<p>Okay so I stumbled across this program called Adelante Youth Center..it's right down the street from my school. I go to a Catholic High School that charges tuition. Now this program says they give full high school scholarships (that cover the whole tuition) to students who volunteer/tutor young, immigrant kids at the Center from 2:30-6 every weekday after school. This would be great financially and it would be a very interesting EC. But.....I'm worried that I might not have time to do other ec's and it will limit my time on my homework a lot. So...do you guys think the program sounds worthwhile or should I just volunteer at other places on a more flexible schedule. Thanks.</p>
<p>bump .</p>
<p>Wow. That'd be amazing to be a part of that program.</p>
<p>I would do it. How many hours worth of homework do you usually do now?</p>
<p>umm...3-3.5ish hrs of homework this year..but it'll be a lot more next year most likely.</p>
<p>Bumppp! please i need advice guys.</p>
<p>The only reason that I can imagine not taking advantage of that would be if you literally hate kids and also have no need of scholarship money now or in the future. (This also would mean that you know that it will be easy for your parents to pay for educating you at your first choice college).</p>
<p>While doing the tutoring would probably keep you from doing most other ECs, it would not only be an impressive EC to colleges, but also it would teach you a lot about yourself and about life in general. You'd have the opportunity to meet and solve various challenges, and you'd be contributing to other young people's development, which is very fulfilling. You also would be able to get an excellent reference from whomever your supervisor would be, and that reference would be based on detailed knowledge about your character. Such references can help students get into college and get various scholarships and jobs.</p>
<p>In terms of the hours that tutoring would take, from what I have seen, top students who get into the very top universities, put that much time into their various ECs, so if you are smart and organized, doing the tutoring should not bring your grades down.</p>
<p>From another thread that you posted, I see you're looking for a new hobby that would impress colleges. If you took this tutoring opportunity seriously and even did things like organize Thanksgiving food drives and Christmas gift drives and other activities for the kids and their families, you'd have an extremely impressive EC and, for that matter, hobby: helping others.</p>
<p>I see from another of your posts that your family is economically struggling. In that case, I don't even know why you're asking the questions about what new hobbies you should take up and whether you should take on this tutoring experience that would give you a scholarship to your high school. </p>
<p>If your family has financial problems, your priority needs to be to help them including getting whatever jobs you can. That means even working 60 hours a week over the summer at fast food or whatever you can find and that your state law allows people your age to work.</p>
<p>If a student works because their family has economic problems, admissions officers view that very favorably because doing so demonstrates unselfishness, maturity, responsibility and good organizational skills.
However, impressing adcoms is not the main reason that students who come from struggling families work and do whatever they can to reduce their family's expenses: The students work because they love their families and wish to help them.</p>
<p>Yeah...well see i was trying to be careful in my wording. We're not in the bad shape..we can usually afford the tuition, rent, and live comfortably..just in the past few months money's been tight but thats usually how it is in the summer. Also, i already have a job (one day a week is all they give me) and im not old enough to work fast food or most jobs for that matter...just grocery store. I love my family obviously. But my main concern is if i'll have the time to handle my courseload and other activities(model un, etc.) im still considering but thanks so much for your input it helped a lot. i just need to....think.</p>
<p>I also suggest that you go talk to the Youth Center as soon as possible. Find out about their center and find out what kinds of academic and other problems the kids are having. Spend some real time there talking to administrators, students, staff, parents.</p>
<p>If you find yourself interested in helping out, see if you can start tutoring or doing other things to help this summer. Presumably you have free time since you only work one day a week.</p>
<p>Make some concrete suggestions of some things you could do: Tutor in specific subjects; run a discussion group to help kids with their difficulties fitting in with American peers; play games with the kids to teach them American sports, etc. My guess is that the center would welcome this kind of help, and you could be a great role model for the kids.</p>
<p>You also could see if the center would allow you to count these hours toward the time you'd need to earn the scholarship. For instance, if you work 3 days a week there for most of this summer, they might be happy to have you only tutor 3 days a week during the school year, and still receive the scholarship.</p>
<p>This would give you time to pursue other ECs during the school year. By also creating a special program for the kids over the summer,you'll also demonstrate leadership and commitment to helping others, and you'll learn a lot about leadership, working with people, difficulties immigrants have, etc. You will have to solve some inevitable problems, which will also teach you a lot and may lead to an interesting college essay.</p>
<p>Since you're interested in Model UN, perhaps during the school year, you could create some kind of project between the Model UN chapter and the immigrant kids. Anyway, use your imagination. Seems to me that the tutoring opportunity is a golden one that if you're creative and motivated could offer great benefits to you and the kids whom you'd serve.</p>