It’s an employer’s market right now, but just because it’s summer doesn’t mean there’s nothing college students can be doing to further their education or strengthen their resumes.

To do so, many students are taking summer classes, working at jobs or doing internships that relate to their career. Others are finding non-traditional ways to make themselves more appealing to employers.

Politics

Micah Hood, a sophomore at Grand Valley State University, is an intern for the Gary Brown for Detroit City Council campaign.

“I’ve always wanted to make a positive difference in Detroit,” said Hood, who lives in Detroit. She also said that as her major is public relations and advertising, this experience will help in her career. “I think it’s a really good hands-on experience … for anyone going into public relations.”

She also said she believes this will help make her stand out more in future job-seeking endeavors.

“I think people volunteering in campaigns are usually older people,” she said. “With me being so young … only 19 years old and in college, it definitely gives me a different experience than other people my age.”

Daniel Jackson from Country Day High School also volunteers with her.

Their boss Gary Brown said they’re “extremely useful, especially with social media and their computer skills ­— they’re very good at it.”

“We try not to give them just busy work,” he said. “We try to give them things that are meaningful to do.”

“I take them everywhere I go — like they’re shadowing me, and I’m meeting with politicians and [members of] society. They get to be in meetings like that,” Brown said.

“They get an opportunity to see not only me as a political candidate, but the people that I interact with on a daily basis. They get to see what their jobs entail, and it’s a good experience.”

Health care

On a stroll in Saint Joseph Mercy Oakland hospital in Pontiac, one can see a senior citizen pushing someone in a wheelchair, people old and young greeting visitors as they enter and teens pushing garbage cans or transporting items. They all have one thing in common — they are volunteers.

SJMO has hundreds of people of all ages volunteering there. Diane Burton, an assistant at SJMO’s volunteer services office, said they are split into two groups: students 16-18 years old, and adults 18 and up.

“They work all throughout the hospital,” she said “There’s barely any departments that won’t take volunteers.”

Volunteers can request in which department they want to work, and if they don’t like it or want something different, they can work at a different one.

Burton said volunteers can do things like clean beds of outpatient surgery, stock supplies, greet people, transport people or supplies or do clerical things like filing. They just can’t treat the patients directly.

“Many [volunteer] here because they want to give back to the community,” Burton said. “When I started [volunteering] I wanted to earn the feathers in my wings for the day in the pearly gate of heaven.”

She also said that volunteering at a hospital can not only help fulfill service requirements for high school graduations, but also their future careers.

“Most students here have health care as their [desired] professions,” she said. “[Volunteering at a hospital] looks good on a resume.”

“Students are usually here as a stepping stone,” she said.

Opportunities

There are many other volunteering opportunities available in Michigan and elsewhere that can help future job-seekers improve their chances. Websites like  www.volunteermatch.org and www.craigslist.org list more opportunities like helping in youth assistance programs for sociology majors, an unpaid acting gig for theatre majors and unpaid web design jobs for computer majors.