Books are the best friends during summers and great books are friends forever. There are many such books and a sample of them is provided in Box No.1 (Fiction) and Box No.2 (Non-Fiction). These books provide the insights into the experiences of people who lived through them. Thus by reading them one would acquire the cumulative experience of them all in a short time.

Fiction:

1. The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
6. A Room With a View by E. M. Forster
7. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
8. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
9. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
10. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Non Fiction:
1. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
2. A Manual for Living by Epectitus
3. The University of Hard Knocks by- Ralph Parlette.
4. The Power of the Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy.
5. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
6. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.
7. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
8. The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason
9. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
10. How to Make Millions With Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur’s Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

Apart from books, you can also try these out of the box activities:

Arts, Sports and Games: Music and dance are the best forms of recreation and re-charging. Join these forms of art or any others such as painting, sculpting, etc. to bring out your creative talent. If you are a sports buff, join a sports camp for playing tennis, badminton, volley ball, basket ball, cricket, or any other game of your choice. You can even choose to play some indoor games such as chess, caroms, table tennis, etc.

Health and Medicine: Attend programs in meditation, yogasana, pranayama which will help better health management. Alternatively attend programs on health management, beauty management, medication programs for self and community, health awareness campaigns, etc.

Community Development: Join and actively participate in community development initiative through your local resident’s welfare association, youth empowerment organization, women welfare society, senior citizens organization or any other organization which has community development objectives. Municipal Corporation too has some such initiatives, which could provide a platform for community development.

Vyola is convent educated young adult doing her graduation from a premium private educational institute in Hyderabad. Her college does not offer any internship program during summer term. Her schoolmate and a friend Vivek is doing his graduation in commerce with a mid- segment private educational group. His college made it compulsory to do summer training for all students. Vyola keeps hearing from Vivek how useful his summer training is and she wondered why her college does not provide such an opportunity.

Janaki is an engineering student in an affiliated college in Guntur district. Her college wants them to do summer training, but most students end up sitting at home after managing to submit a certificate from some company or the other.

Summer term, as it is commonly referred to, is a very important time in our college/school days. If planned and used well, it can be made valuable both from learning and earning point of view. The point that young adults and parents must note is how to make summer term productive, which accounts for close to 25 per cent of time available during a year.

For teenagers it makes a lot of sense to take-up a summer job. They have lot of options. They can work in food joints, restaurants, retail stores, amusement parks, telecom outfits, finance and insurance companies, business houses, summer camps and so on. It’s just that one has to discover his/her passion. In countries like the US, the culture of doing a summer job always existed. In India it is slowly catching up. Unaware of the opportunities, many students end-up wasting their holidays doing nothing. However, some smart ones use the time to take up a job and are able to learn while earning some money. Summer job salaries are not much, but one can earn enough to fulfill one’s dream of may be buying some favorite electronic gadgets such as mobile phone, iPod, music system, etc. But the real gain is adding value to the resume by rich practical experience.

When we talk of productive summer term, there are many options that come to our mind. I would like to put them in to following categories:

Intellectual Enrichment: Read Great Books; Attend Bridge Classes; Acquire professional certifications offered by agencies such as Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), National Commission for Futures Markets, Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority; Attend classes in Personality Development, Filmmaking, International Affairs, Journalism, Event Management, Health and Medicine. Attend any other academic enrichment programs including learning a foreign language.

Earn while you Learn: Undertake internship during Summer Term in sunrise industries such as BPOs, KPOs, Insurance, Retail, Financial Services, Market Research companies, Banks, etc. Part-time Jobs are also available in most of these sectors. This gives you good learning opportunity along with earning your pocket money.

Emotional Intelligence Labs : If you know your strengths and weaknesses, make use of summer holidays to removing your weaknesses. Attend workshops for anger management, developing positive attitude, stress management, improving your reading ability, retention, etc.

Leadership Development: Leadership plays a very important role in any professional or personal growth. Students do not get opportunity to learn the leadership skills in school/college. Experts conduct workshops on developing leadership skills. Enroll in them to hone your leadership abilities.

Skill Development: English Language Skills are very important for any placement requirement. Other skills such as Selling skills, Persuasive skills, Negotiation skills, etc. are equally important.

Summer training of students in companies, non-government organizations, small and medium enterprises add value to the bio-data of a student when applying for first job. Interviewers tend to focus on the engagement and achievements during the summer training. It is generally believed that students who do well in summer training succeed in their jobs and assignments later in life.

In today’s fast paced education and in the era of techno-schools, students do not have a change to pursue their interests in arts, crafts and sports during their school/college days. Summer term offers a unique chance for them to pursue their interests. Singing, dancing, painting, drawing, sculpting, and photography – one or more than one can be pursued to fulfill individual needs.

Summers are always special. Students look forward for them. But if only a bit of mindset changes, summer could be made more productive. Not many would know that ‘many students are more successful in summer school than during the regular school’. Wish all our youngsters a happy learning and earning during this summer.