Extracurricular Activities & COVID-19: SOS

Arts activities include theater/drama, music, dance, graphic design, drawing, creative writing, scrapbooking and other creative pursuits.

COVID-19 alternatives this school year for your resume can include:

• Create a self-directed digital scrapbook using Google Slides or a Pinterest board of images and journal notes about your thoughts and experiences. As an alternative, you can create a physical album from items purchased at a local craft store.
• Enroll in a virtual art course offered by your local library or museum, or drama or dance class at your local dance center or theater.
• Take creative writing or drawing courses such as one offered by the Museum of Modern Art for teens.
• Subscribe to a master musician’s YouTube channel and follow along to build musicianship, read music, or play various music pieces. You can continue to practice solo, improve, and plan a Zoom concert with you as star and classmates as featured artists.

If your religious group is virtual, there are likely many opportunities for you to get involved. Many congregants may be unemployed, home stricken, or overwhelmed with balancing work-from-home and homeschool for their kids. Reach out to the leaders of your religious institution and ask how you can help. For example, you can:

• Assist with outreach to spread the word about upcoming member activities or services to those in the local community by email and phone.
• Help with phone bank thank-a-thons to those who donated food or money to help those in need.
• Cook meals and assist with no-contact food delivery of food to senior citizens and the sick.
• If you’re a creative, assist with music, video production, or artwork for virtual services.
• Teach religious beliefs to the younger children in the congregation, or offer to host 1-on-1 virtual tutoring to help with academic subjects.
• Conduct online missionary work or help plan future missionary retreats that require many steps such as fundraising and recruitment, which can start now.

 Many school clubs, such as mathletes, mock trial, debate, key club, sierra club, language clubs, film club, cultural groups, to name a few, may be virtual. Check with the leader of the club to see where group activities are being hosted. Some groups, such as the Red Cross Club, National Honor Society, or Key Club, provide help to chapter leaders on hosting virtual groups using tools such as Facebook Groups or Zoom.

If your school club is not online, you can do something about it. Contact the club’s student leader or teacher sponsor to offer assistance with transitioning the group online. Make the case that maintaining continuity and cohesion, as well as engagement, is vital for the student body personally and academically.

To get inspired, read about how the Key Club is working with students worldwide to take their clubs and volunteer leadership opportunities virtually.

This year, many high schools have canceled fall sports, including football, cross country, soccer, cheerleading, etc. If you’re a highly accomplished athlete, you may be concerned about what this will mean for the recruiting process at your top choice colleges.

But from the pro-level to the college level, sports are on hold. Your best bet will be solo practices, virtual directed practices, practicing with a pod of teammates to your and your parents’ comfort level, and working out and conditioning to keep your skill and physique in its best shape.

Use a fitness journal to track your improvement for your resume and capture achievements on video if you can to help you get recruited later.

Some clubs offered at school have volunteer service components, such as Key Club, Habitat for Humanity, and the Rotary Club. However, your school may not provide these options. Instead, you’ll have to take the initiative and seek out opportunities to volunteer. Here are some options:

• Volunteer Match, to search through a database of opportunities posted by nonprofit organizations looking for volunteers by zip code.
• Points of Light also offers a database of volunteer opportunities for teens and adults. You can search by keyword or zip code.

Unfortunately, many agencies prefer volunteers who are over 18 years old for liability reasons. With the market flooded with teens looking to volunteer with formal organizations, your best bet may be to look hyper-local and in your community. This is good news since this level of community service and civic participation is exactly where colleges want to see you make a difference. Also, the closer an issue, change, and impact is to you, the more likely you will stay involved over the long term. Here are some easy to start, self-directed virtual volunteering opportunities:

• Outreach for your religious institution or a community-based nonprofit organization to recruit youth for services or activity.
• Adopt a highway, such as this program offered in New York State, where volunteers commit to picking up litter, planting flowers and vegetation, and other general maintenance along a stretch of two miles along the section of a state highway, two to four times a year for two years. As long as there is parental involvement, adopters can be as young as 12-years-old in New York. If you’re not in NY, check with your state’s program by conducting a Google search.
• Hosting an online fundraiser for a cause and donating proceeds to the parent nonprofit such as the American Cancer Society (e.g., Zoom dance-a-thon, bake sale, cake auction).
• Coordinating logistics for a local food pantry for food pick up and delivery.
• Calling or writing letters to elderly patients at nursing homes with strict visitor policies.
• Dressing up as a cartoon or silly, fun character and doing drive-by “happy birthday” visits to little kids in your neighborhood.
• Online tutoring for children you know in the neighborhood, of extended family or friends, or members of your religious institution. If you have younger siblings and tutor them in-person, this is considered an activity to colleges on the Common App. 
• Asking your teacher from previous school years or middle school about being a virtual teacher’s assistant for the incoming students.
• Leading Google Classrooms 101 or Zoom workshops for parents and other family members who may struggle with the platform for their children’s home school. I first learned about Zoom from a high school student, who showed me how to use all the features.

In the Common App, for example, paid work is not considered an activity. But it’s still important to colleges as it builds character, responsibility, teamwork, and problem solving. If you’d like to work, speak with your parents about their comfort level. Grocery stores and fast food restaurants, known to be friendly to high school students, are still hiring as the demand for food increases.

To get a paid job, you’ll need to check with places that are hiring to complete an application. Also, to stand out, you’ll need a resume. If you do not have one, download this resume template to get started.

If you’re a parent reading, you’ll need to help your teen take initiative and build opportunities to get and stay involved in extracurricular activities this school year of COVID-19. Below is a list of basic resources.

Books to Read for Ideas, Motivation, and Inspiration

Empower You: Insights and Tips for Teens, a highly anticipated book written for teens about volunteering and making a difference in their communities.

Chicken Noodle Soup for Teens: 101 Stories of Inspiration and Support for Teens, stories written by teenagers about happy moments, sad moments, and the ups and downs of adolescent life. This was my favorite book series as a high school student and nudged me to get involved in my community. 

Thank You for Coming to My TED Talk: A Teen Guide to Great Public Speaking, for tips on speaking and presenting in front of an audience on Zoom.

Tools to Launch Self-Directed Extracurricular Activities 

Project Binder, to organize notes, flyers, drawings, and materials.

Flash Drives, to store project plans, virtual Zoom backgrounds, e-tools, and materials.

Mini White Board, to display notes for Zoom sessions.

Colorful Dry Erase Markers, to write, draw, and doodle on the white board.

Sketchbook, for writing, drawing, doodling, and painting.

Watercolor Paints, a set of 24 vibrant colors to bring paintings to life.

Water Based Markers, to draw, color, take and display notes.

Glue Sticks

Construction Paper

Washi Tape

Journal to Track Progress and Hours

Academic Planner, for 2021-2022 school year to track school assignments and extracurricular experience.

Extracurricular Activity Planner, printable PDF worksheet to track activity and hours for the semester.