By Trishala Jain, 2019–2020 Miss CEO Ambassador and student at Dublin High School
Due to COVID-19, summer programs, internships, and other opportunities have been canceled left and right, leaving most of us in the dust with not much to do this summer. We hit a roadblock, but what’s stopping us from overcoming the obstacle and finding new opportunities?
There are plenty of ways that you can create your own opportunities, such as internships, simply by looking to your community. Think about all the people you’ve interacted with, including your friends, peers, teachers, and family members, and recollect any problems or concerns they’ve brought up. Look at your surroundings and absorb everything you see around you.
Is there an underrepresentation of youth involved in the city government? Are there parks around you that need cleaning up? What about local non-profits that are looking for ways to raise more money?
I went through a similar experience myself, and when I started looking at my community and the problems it was facing, opportunities appeared all around me. I knew that as a teen, many of the problems that people around me were facing were ones I could help out with and potentially have a positive impact on.
Let me give you an example: I go to Dublin High School located in sunny Dublin, California, and our school is part of the few which offer open-campus lunch to their students. In simpler terms, the students are allowed to leave campus during their lunchtime, and as a result, most of us seek restaurants and cafes where we can grab a quick bite and hang out with our friends. My favorite cafe is a donut shop called Johnny’s Donuts, which is located so close to my school that I can walk there with my friends, buy a freshly-cooked donut, and head back to school with time to spare. After multiple trips to the donut shop, I noticed something — the shop was not very popular among other students, and unlike most other eateries in the area, the shop did not have any online presence.
As an avid Doordasher myself, I knew the importance of being present on food-delivery apps and having a website, and at that moment, I knew I had secured a summer internship for myself.
I promptly reached out to the owner of the store for an informational interview, and after introducing myself and explaining what I noticed, the owner was more than delighted to allow me to code a website for them and bring their store to popular food delivery apps such as Doordash, Postmates, and Uber Eats. I could spend my summer doing what I loved — coding and creating websites, while also helping out my favorite local cafe.
This experience taught me that it’s the observations you make and the connections you have in your community that will help you when you’re looking for summer opportunities while also seeking ways to solve the problems around you. If there’s an underrepresentation of youth in the local government, contact a city official and see how you can get involved. When local non-profits are seeking ways to raise more money, reach out and offer to plan a fundraiser.
There are numerous problems in each and every community, but also countless approaches to solving them. The options are limitless, and so are your opportunities when you’re looking for valuable things to do this summer.
And from personal experience, I can testify that reaching out to your community, identifying a problem, and doing what you can to solve it, will not only expose you to many life lessons and foster valuable skills but it will also give you an immense feeling of satisfaction, knowing that you did what you could to help those around you.
