<p>Hey! I'm a sophomore and would really appreciate feedback from other high school students about what ECs you're involved in, how you distribute your time, passions, and volunteering. I am a pretty good student and prepping for the SAT, but need to focus on my passions because I am not too involved at school or in community service and I'm out of ideas. I'm interested in Science particularly genetics, creative writing, animal rights, and environmental issues. I really need insight to help me find organizations that I can devote my time to or projects I can start up on my own. Even if you just want to tell me about what you're involved in that would be great!!</p>
<p>I have 2 main groups of activities I do:
Band (almost all after school) and Gifted programs (all are in school and have after school time and other days things need to be done.
In band I do Marching band (about 24 hours a week for 13 weeks), Jazz band (about 3-4 hours a week for 23 weeks), Pit band (14 hours a week for 4 weeks) Pep band (it’s literally just home basketball games 3 hours a week for 6 weeks), District Bands (honors band 4 day thing hopefully I’ll move on to Regions or States), Practice/self teaching (I doubt I’ll list this but I spend a lot of time practicing my primary instrument and learning others), and Misc. (Honors band Freshman year, Concert band etc.)
In Gifted I do Envirothon (I don’t know how to estimate this I pretty much study in my free time all year until the competition), Odyssey of the Mind (a ton of time since I usually get some time working every day plus actual practices), and Relay for Life (I’ll get hundred or so hours by the end of high school).
I help an Autistic kid all year with school and ‘fitting in’ and plan on tutoring for NHS.
My passion is instrumental music, but my interests are in science and math. I just do it. It isn’t ever terrible because my classes don’t really challenge me except for band (which is just personal challenges anyway). I try to get all of my homework done in school, if it’s not done then I do it as soon as I get home. I’m only starting to study for the SAT this year. I plan on just reviewing concepts and doing some practice problems during down time and then on weekends spend an hour or two working on problem areas.</p>
<p>Enviorthon and Environment camps are fun. Volunteering for a pet hospital or animal shelter could be good for your volunteering. You could organize neighborhood cleanups or start a recycling program (if your school doesn’t have one). Sign up for a lot of clubs you think you are interested in and then go to a few meetings of each and narrow it down to the ones you like the most.
Edit: Wow that’s long, sorry.</p>
<p>2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) are at [How</a> to Be Impressive](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/05/28/the-art-of-activity-innovation-how-to-be-impressive-without-an-impressive-amount-of-work/]How”>The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save</a> This Grind?](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/09/12/case-study-how-could-we-save-this-ridiculously-overloaded-grind/]Save”>Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) While I don’t agree with everything in them, take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.</p>
<p>Thanks, but the thing is how do you get there. How do you land the internship or start a non-profit. Doing those first seems hard, before even expanding them into something more.</p>
<p>bandgeek1 wow, that is a lot of passion for music. What is envirothon?</p>
<p>It is 
[Canon</a> Envirothon](<a href=“http://www.envirothon.org/]Canon”>http://www.envirothon.org/)</p>
<p>It’s an environmental competition that tests your knowledge in Forestry, animals, aquatics, soils, and the learning topic (different every year). You have a team of 5 and usually each member focuses on a topic and in some big areas (animals has a lot of stuff) another team member will help out and learn some parts. The information you have to learn differs state to state (so you learn about the environment around you). At the competition it was a mix of hands on and written questions (learning stations was all written forestry was nearly all hands on). It was really fun.</p>
<p>That does sound fun. Is it a club that competes or what is it?</p>