Once again summer is almost over and many students are heading back to school in the next few weeks.

This week I want to spotlight one such student, a mentee of mine from Virginia. Take a moment this week to stop by her blog and see what Jeannie’s accomplished this summer on her European Adventure.

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Jeannie’s a rising third year student-athlete in the Engineering school, which is to say she’s used to a heavy workload. So in typical fashion instead of wasting away the summer at the pool she kept herself busy backpacking throughout Europe and a whole lot else!

Just a few of the highlights:

  • She completed a May term in Sweden, including classes, lectures and consulting for a local company in Lund called Cykelbiblioteket (aka Bike Library)
  • Taught herself how to build a blog, creating it from scratch (no cheating with Word Press templates for her!)
  • Wrote over 40,000 words along with hundreds of pictures
  • Learned how to use Google analytics and make the site SEO friendly
  • Made her site responsive so it works well on tablets and computers alike
  • Completed many Codeacademy courses
  • Got in shape for the upcoming Field Hockey season

…and oh yeah, she managed to find time to visit a dozen countries and countless cities along the way.

Which brings me to the other point of this post: Learning, applying yourself, having fun & doing what you love are not mutually exclusive. As you’ve heard before, “work hard, play hard.”

Find your passions and bring them together the way Jeannie combined her love of travel and desire to improve her development skills for a future career. That, plus a dash of commitment, dedication and follow-through will always separate you from the crowd.

So I ask you…

lofoten