We all know how steamy and boring our summer gets. Most of us probably have not even planned to do anything apart from lying in bed, binge-watching TV shows and scrolling through social networking sites. While there is nothing wrong in doing that but, 2-3 months is a long period, so here are some interesting ways you can use it to your advantage, who knows, in doing so you might just be able to earn some bucks or meet new people.
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Learn a new skill
If you are a college student, you can make a good use of your long summer vacation by learning new skills online. Most of the courses are offered free of cost. You can even get an authorized certificate at a nominal fee. You can surely add some weight to your CV by these skills and certifications. There are platforms like Coursera, EdX (By Microsoft), Udemy, Khan academy, Stanford online, Udacity (By Google), Code.org and much more. You can find courses ranging from macroeconomics, financial management, data analysis, C++ programming in C++/Java/PHP/Python etc., website development, creative writing and much more.
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Learn a new language
If you are not interested in learning technical or academic stuff after a tiresome semester, you can just learn a new language. Learning a new language might just help you if you choose to study abroad, or plan to travel take a world tour in future.
The most popular languages among students are French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. One of the most popular platform to learn new languages is DuoLingo(Also available as an app), apart from that one can even use Busuu, LivingLanguage(Game Of Thrones’ fans can even learn Dothraki on this site), Foreign Services Institute and BBC languages.
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Go on a trekking trip
If you are not comfortable being a couch potato and bored with the 9 to 5 lifestyle, then this is your chance to break free. One can always plan the usual Goa trip, but apart from that, there are many unexplored tourist spots in India. These places are mainly trekking regions in the Himalayan valley going up to the northeast. The cost of one such adventure program ranges from 5k rupees to 40k rupees according to the duration of the program. Roop Kund, the valley of flowers, Parvati valley/kheer Ganga, Buran Ghati, Nag tibia and much more are among the list of less explored places in India. You can find more information regarding the cost, travel itinerary and customized packages on IndiaHikes, Thrillophilia, TrekTheHimalayas, and TrekkingInIndia. However, one might need to have a certain level of fitness to attend these programs.
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Join an internship (Online/in person)
If you are a workaholic and cannot stay idle for too long, this is your chance to make a good use of it. There are many internships going on at startups, NGOs and some institutions. Most of these internships even include a certificate, food and other perks and a small amount of salary. The best part is that you get to work in your field of interest while you are still in college, you can even turn it into a full-time job once you graduate. Apart from that, there are plenty of “work from home” internships available, too. Mostly these internships are in the field of content writing, business development (Sales/marketing), social media marketing, web development and date analytics. To know more about ongoing internship opportunities you can visit InternShala, LetsIntern, HelloIntern and many other such sites.
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Join an NGO
The concept of community service is not that popular in India but we need to understand that after all these years we need to give something back to the society. India is facing a severe crisis of volunteers especially in fields like education. To make up for it, you can volunteer for organizations like Bhumi, Teach For India, Smile Foundation and many others. There are other organizations like WasteWarriors and Shuddhi Organization in various fields. If you don’t want to commit for too long you can just go visit your nearby orphanage and animal shelter provides your voluntary service.
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Join a Summer School
If you are one of those people who can’t stay away from college life, then summer schools are the thing for you. Summer schools are basically learning offbeat programs, field trips and hands-on activities happening at any college campus. There are several such programs offered by IITs, IIMs, CEPT and other reputed institutes. You can also attend summer school at any foreign university. To know more about summer schools in India and how to get into one, you can check the article listed below.