Some background in case anyone asks: I'm a CA community college student majoring in history as I said, thinking of going to law school (or alternatively teaching if that doesn't pan out; in any case grad school is a consideration for me). I've been at community college three years now due to extenuating circumstances hitting me unexpectedly the final semester of my second year- setting me back another full year; once again now that I'm on the cusp of transferring there's a problem with course requirements, so despite a strong GPA and being accepted everywhere I've applied so far, it seems I'll have to stay another year as schools like UCLA and Cal don't take spring transfers and aren't lenient on letting you fulfill general ed courses over summer.

Obviously very disappointed to have to wait a fourth year at community college so I'm determined to at least do something worthwhile and make myself a stronger candidate next time around. I've foolishly not taken professors who've been impressed with me up on their offers of counsel, but I definitely will now. Before I start asking around the history dept at my school however, I thought I'd shoot the question to AskHistorians; is it possible for just anyone to submit work to a peer reviewed or academic journal for publishing? If so, how would I go about this, what is the process like, which publications should I look to, etc.? What else might I be able to do to pad my resume as a history major specifically this year and make the extended wait worthwhile? (At the moment I volunteer whenever I can at a local 'boutique' history museum/cultural center and plan on applying to another, in addition to the obvious charitable type extra curriculars I do as well).

Edit: I did read the rules but sorry if the question is in some way inappropriate for the sub, thought it would be fine in the spirit of this one which gained a lot of traction; https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/31max0/i_recently_changed_my_major_to_history_in_small/