I’m currently halfway through my freshman year in high school. I’ve been thinking about wanting to aim for an Ivy League, with plans set for my stats, however I’m mainly worried about my extracurriculars. Currently, I have no extracurriculars, and I haven’t developed any major hobbies even before high school that are worth putting more time into.
Are there any suggestions which can provide guidance for me setting a path for what I can put my time into?
Hey there @ssuyy!
There's plenty of time for you to start working on building your extracurricular resume. Here are a few suggestions of things I do as a freshman:
1. Join a club at your school. Chances are, there's already a club at your school for a topic that you're interested in, whether that be STEM or art or chess or baking. Join a club that interests you as soon as possible and try to stick with it for the rest of high school and potentially even get a leadership role in that club. Currently I'm a member of LitMag serving as an editor for the school's literary magazine and a member of Mock Trial.
2. Student council/government. While it's too late to become a class officer this year, try running for a position on next year's council. I'm currently the secretary of the freshman class, which has proved to be a great experience in leadership, responsibility, and planning.
3. If you like music, join a choir, band, or orchestra, audition for a musical or play in your school/community, or take lessons in an instrument. I'm heavily involved with performing arts at my school and I think that they are a great way to meet new people, broaden your comfort zone, and try new things.
4. I play no sports (other than one season of intramural tennis to get my sports credit so I can graduate), but I do dance competitively. If you are interested in a sport, join a school team or a local club team. Sports teams often have leadership positions, like manager, captain, etc. that could show your strong leadership skills to colleges.
5. Look for leadership opportunities or local competitions in your area. My state, for example, has a Youth Environmental Summit, an entrepreneurial competition, a STEM contest, writing and art awards, and Math League just to name a few. Submit work for a few competitions each year in high school, especially as you get closer to senior year, when you can start looking for scholarships and such as well. You can also look into HOBY, which is a youth leadership organization that has programs for all high schoolers. I'm attending a HOBY CLeW (Community Leadership Workshop) later this spring. You should also get a few service hours in your community or join a scout program that has built in service hours.
These are just a few of many ideas, a lot of which can be specified to fit a certain career path. I hope this helped you out a little and I wish you the best of luck!
Hi! I am also halfway through my freshman year and I had that same dillema as you do, I know this may not be the information you want to hear (I thought that too) but it helped me alot. Think to yourself what you could see yourself doing out of all the things you have done such as hobbies or even things from the past you have done and enjoyed, put what you love into something that could be turned into a profession :) For me it was this one interior design game I played constantly through out middle school and now it is something I feel like would be something to grow and learn and love it even more.
I hope this helps, if I didn't welp I tried lmao
have a good night :)
welp now looking at the other peoples answers I am feeling so small lmao
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