The Extra-Curricular Debate

Leadership position? Check. Service hours? Check. Varsity sport? Check. No time to sleep, brush your hair and inability to stop spewing random SAT vocab words? Check. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you are probably an overworked high school student looking to succeed in the growingly-competitive college race. Join the club. Actually, don’t.

Extra-curriculars are the best part of high school- they are a chance to explore your interests, make new friends and show the world how you can achieve outside of the academic world. To colleges, extra-curriculars are a reflection of your personality and what you can bring to their campus. Because of this, an increasing number of students are feeling pressure about which activities to take part in.

Here’s a few activities colleges will look for when reviewing your extra-curriculars:

1. Service or Community Outreach Programs: At UHS we have Green Tigers, Student Senate, Social Justice, Key Club and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

2. Athletics: At UHS we have a wide variety of athletics. Check out the UHS athletics page for a complete list: http://www.athletics2000.com/Urbana/.

3. The Arts: Drama, Art Club, Loophole, Band and Orchestra are great activities to join to express your creative side.

4. Publications: The Rosemary (yearbook), Loophole (Literary Arts Magazine) and The Echo (you are here) are UHS’s three publications and they’re a great chance to showcase your writing skills while staying involved in school activities.

While it’s important to be involved, please, UHS students, don’t overdo it. Join a club or team because you want to- not because you’re trying to impress a board of strangers with your “perfect” resume. Adding more things to worry about in your already stressful life won’t help anyone.  In a world where 85 percent of young people experience stress regularly (statistic found in a survey conducted by the Associated Press and MTV in 2007), it’s important to keep your priorities in mind.  Choosing an extra-curricular activity that you’re passionate about and you have fun with will be more impressive than a list of clubs and sports that you only joined for college applications.  Save yourself the stress- choose activities you love and can balance along with your schoolwork.

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Mandy Facer

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