Recently a student we know stumbled upon a website designed to teach coding and thought it sounded interesting. Before deciding to dive into the project full force, he posed this question to us “what are the benefits of doing it?”
Many students have this question while trying to evaluate extracurriculars during high school, always looking for the perfect scenario to include on their applications. This particular student has a strong interest in math and science, so it made sense to search around and find opportunities to explore in those fields.
Our response to him was simple—“many possibilities can happen if you give it a try”–
- You could learn how to do coding
- You could learn that you love coding
- You could learn that you hate coding! (so you don’t waste time in college pursuing something you despise)
- You could benefit non-profit organizations with your skills if you decide to volunteer to help them with your newly found talent
- You could end up with an interesting experience that might be worthy of a college essay topic
None of it is guaranteed—all of it is possible.
As we always say with all extracurriculars, try it out and see how you like it. If it appeals to you and you have time to work on it, keep working on it! If you find it uninteresting or unfulfilling, then let it go and move onto something else. Busy high school students only have so much time in the day, so it’s important to use your time wisely with the things you enjoy exploring.
Is there a magic formula for pursuing the “perfect” extracurriculars? No way! Search around, find opportunities that sound intriguing and try them out. It’s that approach that develops students into interesting, active, thinking individuals. And that is precisely what colleges are looking for!
