What topic should I pick?Answered
I am applying to Avery prestigious and selective award and it asks me and I quote “Which extracurricular commitment is most important to you and why?”.
The award is for community involvement and I’d easily say my most impressive/important activity is activity x that isn’t super community involved (single person debate) so should I answer the prompt focusing on my most impressive/important extracurricular or most impressive/important extracurricular that has community involvement as a core tenet?
That one would be being a board member of my youth group and organizing a (small) regional zoom call with activities and organizing a carnival that raised a significant amount of money but my debate extracurricular activity clearly dwarfs my board position. What should I write about?
Debate is also the most importantly also. My bad. I was thinking of another essay and swapped important/impressive.
I think you should be honest. You will probably write a better essay about the topic you care more about.
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2 answers
As others have noted, it's best to focus on something for which you have a real passion -- if that's debate, feel free to write on it. Dig into why that activity is important to you, and you're likely to discover lessons that translate to community involvement (a fascination with patterns and optimization, or a drive to improve the world around you, for example). Make sure to touch on what you give to the activity and how you shape it as well as what you take away and what you've learned. This will flesh out the community aspect even in an activity that is ostensibly independent. Best of luck!
I honestly think that you should write about the one that you will sound most passionate about. Even though the youth board member or is about community, if you can't convey through your writing that it is the most important and that you are extremely passionate about it, then it will make for a lackluster essay. For the single person debate activity, if you chose to write about it, focus on the community aspect of it..about how you didn't do it alone. Talk about the preparation it took, the help you got from it, why it is the most important, and how others helped to contribute to that? How did it expand your understanding? Answering questions like that will help it sound less all about you.
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The question asks about what is the most important extracurricular to you so I don't think it needs to be the most impressive. I think the youth group board member position would be the best as it shows both leadership and community engagement.