Let Us Help High Schoolers With Extracurriculars During a Pandemic
Picture Credits: Wall Street Journal
In the middle of a global pandemic, how will high school students step up their extracurriculars activities and get through the next years of college prep? Let’s tell you how!
The uncertainty and the confusion of the ongoing COVID-19 have no doubt led to many questions about how college preparation and readiness will look like this year. Apart from maneuvering one too many existential crises, AP course load, and virtual learning, parents are concerned about the future of their children’s applications.
We recently conducted a survey on various Facebook groups dedicated to college prep to discern what concerned parents the most and concluded that extracurriculars were indisputably one of the primary worries in around 3 cases out of 5. Parents are also most interested in impressive extracurricular activities that give back to society, hone transferable skills, and those which involve children exploring their interests. It is now even more crucial for parents to be armed with the relevant information so that they can better facilitate and help their children find the best approach to make their extracurriculars truly stand out.
Here are the best ways in which parents can help prepare children to better engage in impressive extracurricular activities this year!
- Extracurriculars which give back to society
College Vine recommends students make the best use of virtual volunteering opportunities. Volunteer Match remains one of the largest volunteering networks for nonprofits and volunteers to connect as well as collaborate. Students can also discover the social issues they are passionate about and do their part to play. Organizations such as the Borgen Project are encouraging young individuals to reach out to their members of Congress by emailing and sending them letters about key legislation concerning global poverty. Children can also use this time to impart their own talents and skills. Organizations such as Teensgive are recruiting volunteers across the country to help reach and engage with communities on a need-based basis.
2. Extracurriculars with transferable skills
It is crucial to equip children with transferrable skills that they could put to use at college as well as future internships and jobs such as python, coding, web design, among others. Dominic Harvey calls online education platforms as ‘’ modern masterpieces of world literature’’ given the juggernaut it has been in revolutionizing education. Parents can help direct children to online learning platforms such as Edx and Coursera which offer strong foundational courses on some of these topics as well as a Certificate of Completion. These can always be mentioned in college essays and resumes. On the foreign language front, Duolingo and Italki are great ways to begin learning a language from scratch. Italki, for instance, offers students the opportunity to get one on one classes based on their language level.
3. Extracurricular activities with passion and pursuit
Parents can encourage students to curate a list of student clubs at their high school and match their interests and pursuits if they are unsure of what they would like to take up. This would also be a great time for parents to share their own professional wisdom and introduce them to platforms such as Linkedin so that they may begin building their professional links and profiles.
One of the best ways for students to continue to diversify their skills and knowledge base is by engaging in their subjects and areas of interest, During this time, there are a variety of colleges offering Massive open online courses or (MOOCs) which parents can help their children research and look into such as Skilled, Udemy, as well as Academic Earth.
College Counsellor Consultant Susan Chan Shifflett suggests using this time to ‘stand out’ and ‘think out of the box.’ Admission officers are now looking for new and dynamic qualities which can help ascertain a student’s resourcefulness. E-learning platform Myntor is miles ahead in preparing students for both the unpredictability of high school, online learning, and most importantly, extracurriculars. Myntor students pass AP Calculus 5x faster than a traditional school and work on projects like modeling COVID-19, robotic exoskeletons, and heart failure.
Overall, traditional college planning advice may not be able to sustain any longer and help students prepare for the next few years. Parents may still help guide children to pursue immersive, enriching, and impressive extracurriculars that happen during this time by adapting their approach accordingly with the changing times.
Check this out!
Thank you Wendy Kopp, BRIGHT Magazine, Annie Kim, Tiago Forte, Mark Smithers, Renee Hobbs, Jordan J.P., Voices of K12, Marilyn Pryle, Ed.D., Chris James, Online schooling, for their brilliant insights on online learning!
Shivani has written for various platforms about social issues, particularly those concerning gender equality and education. She wrote this article as a part of her writing and research work for Myntor, an e-learning platform that prepares students to tackle the AP Calculus course and develop technical solutions to real-world problems.
