Leadership Opportunities?
Hello there,
I have a great predicament. My school has a writing center where upperclassmen (Juniors and Seniors) can read lowerclassmen papers/writing and give them feedback. I always wanted to join, however, I recently learned that the application cycle for next year has passed me by. I am definitely going to apply as a senior, but I was wondering which other opportunities I could participate in to make myself look like more of a leader to colleges. Some of the options I was thinking of are as follows:
1. writing a blog
I don't know exactly what writing a blog entails, but I was thinking maybe I could make it centered around my interest in medicine/psychology. However, I think this might be a bit of a bet, as there is absolutely no guarantee that anyone will see it/it will be successful.
2. Working in my dad's office over the summer
My dad is a doctor, and has his own practice. I was thinking that, due to the prevalence of advice saying that students hoping to go into medicine should volunteer at hospitals, this would look good on my applications. The only downside is that I hope to apply as a psych major, and my dad is a dermatologist.
3. Publishing papers (possibly in a journal of some sort) but more likely through a website geared towards students
I'm definitely going to do this over the upcoming summer, but I'm not really sure if it makes me look like a "leader"
4. Working in a family friend's lab
This one is tentative, for sure, as I have not reached out to the owner of the lab recently, and I am not sure if he will accept high schoolers in his lab. I would, however, love to participate in this.
Those are all of my ideas for the moment, but any further ideas would be very appreciated. It would be amazing if you could give me feedback on which or even all of these activities I should pursue to become more of a leader for my college applications. Thank you, and have a wonderful day!
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2 answers
hello!
i think that anything with an application process (or any standards for who it lets in) should generally be prioritized. it will show colleges that you are a valuable asset. also, anything that you start up yourself will put you in a leadership position.
publishing papers is a good idea! it shows that you are taking initiative and want to put your knowledge out there. being published by someone other than yourself is an achievement, so i would go for this over option 1. however, a blog may be easier to get readers on, since you can basically do as you please. you could promote the blog on any social media accounts that you have. even if no one sees it, a sizeable blog with quality writing is still a very useful thing to have as an extracurricular.
for options 2 and 4, i would encourage you to do #4 if you can. it seems to align more closely with your planned major. however, option #2 is not a weak option at all, and i think it would still look good on college applications even though the topics do not align. if nothing else, you could use it as a topic for an essay.
good luck!
So this is just my opinion and so if anyone disagrees feel free to downvote.
First, you need to be able to explain what you are doing is leadership. While I feel that these activities are certainly good and all, none of them really relate to leadership besides blog writing and your writing center thing. What you should try to do for leadership is either start a new club or organization or you can try to apply for a position in a club or your student government. You can also try to organize a group of students and try to work with a faculty member to change something about your school which shows the initiative aspect of leadership. There are also probably plenty of programs around your area that allows high schoolers to apply to learn how to make social reform and stuff.
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