Extracurricular activities play a significant role in someone’s school experience, allowing them to explore new interests and meet new people. These activities also allow you to have a well-balanced lifestyle, whether you participate in sports, clubs, or any other sort of activity.
These activities also play a large role in developing, as they allow you to find and understand your strengths and weaknesses. One of the biggest and most widespread extracurricular activities is sports, particularly in school.
Truckee High is one of those schools that offers 20 different sports, with most having both Varsity and Junior Varsity teams. This means that even if someone isn’t accustomed to traditional high school sports like football and basketball, there are other, less widely accessible sports that the school offers.
Notable ones of these include cross country, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, and snowboarding. This gives students the opportunity to explore new sports or continue their athletic journey even if they don’t play traditional sports.
“I like the team and being able to get out and cheer, plus it helps build my confidence from being in front of crowds,” said Sophie Simonds, a cheerleader at Truckee High.
Clubs are another key extracurricular activity as they allow students who aren’t interested in sports to also participate. Truckee offers 35 different clubs covering topics all the way from Model UN to foreign languages. Not only are these clubs easily accessible through events like club rush, but they also provide students with educational opportunities they might not gain from any of their traditional classes.
In addition to this, some clubs work alongside classes offered at Truckee High, a key example being Journalism. The journalism program at Truckee High is offered through various different levels. These classes allow students to gain knowledge on journalistic writing and reporting, further building on this with the following classes.
Journalism 2 notably builds upon the skills you gained in Journalism 1, allowing you to apply them to real-world reporting and writing, which is facilitated through the club and is also how we run this very website.
Having clubs and classes work together can help students get involved even more, and allows them to gain essential skills necessary for life and even possibly their career. This ties into another important aspect of extracurricular activities and how they can help you even after you graduate high school.
It has been shown that extracurricular activities can help increase your chances in college, particularly if you choose one and stick with it throughout your years in high school. These even continue on into your working life, as extracurricular activities can help you advance in your career.
“Adding extracurriculars to a resume can help show an employer that you are skilled and well-rounded,” According to Coursera, an online course provider. “By highlighting skills and character traits you’ve picked up that might transfer to a job, extracurriculars can also make up for a lack of work experience.”
Coursera also highlights in their article how participating in extracurricular activities can build the necessary skills you will need in the workplace, such as communication skills and even connections. These are all things you can gain from simply becoming involved in something new and exploring things you wouldn’t have otherwise.
This goes to show how important it is to become involved in extracurricular activities, since they not only affect your well-being but also help out with things in the future. Overall, whether you’re an avid sports fan or a good writer, there is something out there for everyone, and it just takes time to find it.
