Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular Activities

Group of high school girls in soccer uniforms smiling together

How you spend your free time outside of school is one of the factors that colleges and universities consider when evaluating a student’s application for admission. 

Don’t forget that extracurricular activities are not just those that follow the end of a school day, but extracurricular opportunities also exist in summer experiences. 

 

Activities, Clubs & Sports

Learning often occurs outside of the classroom. The key is to find the spaces to get involved that bring you comfort and help you feel whole. That may mean consistently attending social activities at school, it could mean performing in a school play, participating in a favorite sport as part of a team, or learning more about your own, or someone else’s, culture. These options begin to be more apparent in middle school, are available in high school and can often round out your experience while in community college or at a university.

AVID

AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a national program that seeks to prepare all students for college and career readiness. It is a great example of a college preparation program that may exist in your school. Haven’t heard of AVID, ask your counselors if it is offered in your school. If not, ask your counselor or teacher what other college preparation programs are offered in your specific school.

Be A Leader

Be A Leader is also focused on college preparation, but their path focuses on developing student’s leadership skills. Leadership skills often play a critical role in admissions and in seeking scholarships. While Be A Leader may only exist in schools in Central Arizona, this just means that you will have to seek out leadership clubs or opportunities in your own school.

Arizona MESA

MESA stands for Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement. It is a great example of a club that is focused in an academic area. Arizona MESA believes all students can engage and contribute to solutions to STEM problems all around us. Interested in the Arts, Social Sciences or pre-health professions, seek out clubs in your schools or look for opportunities within your community.

Upward Bound

Upward Bound tends to be an afterschool program offered out of community colleges or universities that help students and families plan for college. Upward Bound is one of many TRiO programs that support students, sometime as early as middle school through college, and they can even help students pursue master’s and doctoral degrees. The University of Arizona has an Upward Bound program serving high school students and a Student Support Services Program for university and transfer students.

Leadership

Leadership can be the “next step” after one has achieved involvement. You can show leadership in so many ways. You may be the team captain of your volleyball team. You may decide to get involved in student government within your school. You could organize your friends and lead a food drive that benefits your community. Leadership may not always be the President of the club. Remember that you can begin serving as a club Secretary, taking on treasurer responsibilities or helping in a Vice-President capacity. Some students may choose to exhibit leadership silently focusing on their grades, achieving honors status, and oftentimes being recognized for their academics.

Community Service

Take note of those around you that are helping others. Similarly, university admissions and organizations that grant scholarships take note when students decide to go beyond themselves to give, in some way, to their larger communities. Society used to ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up? Some now ask, “What problem would you like to solve?” Don’t feel like you have to solve anything, it is the act of involvement and contributing to a solution that is truly noble.

Your Family

How might you help those that may be your closest and most sacred community? Tutoring your younger brother in his math class or helping a grandparent with a weekend project, it is the attention that you are giving to those in your home, or extended homes, that matters.

Your School

Taking a weekend to pull weeds at your school or repaint a older school building may seem like hard work, but you are impacting school pride. Your efforts could be felt by a larger group of people - your fellow classmates and the school staff. 

Your Place of Worship

Spirituality can often fuel a person. If this is the case for you, consider serving your church or place of worship.

Your Community

Sometimes we see problems that may seem global and therefore hard to impact. Many of those global challenges can be seen and found in your local community. Consider thinking globally, but seeking to impact locally. Which of these UN Sustainability Goals might you recognize and seek to impact in your own community?

Work Experience

Students may have to work or may choose to work. The fact that the workplace can be the first time that we have to present ourselves as a candidate worthy of the attention and hiring of the employer has direct implications for how we might start to prepare to share our individual journey when we are applying for admission or scholarships.

The work environment provides an environment where employees can decide to go above and beyond. Do this and your employers will surely take note.

Letters of Recommendation

Regardless of the type of extracurricular involvement you engage in, take note of those around you. Might your supervisor at work, your coach on the field, or your club sponsor consider writing you a letter or recommendation?

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