Hello! I’m a high school sophomore and I plan on majoring in English or Comparative literature. I am currently on the board of my school’s literary magazine, but I’m having a hard time finding other humanities related EC’s. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Scholastic Writing Awards, publication of writing, tutoring. Quiz Bowl teams are often desperate for kids with strong literature knowledge. Writing for school paper. NaNoWriMo. My kid’s school had a creative writing club one kid was in. The other started a book club with the help of the school librarians. Work in a library or museum.
It really depends on your personal interests and talents, and what opportunities are available in your school and community (or, create your own).
Here are some suggestions:
Foreign language/cultural clubs; film clubs/film festivals; theatre groups; music groups; book arts; writing for other publications; school newspaper; literacy groups; teaching English to non-English speakers; book clubs; writers’ groups; poetry readings; speech: oral Interpretation; arts festivals/book festivals; volunteer at museums, libraries, arts organizations
If you look at my “Chance Me” thread from a while back, pretty much all of my extracurriculars are tied into being a potential English major. IMO, I found working for online international youth lit journals was my niche, whereas school publications didn’t really work out (because of time restraints & clashes with the supervisor). Scholastic Writing Awards, as noted above, is a huge competition, and having a national award from them nicely complements an English major. Others include YoungArts and Foyle, though I don’t have experience with either.
On my Common App, I listed the international mag I’m the EIC of, three lit journals (in two slots) where I have management/editorial positions, creative writing (hourly # of weeks writing + publications), being a classroom assistant for a nonprofit urban creative writing workshop, an internship with a state poetry organization, writing for political publications & being the president of my school’s NEHS. (I also did debate + stuff with arts/museums/education, which all goes with humanities interests but isnt strictly related to being an English major.) I only recently heard about National History Day, and I really wish I had learned about it sooner so I could have participated. I’m not sure if I will include these in my Additional Info, but writing activities I didn’t list in my extracurriculars include being a Youth Poet Ambassador for my city (LA, NYC, Houston, Portland & so many other major cities have this program), a fiction mentor for a teen writing mentorship, a mentee in a high-profile (free) mentorship program, and doing two writing programs (one organization that hosts classes & one summer program at a college).
My biggest advice, though, would just be to try out different things and trust your gut. It’s okay not to pursue something for four years if you don’t like it (I dropped newspaper & yearbook, for instance, despite being the writing editor of both), but you ideally want to combine your interest in humanities with concrete, tangible leadership positions. Packaging yourself is key, but one opportunity often leads to many others. Being flexible, open and willing to engage in unique activities is the best way to expand your involvement.
Also keep in mind the following.
–EC activities can be outside of the school as well. You can see if any libraries in your community could use your help or something along those lines.
–Not every activity has to be related to your potential major. Look for things that interest you – it could be community service, sports, theater etc.
I was going to be the outlier, but @happy1 beat me to it!!
Here’s the things about ECs: they should reflect your actual interests. No matter how many ‘literary’ ECs you do, somebody will have done more, so it’s not a competition. If that is truly your only interest- great! go for it. You will have already found most of the suggestions above.
But: HS is a particular time in your life. Do stuff that is there to be done, that looks interestging to you. For a start, you don’t know where you are actually going to end up. You don’t know how those other experiences will affect other choices you make, such as where you go to college / what kind of work & in what environment you choose / what you do when you are not at your day job. B/c even comparative lit professors do more than literary analysis 8 hours a day!