Using Religious Activities as extracurriculars

Applying to College
1

Hello all! I am in the process of college applications and have been reflecting on my extracurricular involvement. I didn’t really do a whole lot outside of church to be honest, just FBLA (5th place at state), Speech and Debate (varsity member), an exchange program, language classes, and flute lessons. A lot of my involvement was through church however, but I am unsure if I should include these activities all in my applications, but I also don’t want to seem not involved.

  1. I attend an early morning church class where we memorize scriptures and have required readings, which takes up around an hour each weekday during the school year, as well as time dedicated to my additional assignments. By the end of my senior year, I will graduate from this program after doing it all 4 years of high school.
  2. I am president of my youth group, which means I am responsible for planning meetings and mentoring younger church members with tutoring and even babysitting the young children of my church leaders when needed. In addition to this, I’ve also been on several planning committees for church trips/retreats and frequently plan activities for my youth group to do through the summer and school year.
  3. I completed personal progress, a program consisting of 8 self-improvement projects that must take at least 10 hours or more and must correspond with a particular value (ie good works- I completed 10 hours of community service), as well as had 44 additional tasks to complete. I worked on it around 5-10 hours a week and completed it my sophomore year of high school.
  4. As a member of my youth group, I frequently participate in activities and service projects my church implements, however I am not sure how to log this in my common application as they have been all different kinds of projects like packing food for poorer countries, making blankets for the homeless, painting homes for the needy in my community and others as well.
    These don’t really align with my desired International Relations major, however I was significantly involved in them- should I still include them?
    Any thoughts would be much appreciated!
2

I’m not sure what schools you are applying to, but in my opinion those are very valid activities. They show a committment that you followed through on for a continued period of time, leadership, and service. Just because they are through church and not through school doesn’t make them less valuable.

3

Comm service, yes. It could be described just as here. If not enough space, a line in Addl Info. Youth group leader, yes, emphasizing planning, coordination, committees. Just not so much the babysitting.

4

All valuable ECs.

It’s OK that the service projects are among various activities. You can say something like 100+ service hours for Youth group activities including packing food for poorer countries, making blankets for the homeless, painting homes for the needy in my community, etc. Many scouts groups or service organizations do the same and offer their services to a multiple number of organizations.