Does anyone have extra curricular ideas for homeschoolers?
Right now I have
Varsity golf
Boy scouts
International Relations
FBLA
Hospital Volunteers
Trying to start a foundation
Cello ( I also know how to play violin)
Academic decathlon
Avation
I am trying to get an internship with the mayor, I have been going to city council meetings (sometime the only one who goes to them, that is not on the council.
I am also trying to find more volunteer positions, every things is either 40 minutes away( I can’t drive yet), full, or not available. I was thinking about tutoring kids, but most of them have one already. I could wait till I can drive so I can drive into the city, but that isn’t till junior year.
I want to start more clubs like Debate or French club, but my main issue is finding people to join. I can’t even find any at public schools. But, I am going to a more liberal co-op next year so possible, there could be people interested.
I’m a rising senior and my notable extracurriculars thus far:
Year-round volunteering for a local (fairly prestigious) film festival (Started junior year, ongoing)
100+ volunteer hours at my local county clerk’s office that turned into a year long paid internship (Started freshman year, ended junior year)
Member of a local high school competitive programming team (Started junior year, ongoing)
Attended a two week, residential competitive programming camp at a state university this summer (on scholarship!)
Several white collar part-time jobs, with the most notable being as a regular content contributor for a fairly successful online tech/business/gaming website (Started junior year, ongoing)
Served as editor for a local literary magazine aimed at teenagers (Started freshman year, ended sophomore year)
Regularly participate in online programming competitions on websites like Codeforces, Codechef, etc (Started junior year, ongoing)
I say “notable” because those are the main things that I think I could write extensively about if I had to. I have a lot of other miscellaneous stuff (HUNDREDS of hours volunteering at different libraries since I was a freshman, tutoring jobs here and there, member of a few organizations through my virtual school, volunteering for my mom’s non-profit) that I don’t think are as impressive/significant, as well as some more “recreational”, off the books kinds of things (cycling, computer building, creative writing), and also stuff that I did a really long time ago (those other part-time jobs)
If you don’t mind me asking, what grade are you in? I’m guessing rising sophomore based on what you wrote. I think it’s important to note that, especially for homeschoolers, finding extracurricular activites to seriously devote yourself to can take time. I think I’ve done a pretty respectable amount of stuff out of the “classroom”, but a lot of those things took a long time to work up to. For instance, I couldn’t join that programming team until I took APCS, which I wasn’t allowed to take until my junior year. That’s why, if you look at my list, I didn’t do a lot of stuff until my junior year. In my opinion, no one in their right mind would think badly of you if you weren’t able to overcome geographic, financial, or academic obstacles to do something.
Only start a club if that area/subject is what you are truly interested in doing - not to because you think it shows leadership to a college.
My suggestion is to focus on three activities that really interest you and take them as far as you can showing depth, interest, commitment, and longevity. The number of activities is irrelevant - it is the substance in what you do that counts.