, revamped #SummerFromHome!