Grab your summer by the horns

As you navigate through the array of opportunities available this summer, never underestimate the importance of a challenging experience.

While you could spend the next few months putting your feet up and basking in the warmth of the sun, not only will you increase your chance of skin cancer, but you will miss out on seriously beefing up your future.

Summer is the prime time for skill building through research, service and internship programs. With these come connections with new friends and mentors who can be advocates for you down the road. Don’t be apprehensive.

Yes, you should always consider the pros and cons of an opportunity, but don’t let hard work dissuade you. While protecting the sacred GPA seems important, right now employers and graduate schools weigh experience far above grades.

The University offers such a large amount of opportunities that you might feel daunted from the outset, not knowing where to begin. First, consider your interests. Where would you like to see yourself in the future?

For science majors, consider lab work. Utilize your program’s University website and really stalk those professors. Those who work with you will be important supporters later on, ready to promote you with recommendations and job references.

But for other majors, participation in a trip abroad, especially with an internship or service program, builds a variety of skills and that highly valued “well-roundedness.”

The University wants to help you get out of the U.S. so much there’s a entire program dedicated to it: UNC Global. Veiled in academia under the International and Area Studies department, UNC Global really just wants to give you the opportunity to travel and gain worldly experience. Their website includes one page with 31 different sources of travel funding for undergraduates. Multiple campus groups also work abroad during the summer, some through the Campus Y and APPLES Global Service-Learning Program.

But there are plenty of national programs that offer internships and service work like Teach for America, AmeriCorps and City Year. These skill-building community development programs will help you network, build your resume and become a better leader.

Don’t give up now. To think your summer is set in stone is to disregard the next two and a half months of possibilities.

Last summer, in a last minute decision, I went on a Nourish International trip to the Moche Valley of Peru with 11 other UNC students. We performed public health development in this rural valley. It was a lot of work and one of the best experiences of my life. I met great friends and mentors and gained a variety of skills to show for it.

At the end of this summer I embark on my next adventure, participating in City Year in San Antonio.

Not only have I never been there, but I have never taught kids in any academic capacity. But to have it any other way is to sacrifice the adventure.