<p>I want to improve my extracurriculars, but I need ideas. Here's what I have now:</p>
<p>-Varsity Crew (4 years)
-Student Congress - elected chair of community service committee
-Started a small international non-profit (<a href="http://www.amigosdelapintada.org),it's%5B/url%5D">www.amigosdelapintada.org),it's</a> a work in progress
-Model UN (4 yrs)
-Math Team (3 yrs, my team placed 3rd in state last year)
-Spanish Honor Society (I do tutoring)
-Mu Alpha Theta (I do tutoring)
-Ski Club (3 yrs)
-Volunteer at local hospital 4hrs/week</p>
<p>I helped build a library in Panama on a AFS trip two summers ago, so the nonprofit works with the community that I was in.</p>
<p>There's a chance I might be captain of the crew team next year, but we elect captains and with 70 kids on the team, anything could happen.</p>
<p>I really want to get research experience, but not sure how to go about doing that. Anyone know how to go about that? I live near Uconn if that helps.</p>
<p>You can start reading online science journals (I presume you mean science research). Take note of articles or subjects of particular interest to you. Find which authors seem to have a fairly large and well-crafted output of research in that area. Read their other articles. Then email a few of them (articles almost always have contact emails for authors), tell them where you live, your age, and discuss your interest in their work and field for a brief paragraph or so. Ask if their lab is willing to have a student researcher next summer, or if not, if they know of any others. Thank them for their time and let them know you look forward to hearing back from them.</p>
<p>A fair number of researchers think themselves too important and won’t even dignify you with a response, but you’d never want to work with them, anyway. So see if anyone responds and go from there.</p>
<p>OR… you can find a research program. Just Google something along the lines of “summer research programs for high schoolers” and look through what comes up. Personally, I and many of my friends wanted to work directly under a researcher, not as part of a structured program, so we chose the first option. But it’s up to you.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Do you think this would work with professors…there are a few universities within striking distance of my house. I applied to the Texas tech program, but I get the impression it’s pretty competitive…the others are way too expensive.</p>
<p>Just email professors, in the end it’s free and it’s possible that you will learn more with them.</p>
<p>A great number of the people who publish research are actually professors, so it applies to both. But if a professor has never published any research at all, you probably shouldn’t do research with them. So, if you have specific professors in mind, do the same things, but start by searching directly for articles in which they are the author or co-author.</p>