The Value of Extracurriculars, Navigating Your High School Student

By Christina Dalton, MS, PPS, PCC, EYH Life Coach

Itis June! Congratulations on another school year completed. If you are like most parents, you are working on navigating your child’s future. Summertime is a fabulous time of year to take the opportunity to build your child’s portfolio with extracurricular activities that are meaningful and fully develop your child’s passions.

Being in California, if your child wishes to take advantage of the competitive public school institutions that your taxes have been paying for, the University of California system and the California State University system, you are more than likely aware that testing is no longer part of the application process. What this means is that your child’s grade point average, their choice of rigor in classes, and their extracurriculars become very important aspects of the application process. The extracurricular activities not only build your child’s portfolio to demonstrate the commitment to a well rounded résumé, but also the depth they want to experience and achieve in what they are interested in doing.

Your child’s commitment to their activities is critical and showcases your child’s character. The activities can include sports, summer research, volunteer work, job shadowing, and even a paid position that demonstrates your child’s work ethic. What colleges do not want to see is a surface area commitment, where your child just explores different activities and does not delve deep into any one thing. For instance, if your child’s passion is music, what is your child doing to highlight this talent? Is your child playing in a community orchestra group, participating in the school band, traveling for competitions? Has your child received any recognition to demonstrate the commitment to music?

The extracurricular activities, combined with a strong grade point average, and for the UC’s, powerful writing directed to 5 of the 8 essay prompts, can set your child apart from other applicants. This portion of the application highlights your child’s ability to commit, to persevere, and to be resilient in achieving and completing their activities. If you are unsure how to navigate your child’s portfolio and résumé, I look forward to you reaching out to me, principal of EYH Life Coach. We partner with clients to empower their best self. Meeting with EYH Life Coach may make the difference between acceptance and denial in the application process. I look forward to hearing from you.

Christina Dalton is the Principal of EYH Life Coach. She applies her own personal and career transitions along with several degrees and credentials to provide insight and knowledge into the coaching experience. Christina handpicks her staff, all of whom are ICF credentialed and have unique experiences to create invaluable coaching sessions.