how to make a resume of extracurricular activities

How to Add Extracurricular Activities to Your Resume—So They Actually Help Your Job Search

When you’re writing a resume, your education and past jobs are far from the only things that matter. The truth is, the past experiences and skills that employers care about can come from a number of places. And particularly when you’re a current student or an entry-level candidate , extracurricular activities can be a great addition to your resume.

Extracurriculars are any structured, ongoing activity you took part in during school, but not as an academic requirement. They are often (but not always) affiliated with or run by the school you attended. And your participation in these activities (especially in a leadership role) can set you up to succeed in your future jobs.

When You Should List Extracurriculars on a Resume

According to Muse career coach and founder of Flourish Careers Jennifer Smith , who has recruited, coached, and hired early-career candidates across a number of industries and jobs, there are two main situations when you should include extracurriculars on your resume:

• When you’re a current student or recent graduate and the extracurricular (or your role in the organization) showcases leadership or is specifically relevant to the job or industry you’re applying to
• When you’re a current student or recent graduate and you don’t have a lot of internship or paid work experience

Once you’re more than five years past graduation, your extracurriculars probably don’t belong on your resume anymore—unless they’re especially relevant to the industry or role you’re applying to and you don’t have more recent, relevant experience, Smith says. This would most likely come up if you’re looking to make a career change or pivot.

Why You Should List Extracurriculars on a Resume

Early in your career, particularly when you don’t have much or any professional experience, employers want to see that you have transferable skills . These are abilities and knowledge that can be applied in multiple contexts—for instance, both an extracurricular activity and an office environment. In other words, extracurriculars can prove you’re a great candidate for a job even if you haven’t already held a similar—or any!—job.

If you held a leadership position within an extracurricular—whether you were the president of a student group, programming chair for your sorority chapter, or treasurer for your intramural sports club—that experience is especially valuable on an early-career resume. Smith, who used to lead a team that hired university students for internships and entry-level jobs, has often seen companies seek out students who had led clubs and societies, knowing they would bring valuable traits and transferable skills to the workplace.

For example, if you ran large club meetings, you likely have some communication and presentation skills. Or maybe you were responsible for advertising or outreach and you gained some marketing skills. These roles also show that you’ve taken on responsibilities—a core requirement for any job.

If you didn’t hold an official position in an activity, but you were in charge of an event, campaign, or some other aspect of the organization’s management, that can also go on your resume as relevant experience. Maybe you designed the club’s website and want to get a design role, or you put together a charity event and want to go into fundraising.

Even without a formal or informal leadership role within your extracurricular, you still likely picked up some transferable skills, such as teamwork and collaboration, organizational skills, time management, communication, and project management, Smith says. If you were a highly active member, especially over a longer period of time, this shows dedication and work ethic as well.

Your extracurricular activity might also show that you are passionate about the industry you’re trying to join and may be more knowledgeable and prepared than your peers. “For example, a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) who is applying for an entry-level engineering role” should include that membership on their resume, Smith says, as evidence that you’ve put time into preparing for this career path, possibly attending industry conferences or taking part in other career development activities.

What Types of Extracurriculars Can Go on a Resume (Examples)

Not sure what type of extracurriculars might go on your resume? Here are some examples to get you started:

• Academic clubs or societies related to a specific discipline (for example, the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA))
• Arts organizations (such as a drama club, marching band, or a cappella group)
• Community and civic activities (for example, Students for Environmental Action)
• Greek life (as long as your sorority or fraternity hasn’t been in trouble for inappropriate behavior)
• Media or publications (such as the student newspaper or campus radio station)
• Multicultural organizations (such as a Black student association, Muslim student group, or Pride group)
• Political groups (but use your discretion here—if it’s especially controversial or you know the company you’re applying to holds opposing views, these activities might be best left off)
• Sports teams
• Student government
• Volunteer activities or organizations (such as Habitat for Humanity)
• Other clubs (even if you joined a group “just for fun” you might’ve still picked up skills doing it!)

Which Extracurriculars Belong on Your Resume

Before deciding to add extracurriculars to your resume, identify the skills you need for the job you want, Smith says. You can do this by reviewing the job description or setting up an informational interview with someone who works in a role or industry you want to work in—or even at the specific company you have your eye on. For each application, take into account the company you’re applying to, as well. What values do they have? Are they all about teamwork? Do they value creativity? Do they want people who will take initiative to solve any problems they spot?

Then think about what you’ve done in your extracurriculars and what skills and qualities you developed or demonstrated. “Pinpoint the skills [you gained] that will serve you best in your new path,” Smith says. These skills, the circumstances in which you used them, and extracurriculars attached are what belong on your resume.

Let’s say you want to go into sales. The juggling skills you gained from three years of Circus Club might not be very helpful in landing your first full-time job, but the time you sold 50 tickets to the “Circus Skills Expo”—more than anyone else—might catch a recruiter’s eye.

Similarly, if you played a sport, the number of goals you scored probably matters less to a prospective employer than how well you work with a team, the time management skills you gained balancing your practice schedule with classes and studying, or your work ethic—unless you’re going into a sports-related role.

Doing some research on the specific companies you’re applying to can help you highlight the right aspects of your extracurricular experiences. For instance, Smith says, “I often saw big-name companies specifically seek out student athletes because they know the competitive spirit will be a good fit with their company.”

Where to List Your Extracurriculars on a Resume

Where your extracurriculars go on your resume depends on what your role and scope of responsibility was in the organization, how relevant it is to the job you want, and whether you have other work experience to include on your resume, Smith says.

These are three common options:

• Your experience section: An extracurricular belongs in your experience section when you either had responsibilities and a time commitment similar to that of a part- or full-time job, or when your achievements showcase skills and experience that are directly relevant to the role you’re applying to. A stage manager for a drama ensemble play might spend 20+ hours a week coordinating multiple teams and making sure everything needed is ready by opening night. Or perhaps a video editor for a film club edited multiple student films using the same or similar software and technical skills to the ones that the content creation role they’re applying for uses.
• Your education section: Smith suggests including an extracurricular within your education section when you had minor responsibilities but it’s related to the industry you want to work in. For example, maybe you were a member of a business honor society and want to work in finance.
• A dedicated section: If you have multiple extracurriculars that are relevant to the job you’re applying for, you might consider including an “Extracurricular Activities” section to highlight them a bit more than your education section might. Or a “Leadership Experience” section might be appropriate for someone who held leadership positions in multiple organizations, Smith says.

How to List Your Extracurriculars on a Resume

Regardless of where you choose to list your extracurriculars, you should generally include the name of the organization, your role within it (“member” or any positions held), and the dates you participated. Particularly when you want to use your extracurriculars to demonstrate your skills and experiences, you should also include major responsibilities, accomplishments, or any awards won in the form of bullet points .

How would this look in practice? In your experience section or within a dedicated section, an extracurricular activity entry can be listed just like a job or internship. In this example, the person wants to demonstrate leadership and management skills as well as their ability to adapt to changing circumstances:

Vice President , Young Educators of America at Duke University | Fall 2019–Spring 2020 Chapter Secretary, Fall 2018–Spring 2019 Member, Fall 2016–Spring 2018

• Ran twice-weekly tutoring program with an average of 30 tutors and 80 local high school students, advertising program at three area schools, booking rooms, matching students with tutors for appropriate subjects ahead of time, overseeing sessions, managing conflicts, and collecting feedback on tutor performance
• Pivoted program to operate entirely online during COVID-19 pandemic, adjusting tutoring practices for remote sessions and increasing session availability to help students struggling with remote learning

Even without a leadership position, you still want to show what you did as a member with strong, quantified bullet points that highlight the skills you want an employer to see. A college musician who wants to highlight their time-management and teamwork skills might say something like:

Member , Lehigh University Jazz Ensemble | 2017–2020

• Attended two-hour practices four times weekly and played up to eight shows a month on campus and across the state
• Organized weekly rehearsals for 10-person trumpet section to help one another with new pieces, give feedback on individual performances, and identify any problems with our group’s playing

Within your education section, an extracurricular could be a single bullet point that might look like this:

Bachelor of Science in Mathematics | University of Connecticut | 2015–2019 Major Track: Applied Mathematics

• Member of Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society | 2017–2019 : Participated in weekly meetings, listened to monthly talks by researchers, and attended national conferences to learn more about new mathematical theories and speak with applied mathematics professionals

Top Extracurricular Activities to Add to Your Resume (Samples)

Customers Interviewed by:

When you’re a new grad entering the workforce, extracurricular activities on your resume can help you stand out to hiring managers. But what types of activities should you include?

In this article, you’ll learn:

• The best types of extracurricular activities to include in your resume writing . 
• How activities can add value to your resume.
• Where to add your extracurricular activities on your resume for maximum impact. 

The best extracurricular activities for a resume

Extracurriculars are any activities that aren’t required for your college credit. Depending on the jobs you’re applying for, certain activities will look more appealing to hiring managers.

Some of the most popular activities to add to your resume include:

• Student council
• Clubs or societies
• Volunteering
• Study abroad programs
• Additional languages
• Sororities or fraternities

Your role in extracurriculars can help you build transferable skills . These are skills you take with you from job to job. Transferable skills on your resume can make you a stronger candidate in your job search. 

Use Jobscan’s resume scanner to ensure your resume includes the transferable skills you need to secure the interview. Below is a screenshot of the match report generated by our tool. It illustrates exactly which keywords from the job description you need to integrate to be competitive.

Resume activities: student council or union

Members of a student council or students’ union are often elected by their peers. They collaborate on student-led initiatives, address school issues affecting students, and organize school activities or events. 

If you take part in student council, you develop some essential soft skills, including:

• Communication
• Problem-solving
• Organization
• Decision making
• Time management

Participation in student council builds practical skills you can relate to your post grad job hunt. 

Resume activities: team sports

Playing team sports isn’t just a fun hobby. Sports can help you grow valuable skills you need in any workplace, including:

• Strategic thinking
• Problem solving

Even if you don’t play on a competitive team, recreational sports helps you establish key transferable skills to add to your resume.

Resume activities: clubs or societies

There’s a club for almost any interest. And if they help you cultivate transferable skills, they can enhance your resume. 

Examples of popular clubs include:

• School newspaper
• Choir or chorus
• Orchestra, jazz band, or concert band
• Girl or boy scouts
• Debate club
• Mock trial club
• Literature club
• Photography club

Clubs are a great place to build a network and hone skills like:

• Relationship building
• Creative thinking
• Adaptability

Resume activities: volunteering

Volunteering positions are like unpaid jobs. You gain practical experience you can add to your resume with desirable skills to back it up.

Helping out your community has the added benefit of boosting your resume. You can volunteer your time to organizations that match your interests and are relevant to your dream job.

Skills you show by volunteering include:

• Customer service

Don’t add every activity you’ve participated in. Instead, be strategic and choose the activities that can help in the role you’re applying for. 

Resume activities: tutoring

Helping a peer or younger student learn tough concepts can help you build desirable skills for your resume. Some skills include:

• Flexibility
• Active listening

A proven ability to mentor others is a valuable skill and can stand out to hiring managers. This is especially true if you’re looking for a teaching or management role. 

Resume activities: study abroad experience

If you have the opportunity to study abroad, it can be life changing. You make friends, see new places, and experience unique cultures. 

It also lets you develop unique skills that attract potential employers, including:

• Cultural awareness and sensitivity
• Independence
• Foreign languages
• Interpersonal skills

Resume activities: additional languages

Bilingualism or multilingualism is becoming more common. But even if you’re not fluent, speaking a second language can improve your starting salary in some industries.

Some of the most common and valuable languages to learn include:

Even less common languages, like American Sign Language, shows skills like:

• Cultural awareness
• interpersonal skills

Resume activities: sorority or fraternity

Sororities and fraternities are social organizations that can broaden your network. Experiences in a sorority or fraternity vary, but members often participate in:

• Regular meetings
• Philanthropic activities
• Special events

These organizations help you develop skills like:

• Project management

Why should you add extracurricular activities to your resume?

Extracurricular activities on your resume, when added correctly, can make your resume stronger. The key is to use your activities to highlight important resume skills relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Skills are either hard or soft. Hard skills are specific skills you need to do a particular job. Soft skills are transferable skills that you can develop and use in any job. 

Extracurricular skills for your ATS resume

All job descriptions are full of skills that hiring managers want in a candidate. Those skills determine whether your resume will reach the hiring manager at all.

When you apply for a job, your resume goes into the applicant tracking system , or ATS. It acts as an internal search engine for the hiring manager.

They can search for specific keywords and the ATS will parse resumes for those terms. It then pulls out the strongest resumes for the hiring manager. It’s crucial to include the right keywords to get your resume in front of the hiring team.

Here’s a sample job description with keywords and soft skills underlined. These are among some of the critical skills you should add to your resume when applying for this job. Extracurriculars can help you hone them.

Never forget to include keywords again with Jobscan’s resume scanner to support you. The match report will give you a resume score to measure the strength of your resume and show you which keywords are missing. It’ll also catch any formatting issues that will affect your resume’s readability by the ATS.

Take it further and make your resume optimization easier with Jobscan’s premium Power Edit . It will show you which skills you’re missing and also provide suggestions on how to integrate them into your resume.

Below is an image of the match report generated for transferable skills or soft skills . The highlighted skills need to be added to the resume to increase your chances of the hiring manager finding your resume.

Extracurricular activities can be a great way to integrate skills and keywords into your resume.

How to put extracurricular activities on resume

You can incorporate your extracurricular activities in your resume in a few different ways.

• In your work experience section.
• In your volunteer section.
• In your education section.
• In an achievements or awards section.
• In your interests or extracurriculars section.

How to add activities to your work experience

For new grads, work experience can be a short section. But you can add volunteer positions in your work experience section if they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for. Highlight the skills you used in your volunteer role to draw connections to the proficiencies the hiring manager will be searching for. 

Sample resume extracurricular activities: work experience section

Below is an example of how to add volunteer extracurricular activities to your resume. Achievements are quantified and skills are integrated into the summary.

How to add activities to your volunteer section

Your volunteer section can show off your skills while keeping it separate from paid work experience. Format the dates and position descriptions in the same layout and emphasize the skills that helped you excel in your position. 

Sample resume extracurricular activities: volunteer section

This volunteer experience section highlights the soft skills gained in the role, from collaboration to creative thinking.

How to add activities to your education section

When your extracurricular activities are related to school, adding them to your education section makes sense. Add details to include clubs and organizations, and the skills you developed while there. 

Sample resume extracurricular activities: education section

Below is an example of extracurricular activities in the resume under the education section. The sorority is affiliated with the school, so keeping it with your education maintains organization. The summary demonstrates transferable skills like organization and planning.

Another example of extracurriculars in the education section includes a student-run news organization on campus. Including the role and the skills developed can help illustrate experience when work history is limited.

How to add activities to your achievements and awards

If your extracurricular activities earned you recognition, an achievements section can highlight it. When you excel at your activities, you’re demonstrating to the hiring manager that your skill set is exceptional. 

Sample resume extracurricular activities: achievements or awards section

Below is an example of adding an extracurricular to an awards section of your resume. Not only does this example have the achievement listed, but it includes a summary of the skills they used to win the award.

How to add activities to their own section

Another option is to include your extracurriculars in their own section of interests and activities. This can be the place to include activities that don’t quite fit into other resume sections. A a separate heading can organize the resume layout . 

Sample resume extracurricular activities: interests or activities section

In this example, the extracurricular activity has its own resume subheading. While it’s not affiliated to education, volunteering, or awards, it can still demonstrate valuable soft skills employers seek, like teamwork.

Tips for including activities on your resume

Here are some quick tips to including activities on your resume.

The activities on your resume should be relevant to the job

You may have varied interests and pastimes you enjoy, but they don’t all have a place on your resume. Keep the activities hyper relevant to the job description you’re applying for. Otherwise, the overflow of information can distract from the valuable information you include. 

Include details about the activity in your resume for credibility

Try to be as specific as possible about your volunteer roles, participation in official organizations, and achievements. Details can provide credibility to your experience and skills.

Take advantage of soft skills gained from activities

Soft skills are not less valuable than hard skills. Many hiring managers see the value of soft skills. They’re increasingly seeking candidates who prove those skills.

Wherever you’re putting your soft skills in your resume, leverage the ones that align with the job description. 

To ensure your resume is as strong as possible, use Jobscan’s resume scanner tool to generate a match report. This report can tell you what key skills you’re missing from your resume and your overall resume match score. It will also detect any parts of your resume that aren’t ATS-friendly.

Make your resume stand out and get noticed

Upload your resume to see what’s missing and get a free match rate.

View full results and optimize your resume

When your extracurricular activities highlight relevant skills to the job, hiring managers take notice. If you include irrelevant activities, your resume can look overcrowded and take attention away from critical skills.

Extracurriculars can help develop skills you need to make your resume stand out to recruiters and hiring managers. If you lack practical work experience or your activities developed critical skills you’d need for your new role, adding resume activities can benefit your job application.

Activities for your resume come in a range of types to suit every interest and ability. Some of the most common include: • Student council • Sports • Clubs or societies • Volunteering • Tutoring • Study abroad programs • Additional languages • Sororities or fraternities

Hobbies can count as extracurricular activities as long as you can demonstrate valuable skills relevant to your the job description you’re applying for.

You won’t be punished for not including extracurricular activities on your resume. It’s an extra way to incorporate skills and keywords to your resume, but it’s not essential. You can also develop skills from other jobs, your education, and certifications.

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Kelsey is a Content Writer with a background in content creation, bouncing between industries to educate readers everywhere.

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How To List Extracurricular Activites on Your Resume

Everything you ever wanted to know about how to include extracurricular activities on your resume — and whether it’s a good idea in the first place.

2 years ago   •   10 min read

Getting a job isn’t like getting into college — Hiring managers generally don’t care about your extracurricular activities. So why even bother including them on your resume?

Extracurricular activities can be a good way of showcasing your abilities when you don’t have a lot of work experience — in particular, if you’re still a student or have only just graduated. In that case, recruiters can look to your extracurriculars for evidence of transferable skills like leadership , teamwork , communication , and work ethic . This doesn’t mean that extracurricular activities are a substitute for relevant experience, but they’re a great place to start.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to determine if extracurricular activities are a good addition to your resume, which ones to include to show competitive transferable skills, and how to tailor your extracurricular activities to your particular industry and career level.

Should you put extracurricular activities on your resume?

Before we delve into how to showcase extracurricular activities, let’s decide if they’re the right fit for your resume.You should list extracurricular activities on your resume if:

• You’re a current student or recent graduate seeking an entry-level position.
• You don’t have a lot of paid work experience .
• It was through a prestigious or recognizable organization, like a law review or official charity.
• They demonstrate relevant transferable skills or noteworthy accomplishments that are relevant to the job you’re applying for.

You should not list extracurricular activities on your resume if:

• You have enough paid work experience to showcase the same skills.
• The activity is more than 5+ years old.
• You’re applying for a senior position (with exceptions).
• It was a one-time activity rather than a regular, ongoing thing.

You can consider listing extracurricular activities on your resume if:

• You’re changing careers and want to include skills that are relevant to your new field.
• Your extracurricular activities are highly relevant or especially noteworthy.
• Your extracurricular activity includes a board membership or a similar position of leadership.

In these cases, you should still prioritize relevant paid work experience but can include extracurricular activities if there’s space on your resume. If you’re not sure if extracurricular activities are helping or harming your resume, upload it for free to Score My Resume , an online resume checker that will provide instant and detailed feedback on how to improve your resume.

How to list extracurricular activities on your resume

There are three ways to best showcase extracurricular activities on your resume: In a separate ‘Activities’ section, in your ‘Education’ section, and in an ‘Additional’ section at the end of your resume.

Generally, in any of these sections, you should list your activities in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent. However, if older activities are more relevant to the job you're applying for, it's ok to list them first. For instance, a leadership role you had in college might be more relevant to a managerial position than more recent but less relevant activities.

In an activities section

If you were heavily involved in extracurricular activities and want to showcase that, it’s okay to have a whole section of your resume dedicated to it. Title it ‘Activities’ and include the name of the organization, the dates you were involved, your role or title, and 1-2 of your most relevant accomplishments. When deciding what to put under ‘Activities’ on your resume, consider activities that showcase your skills, interests, and professional experise.

For example:

In your education section

If your extracurricular activities were school clubs, they can go in the education section of your resume. For current students, your education section might be the most detailed section of your resume and can go at the top. You can also include other information like your major and relevant minor(s) , awards, relevant coursework, study abroad, and GPA.

If you’re a mid-level hire who graduated less than 10 years ago, you can still include extracurricular activities on your resume if they’re relevant and particularly noteworthy. In that case, you should keep it brief by listing extracurriculars on a single line in a short education section at the end of your resume, as shown in the example below.

If you don’t have a lot of work experience, you should aim to show transferable and soft skills that hiring managers and recruiters look for in your extracurricular activities. To find out if your bullet points are strong enough and have no mistakes, upload your resume to the tool below — it'll perform a quick scan and let you know if your extracurricular experiences can be improved.

In a volunteering section

If your extracurricular activities doubled as volunteer work, you can create a separate ‘Volunteering’ section on your resume. List each project or activity separately, including the dates you worked on it, and include 1-2 bullet points outlining your main accomplishments.For example:

In an additional section

If you want to include extracurricular activities on your resume without taking up a lot of space, consider including them in an additional section at the end of your resume. Include a subheading like ‘Activities’ and keep it to a single line, as shown in this resume example:

Optional resume section titles for extracurricular activities

Using appropriate section titles helps improve the readability of your resume and makes it easier for a recruiter to pick out the most useful information. Here are some additional resume section titles you can use when listing extracurricular activities:

• Extracurricular: Use this title if you have a broad range of activities outside of your academic or professional work that are relevant to your application.
• Activities: Use this title if your extracurriculars demonstrate a wide range of skills, including clubs, sports, or other group activities.
• Leadership : Choose this title when you want to emphasize leadership roles, such as president of a club or captain of a sports team. This is particularly effective if you’re applying for roles where leadership is a priority.
• Other: This title can be used to gather various parts of your resume that don’t fit into standard categories, such as extracurriculars, certificates, affiliations, etc.

Sample resume showing extracurricular experience

Here’s a good example of a resume for a student or recent graduate that showcases extracurricular activities, providing you with activities examples that easily fit into a high-performing resume:

How to highlight transferable skills through extracurricular activities

When considering what extracurricular activities to include on your resume, focus on those that demonstrate transferable skills, leadership, teamwork, or community involvement. Good activities to put on a resume can range from sports teams and clubs to volunteer work and personal projects.

Identify key transferable skills

Extracurricular activities are a great way to showcase both hard and soft skills in a professional setting. Consider the activity you took part in and identify if you can showcase any of the soft skills listed below:

• Leadership: Showcasing roles where you led a team or project.
• Teamwork: Demonstrating collaboration and collective problem-solving.
• Digital literacy: Showcasing your competence with digital tools and technology.
• Communication: Highlighting roles that required effective verbal or written communication.
• Organization: Managing events or projects efficiently.
• Problem-solving: Demonstrating your ability to identify challenges and come up with productive solutions.
• Innovation: Showing your ability to think outside the box.
• Time management: Highlighting your ability to juggle multiple responsibilities.
• Adaptability: Showing your ability to thrive in changing environments and adjust to new challenges.
• Conflict resolution: Demonstrating your skill in resolving disagreements and conflicts.
• Project management: Showcasing your ability to plan, execute, and oversee projects from start to finish.
• Analytical thinking: Showing your ability to analyze information, identify trends, and make informed decisions.

If you want to find relevant skills for the job you’re applying for, use our hard skills and keywords tool below to search for the job, and it’ll give you a list of skills relevant to the position.

Quantify your achievements

Once you have chosen an activity that showcases your desired skill, quantify your achievements with numbers and metrics . This gives a recruiter tangible proof of your skills while also explaining why your experience is relevant to the job you’re applying for. For example, if you were involved in fundraising, specify the amount raised, or if you led a team, specify the size of the team.

Organized a charity event that raised $5,000 for environmental conservation.

Led a 15-member team to organize a college debate, attracting over 300 participants.

Use action verbs to create power phrases

Start your resume bullet points with a strong action verb , followed by a quantified metric, and end each phrase showing the positive result of your work. This formula creates eye-catching power phrases that succinctly demonstrate your skills.

Coordinated a team of 10 volunteers, leading to a 20% increase in fundraiser efficiency.

Designed and implemented a new marketing strategy for a college event, resulting in a 30% higher attendance than in previous years.

Tailor your examples to the job description

To make your extracurricular activities relevant to each application, tailor the examples you use to align with the job description. Identify key skills or responsibilities mentioned in the job description and choose extracurricular examples that best demonstrate these skills or qualities.

For instance, if the job requires strong leadership skills , highlight a time you led a team or project in your extracurricular activities.

Led a team of 20 volunteers in organizing the annual campus charity event, raising over $10,000.

Organized and directed a student-run theater production, coordinating a cast and crew of 30 people.

Align your examples with employer cultural and ethical values

When selecting which extracurriculars to highlight on your resume, consider the cultural and ethical values of the organizations you're applying to. Research each company’s history and their involvement in community and global initiatives. This will help you choose activities that resonate with their company structure and values as a whole.

For example, if a company prioritizes sustainability, describe your involvement in environmental clubs or eco-friendly initiatives. If a company values innovation and creativity, highlight your participation in tech projects or creative competitions.

What extracurricular activities to include on your resume based on your experience level

Not sure if your extracurricular activities belong on your resume? Here are some extracurricular activities that add value to your resume at every experience level.

Current students and recent graduates

For high school students and recent graduates, extracurricular activities are a major asset. On a high school activities resume, include sports, leadership roles, and any volunteer activities you’ve been involved in, such as:

• Foreign language activities — particularly study abroad
• Sports teams
• Performing arts
• Student government
• Fundraising
• Official clubs

Determining where to put clubs on a resume depends on how relevant they are to the job you’re applying for. If they are highly relevant, they can be included in the main 'Experience' section. Otherwise, they can be listed under an 'Activities' or 'Extracurricular' section.

For mid-career professionals, extracurricular activities should demonstrate continued personal growth. Include activities that highlight your leadership skills, industry involvement, or community engagement, such as:

• Volunteer work
• Publications
• Business venture and other projects — if these are significant enough, you might even want to consider including them in your regular work experience section.

Senior level

For senior-level professionals, the focus should be on activities that showcase strategic leadership and industry influence. Highlight roles that reflect your expertise and contributions at a higher level, including:

• Board memberships
• Consultancy
• Speaking engagements
• Business ventures
• High level of leadership

Tailoring extracurricular activities to your particular industry

Tailoring your extracurricular activities to the specific industry you're applying to is an important part of ensuring your resume stays relevant and impactful for each application. Below are examples of extracurricular activities that align well with different industry sectors:

Technology and IT:

• Coding clubs that demonstrate technical skills and proficiency with specific tools.
• Tech-focused volunteer work that showcases skills such as AI, machine learning, and web development.
• Personal tech projects, such as creating your own apps, websites, or software projects.

Led a team in a university hackathon, developing a mobile app that won second place for innovative use of AI in healthcare.

Finance and business:

• Leadership roles in investment clubs or business associations.
• Organizing fundraising events or managing budgets for student organizations.

As President of the campus Investment Club, grew membership by 40% and consistently outperformed market benchmarks in mock portfolios.

Education and academia:

• Tutoring or mentoring roles, showcasing teaching and coaching abilities.
• Involvement in educational clubs or academic competitions.

Tutored 30+ high school students in math and science, achieving an average student improvement rate of 25% in test scores.

Creative arts and design:

• Participation in arts clubs, creative writing courses, or performing arts groups.
• Contributions to campus publications, blogs, or design contests.
• Personal creative projects, such as films, photography, portfolio design, and art exhibitions.

Organized a campus art exhibit featuring 30+ student works, attracting over 300 attendees and promoting local artists.

Marketing and communications:

• Leading or participating in marketing or advertising clubs.
• Managing social media or publicity for student organizations or events.

Directed social media campaigns for the Campus Music Festival, increasing online engagement by 50% over previous years.

• Involvement in mock trial competitions or law student associations.
• Volunteering for legal aid societies or related community service.

Active member of the University Mock Trial team, reaching national finals and winning first place in our category.

Hospitality and tourism:

• Leadership roles in event planning or hospitality-related student organizations.
• Volunteering at local tourism events or cultural festivals.

Coordinated a local food festival, managing over 20 vendors and logistics, drawing an attendance of 5,000+ people.

Using extracurricular activities to help a career change

Extracurricular activities can be especially helpful when changing careers. When you’re moving to a new industry or field, your direct work experience may not align perfectly with your new career path. This is where extracurricular activities come into play, helping bridge the gap in your professional experience by showcasing relevant skills and interests in your new field.

• Focus on activities that demonstrate relevant skills to your new field. For example, leadership roles in community organizations can translate well into managerial positions in various sectors.
• If you're moving into a field that requires new technical skills, extracurricular activities like attending workshops, online courses, or certifications can demonstrate your commitment to learning and adapting.
• Demonstrate commitment to your new sector by showing involvement in industry-related groups. For example, someone transitioning to a career in environmental science might highlight their active role in conservation projects or environmental clubs.

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The Power of Extracurricular Activities on Your Resume

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Though this quote has its roots in proverbs written centuries ago, it is still relevant to the recruiters of today who want to see a resume with extracurricular activities .

Why? Participation in extracurricular activities can go a long way toward showing companies that a candidate possesses skills in leadership, teamwork , loyalty, communication, and collaboration.

Captain of your college softball team? President of a student club? Volunteering at your local food bank? These are activities that reflect the development and application of job-related skills that could directly relate to the position you are pursuing if you include them when writing your resume.

In this post, we will outline what activities you might consider listing , why you should list them, how you should format them , and what to leave off.

Remember, if you use our resume builder , putting your sections together in the right order with the right information is that bit easier too!

Why Add Extracurricular Activities to Your Resume

While adding a list of extracurricular activities is sometimes best suited for a student or graduate resume , where job experience may be and often is lacking, it is also helpful for those with an adequate work history. 

What’s more, adding different types of extracurricular activities to your resume demonstrates that you have built new skills in addition to those developed on the job . This presents you as a well-rounded individual, the kind that many companies will be interested in hiring.

In 2021, CoursesOnline General Manager Sarah-Jane McQueen told Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a global leader in higher education networking, “Certain skills and ways of operating can be learned but various traits can only be forged through life experiences, so don’t be afraid of fully embracing who you are. Remember, employers want to hire real people, not interchangeable drones .”

In other words, a recruiter sees a good list of extracurriculars and envisions a potential employee who brings an enthusiasm to learn new things , a healthy interest in diverse subjects , and the ability to multitask.

Finally, having extracurricular activities to discuss is beneficial for job interviews as well. Your experience in extracurriculars provides you with a well of details you can draw on to answer interview questions such as “Describe a time when you worked successfully in a team”, “What is your greatest accomplishment ?” or “What is the professional achievement you are most proud of?”

Take any opportunity to volunteer, join an academic club, or become a member of a professional association, and add that detail to your resume especially if you lack work experience. According to a 2018 study published by the Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, participating in one or more extracurricular activity can increase employability.

What Types of Extracurriculars Can Go on a Resume?

Basically, almost any activity outside of work that has helped to build skills in various areas, such as leadership or communication , you can and should add to a resume.

To illustrate what we mean, here are some examples of extracurricular activities you might want to add to your resume:

• Student council/clubs
• Sports involvement
• Student newspapers
• Volunteering
• Civic activities
• Philanthropic activities
• Club memberships
• Foreign language studies
• Fundraising activities
• Freelance projects
• Work-study program
• Study abroad program
• Student government involvement

In any case, you don’t necessarily need to have assumed a leadership role in any of these activities. Simply fitting these activities into your schedule displays organizational, time management , collaboration, teamwork , and interpersonal skills.

What Skills C an You Demonstrate Through Extracurricular Activities

Employers might see involvement in extracurricular activities as having been a way to develop soft skills needed for the position they are offering. Some particular extracurriculars that employers might look for and the skills these activities build include:

• Student associations: organizational and teamwork skills
• Study abroad: communication skills; learning a foreign language
• Volunteering: collaboration and leadership skills
• Freelance project development: decision-making and creative skills

What A ctivities Do Not Count As Extracurricular?

On the other hand, any task directly related to your college studies , such as writing a research paper or heading a specific student project, would not be extracurricular.

However, if your research paper was published or you led a team to complete an assigned project, you might list those in the Education section following your degree earned and school attended.

There is no need to add details such as leading a school project assignment if you have an extensive work history that demonstrates leadership.

How and Where To Put Extracurricular Activities on Resume

Now that you know what to include when it comes to a resume with extracurricular activities, exactly how do you list them? 

By and large, you can add your extracurriculars under a heading titled Extracurricular Activities following your Work History section.

Let’s see some examples. First, here is an example that lacks some details.

• Member, National Honor Society
• Vice-President, Student Council
• Third baseman, Thomas Edison High School Varsity team

The best format when listing your extracurricular activities on your resume is to:

• Firstly, name the organization
• Secondly, list your position
• Then, add the dates you served in this organization
• Lastly, add the location of the organization

Let’s see it done right.

• Student Council, Vice-President, University of Wisconsin, 10/2021 – 12/2022
• National Honor Society, President, Walter Grove High School, 2020 – 2021
• Member,  Walter Grove High School Varsity Baseball team, third baseman, co-captain 2019 – 2020

Finally, you could also use a bullet list for each entry that details your responsibilities and gives examples of which skills you developed and how you used them.

To sum up our advice with a visual example, here are extracurricular activities for a resume that provide details in each entry:

President/Member

Student Council, University of Wisconsin, 10/2021 – 12/2022

• Served as President, January 2022 – June 2022
• Ran weekly general assembly meetings
• Created and implemented council budget
• Coordinated fundraising events, exceeded fundraising goals by 30%

National Honor Society, Walter Grove High School, October 2018 – May 2021

• Elected President February 2020
• Oversaw team to promote activities and schedule events
• Conducted monthly meetings
• Maintained 4.0 GPA for all three years to remain eligible for membership

Varsity Baseball Player

Walter Grove High School, 2019 – 2021

• Played primarily third base, relief pitcher
• Elected co-captain, 2020
• Assisted in leading team to state semifinals, 20120
• Voted Most Improved Player, 2019

Check out which skills an employer looks for in the particular position you are persuing by researching the company , then, when possible, highlight those extracurricular activities.

Your Resume Format Might Affect Where You List Your Extracurricular Activities

Remember, not all resumes look the same. These days some candidates and recruiters prefer skills-based resumes, while others stick to the tried and tested reverse-chronological format which focuses more on work history.

• If you are creating a functional resume that focuses more on skills than experience, put the extracurricular activities section before your work history. 
• In a reverse chronological resume format , put the list of extracurriculars after your work history.

Whenever you’re unsure about how to put together your resume or how to format your document, you can always try out our free online resume builder . 

Our resume examples are also a great way to guide you through the resume writing process for different industries and work sectors.

When Not To List Extracurriculars on Your Resume

Some suggest that extracurriculars can be left off of a resume if there is ample job experience listed. While this may be true, the exception would be if an extracurricular activity or two directly relates to your profession. 

In that case, it could demonstrate your passion for the type of work or industry, show that you have built additional skills pertinent to the position, and let potential employers know that you are highly prepared for the responsibilities associated with the job they are offering.

Don’t Make a Hobby of Adding Hobbies As Extracurricular Activities

It’s important to remember that hobbies are not necessarily the same thing as extracurricular activities. For resume or college application purposes, the reason for listing these activities is to show that you have developed a skill set beyond your past work positions or academic studies.

A hobby doesn’t necessarily help you build usable skills. For example, if you enjoy fishing, there is nothing wrong with that, but standing on a riverbank or pier with a fishing rod does little to develop communication, leadership, or other desirable skills that you can apply in your academic or professional life.

Nevertheless, hobbies and interests can sometimes become extracurricular activities . You might love exercising so much that you’ve become a fitness instructor and manage an exercise program for a fitness club, or you enjoy painting and have become an art instructor at a local community college or community center .

These would certainly be details you could include in an extracurricular activities section of your resume.

No Extracurricular Activities? No Worries!

As you can see, listing extracurricular activities on your resume has several positive effects, but does this mean that having no extracurriculars dooms your resume and hurts any chance of landing the job you are seeking?

Of course not.  

There are other sections you can add to your resume to help you stand out if you lack extracurricular activities. Professional certifications , memberships in professional associations , publications , awards , and projects you’ve worked on are details you can add.

Key Points To Remember

To summarize the above, when you are a student or graduate looking for your first role within a professional work environment, listing extracurricular activities on your resume can boost your application. In short, you can demonstrate the skills you have not yet had the chance to prove in a job. 

Remember these important tips when adding these activities to your resume:

• Include activities that demonstrate your abilities in teamwork, communication, leadership, problem-solving , and handling responsibility.
• Don’t add your academic work or hobbies in this section , these belong in the education or hobbies and interests section of your resume.
• List the organization , your position , dates , and the location for each entry.
• Expand these entries with more detail in bullet points to prove your skills if there is space on your resume.
• Remember that where these activities are placed might be different for different resume formats.

If you are unsure about how to structure your resume, check out one of our many examples. These include many student examples and modern templates . If you follow our tips and use our samples for inspiration , you should be lining up the job interviews in no time!

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195+ Best Extracurricular Activities to Try Out [in 2024]

Extracurricular activities come with a number of benefits for high school and college students alike. 

As a high school student, extracurricular activities can enrich your college application and help you stand out from other applicants. 

As a university student, on the other hand, extracurricular activities can help you gain real-life skills and make your resume more impressive, helping you land your first job after college.

In this article we’ll cover everything there is to know about extracurricular activities that can help you better shape your future, including:

• What Are Extracurricular Activities? 
• 95+ Extracurricular Activities You Can Try

How to List Extracurricular Activities on a Resume

Benefits of extracurricular activities.

Let’s dive in!

What Are Extracurricular Activities?

• Extracurricular activities refer to any kind of activity not covered by a school, college, or university curriculum. They are usually voluntary, social, or philanthropic activities that involve other participants of the same age. 

Most students take up extracurricular activities to engage in a particular hobby (e.g. drama club if you’re into theater), to develop certain skills (e.g. public speaking club if you want to become more charismatic), or to gain specific experiences (e.g. marketing club to learn how to work in a team). 

However, extracurricular activities are much more than just hobbies. Studies have shown they are particularly important for teenagers and young adults because they help: 

• Develop a stronger mind. Extracurricular activities can help teens and young adults develop their brains in different ways than an academic curriculum. A student who does sports, for example, will learn resilience in the face of intense physical and mental difficulty.
• Learn professional skills. Different extracurricular activities can train students in different professional skills (e.g. student government can teach you leadership and delegation, debate club can teach you public speaking, and so on).
• Create a wider social circle. Extracurricular activities allow youths to meet other people their age that share similar interests.
• Learn time management . Balancing schoolwork with extracurricular activities can help students manage their time better, which is a highly-valuable skill later in life.
• Explore new interests. Extracurricular activities are how teenagers and young adults can identify their non-academic interests and explore other potential career paths.

That said, picking the right extracurricular activity can be a bit challenging. There are hundreds of extracurricular activities out there and, chances are, you don’t have the time or energy to try them all out and see what sticks.

To help you out, we’ve covered the most popular extracurricular activities below, organized into categories to make it easier to find the right choice for you:   

13 Types of Extracurricular Activities

#1. academic.

Academic activities are based on an academic subject and include clubs and competitive teams. 

Academic clubs discuss and practice a specific subject, whereas competitive teams usually participate in competitions on all levels, from local to national. 

• Architecture Club
• Astronomy Club
• Biology Club
• Chemistry Club
• Economics Club
• Electronics Club
• Engineering Club
• English Club
• Distributive Education Clubs of America
• History Club
• Life Sciences Club
• Literature Club
• Literary Magazine Club
• National Honor Society
• Peer Tutoring
• Poetry Club
• Physics Club
• Psychology Club
• Quill and Scroll
• Robotics Club
• Science National Honors Society
• Trivia and Quiz Clubs
• Web design/coding club
• Writing Club

Competitive Teams 

• Academic Decathlon
• Academic Triathlon
• American Mathematics Competitions
• American Regions Math League
• Caribou Mathematics Competition
• Chemistry Olympiad
• Clean Tech Competition
• Creative Communication Poetry Contest
• EconChallenge
• FIRST Robotics Competition
• High School Innovation Challenge
• Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
• Kids Philosophy Slam
• Math League
• National Academic Quiz Tournament
• National French Contest
• National History Bee
• National Spelling Bee
• Odyssey of the Mind
• Poetry Out Loud
• Questions Unlimited
• Science Bowl
• Science Olympiad

You can never know your artistic potential unless you practice your art skills extensively and get feedback from other people. These extracurricular activities let you do just that: 

• Anime/Manga Club
• Fashion design
• Graphic Design
• Jewelry Making
• Photography
• High School Theater Program
• Community Theater Program
• Video Game Development Club
• Woodworking

#3. Cultural and Language 

Cultural and language-focused extracurricular activities are some of the best ways to expand your horizon and hone your communication skills . 

On one hand, these types of activities can help you get a feel for different cultures and people. On the other, they are a great way to learn foreign languages, a skill that can definitely come in handy both in your personal and professional life. 

These are some of the most popular cultural and language-related extracurricular activities: 

• African American Student Alliances/Clubs
• American Sign Language Club
• Chinese Club
• French Club
• German Club
• International Food Club
• Pacific Islanders Club
• Russian Club
• South Asian Student Society
• Spanish Club

#4. Community 

These extracurricular activities allow you to get involved with your community.

You can, for example, help a non-government organization clean your neighborhood, bring food to homeless people, organize town festivals, and more.

Such extracurricular activities help you meet people in your community, have a positive impact on your town, and can even improve your college application. 

If you think community-focused activities are something you’d enjoy, give one of these  a try: 

• Community Festivals
• Do Something
• Habitat for Humanity
• Kids Helping Kids
• Mountaineers Club
• Sisters on the Runway

#5. Government and Leadership

Government and leadership activities can be essential in honing your interpersonal and problem-solving skills, as well as teaching you what it takes to make a difference through policy. 

If you’re considering a career in politics or are really passionate about the field, then you should definitely consider one of the following extracurricular activities:

• Community Youth Board
• Student Council
• Student Government
• Community Government
• Peer Leadership Group

Do you dream of becoming a media celebrity? Or, maybe, you’ve always wanted to become an award-winning journalist… 

Whichever the case might be, there are a ton of extracurricular activities you can do to start learning about the media industry, including: 

• School or local magazine/journal
• School or local newspaper
• School or local radio station
• School or local television channel
• School or local website
• Yearbook Committee

#7. Music & Performance Art

Is performing something you've always been passionate about? 

Then these activities are just the right ones for you. They can help you explore the world of performative art, develop your skills, and get a glimpse of what a future career in the field could look like. 

Here are only some of the many options:  

• School Chorus/Choir
• Community Chorus/Choir
• Church Chorus/Choir
• Chamber Music Group
• Concert Band
• Singing Lessons
• Marching Band
• Your own band
• Comedy Club
• Choreography
• Classic Film Club
• Film Production Club
• International Thespian Society
• Slam Poetry Club
• High School Theater Group
• Community Theater Group

#8. Social Activism 

Social activism can touch upon the many issues the world is facing today, like animal rights, women’s rights, pollution, and many more.  

Check your school and community for any of these clubs and organizations that support different social causes:

• Amnesty International
• Animal Rights Club
• Breast Cancer Awareness
• Cancer Foundation
• Environmental Club
• Fair Trade Club
• Gay-Straight Alliance
• Girls Lean International
• NOW —National Organization for Women
• SADD—Students Against Destructive Decisions

#9. Special Interest

Some extracurricular activities don’t fall under any particular category. If you have a special interest in something that you can’t find a local group or school club for, you can simply create one or join a national group. This way, you can meet other members online and attend annual meetups. 

Here are some special interest extracurricular activities you can explore:

• Equestrian Club
• Entrepreneurship Club
• Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA)
• Girl Scouts
• Horticulture Club
• Model Railroads
• Quilt Making

#10. Speech and Political Interest

Do you want to learn more about the intricate ways politics interact with our lives? Or, maybe, you want to eventually become a politician and a skilled orator yourself. 

Well, politics can definitely be practiced, and the following extracurricular activities will give you the chance to do just that: 

• Debate Club
• Euro Challenge
• Foreign Affairs Club
• Forensics Team
• High School Democrats of America
• High School Fed Challenge
• Junior Statesmen of America
• Mock Trial Club
• Model Congress Club
• Model United Nations
• National Speech and Debate Association
• Speech Club
• Teenage Republicans
• Young Democrats of America

#11. Sports 

Nothing can help you hone your determination, work ethic, and team spirit like organized sports activities can. 

There are countless to choose from, but some of the most popular options are:

• Baseball and softball
• Bodybuilding
• Cheerleading
• Climbing Club
• Hiking Club
• Intramural Sports
• Martial Arts
• Ping Pong Club
• Quidditch Clubs
• Skate Board Club
• Track & Field
• Ultimate Frisbee Club
• Yoga Club  

#12. Technology 

Being skilled in tech comes with plenty of advantages. 

If you decide to follow a career in tech, you'll be hired for some of the highest-paying jobs in the market. Even if you don't, having tech skills can come in handy in your personal life or if you ever decide to go for a career change .

Start developing your skills early on by choosing among the following activities (or anything else that might speak to you on a personal level): 

• Personal Web Site
• Social Media
• YouTube Channel

#13. Volunteering Activities  

If you’re looking to make a difference for a cause you’re passionate about, consider volunteering. Not only can volunteering be good for your health , but it also looks great on your resume and college applications: 

• Adopt-a-Highway
• Animal Rescue
• Best Buddies International
• Church Outreach
• Hospital volunteer
• International volunteer program
• Red Cross Club
• UNICEF High School Clubs
• Volunteer Fire Department
• Work with a local charity
• Work with a local soup kitchen

If you see an extracurricular activity you like that your school doesn’t offer, you can try joining a community or an online group to explore your interest further. Alternatively, you can try starting a club yourself - not only it will allow you to do what you’re passionate about, but it will also develop your leadership and initiative skills. 

Are Extracurricular Activities Good For My Resume?

You’ve probably heard that “extracurricular activities are good for your resume.”

If you're wondering how much truth there is in that statement, the answer is a lot!  

Although not as important as your work experience or education history, extracurricular activities can be excellent additions to your resume. 

As a high school or university student or graduate, you probably have next to no work experience. Hence, you might have a big empty spot on your resume where the work experience section should be.

Extracurricular activities are a great way to fill in that gap!

They help by:

• Showcasing specific skills or experiences. If you’re looking for a job in media, for example, having worked for your school's online newspaper will definitely help you stand out.
• Proving that you have experience working in a team. Group extracurricular activities often mirror a typical office environment. You work with a team, brainstorm ideas, organize events, and so on. Hence, by including extracurricular activities in your resume, you’re proving to a potential employer that you’re no stranger to teamwork.

So, make sure to include your extracurricular activities on your resume! 

Here’s an example of how you could potentially include your volunteering experiences on your college resume :

If more than five years have passed since you graduated, you should not include extracurricular activities on your resume even if they’re super impressive.

Your work experience is a much better proof of your skills as a professional than whatever you did back during college or high school. 

6 Best Extracurricular Activities for Your Resume

Some extracurricular activities are more valuable for your resume than others.

This is simply because some activities teach you useful work skills (teamwork, empathy, and interpersonal skills ), while others are simply just a hobby.

Here’s a list of extracurricular activities that are more likely to have an impact on your career: 

• Sports. Doing sports can demonstrate a bunch of soft skills , including dedication, teamwork, and work ethic. 
• Government and leadership. Extracurricular activities like the student council, student government, or Community Youth Board can prove your leadership, organizational, and decision-making skills. 
• Cultural and language. Foreign languages are highly valued by recruiters and showing that you master one and that you’re culture-oriented can effectively set you apart from other candidates. Specifically, these types of extracurricular activities testify to your determination, hard work, and cultural awareness. 
• Volunteering activities . Volunteering activities are the extracurriculars that are closest to an actual job (without the pay, that is). On top of proving you can be passionate about a cause to devote your time to it, volunteer work typically comes with responsibilities and deadlines that can show recruiters you’ll be a reliable employee. 
• Academic. Academic activities such as peer tutoring or participation in different clubs and teams can attest to your communication skills, specific expertise in a particular area, and creative thinking skills, among other things. 
• Political interest and social activism. These types of activities, from fundraising to supporting different social causes locally or nationally, can demonstrate a variety of valuable skills (project management skills, leadership, analytical skills, etc.). 

By now, you know about all the cases when it can be helpful to list extracurricular activities on your resume and which are the ones recruiters prefer. 

But how do you do it the right way? You have 3 options: 

#1. List extracurricular activities in your professional experience section 

If your extracurricular activity had responsibilities and time commitments similar to a part-time or full-time job or if it has helped you acquire skills that are directly related to the position you are applying for, then you can list them under your professional experience . 

Say, for example, that you’re applying for your first job as a journalist and you were an editor for your college newspaper for over two years. 

Chances are, most of your responsibilities and achievements engaging in this extracurricular activity are directly related to your future position (spell-checking and looking for grammatical errors, verifying facts, rewriting articles, brainstorming, etc.). 

In such cases, listing your activities under professional experience is totally acceptable and can work in your favor by highlighting your work-related skills. 

Here’s an example of what that would look like on a resume: 

Professional Experience 

• Editor in Chief of Penn State’s independent newspaper “Daily Collegian” for over two years where I led a team of 13 journalists. 
• Extensively handled duties like spell and grammar checks, fact-checking, editing, etc. 
• Won Pacemaker Award in 2018 for the best online college newspaper.

#2. List extracurricular activities in your education section 

Your second option is to list your extracurricular activities under your education section. 

If you participated in many activities throughout your education, filter them based on how relevant they are to your major and to the position you’re applying for. 

On top of that, take into account what kind of skills the activities effectively highlight. If, for example, you’re applying for a job that requires rigorous work ethic and determination, prioritize listing your sports activities instead of your, say, social activism ones.

Here’s how you should list your extracurriculars in your education section: 

University of Pennsylvania

Master of Education in Counseling and Mental Health Services

2016 - 2018

• Career mentor for the university’s Career Centre

#3. List extracurricular activities as a separate resume section 

Last but not least, you can list your extracurricular activities in a separate resume section. Specifically, you should do so when said activities don’t relate much to your education or your professional orientation, but can add value to your resume. 

Depending on the nature of your activities, you can title the section in a way that makes sense—for example, “Volunteering” if you did a lot of volunteer work, “Projects” if your extracurricular activities consisted of technical activities, “Languages” if you worked hard on learning a foreign language, etc. 

If your extracurricular activities come with some noteworthy accomplishments, you can even list them under “Achievements” - just make sure you can back your claims with some hard facts to convince recruiters. 

Here’s a practical example of what that would look like in a resume: 

Achievements 

• Tutored over 70 students in Statistics and Algebra as a teaching assistant and student counselor, with all of them attaining more than average grades in exams. 
• Helped organize university fundraisers aimed to help science-oriented students from low-income backgrounds attend college. More than half of the fundraisers exceeded donation amounts by 10%-13%.

Different types of extracurricular activities bring different sets of advantages. Sports can develop your teamwork spirit, academic activities can help you grow your expertise in a particular field, and arts can positively influence your communication and creative thinking skills. 

Despite their specifics attributes, all extracurricular activities are shown to have some common benefits for students, including: 

• Cultivating self-esteem and confidence.
• Developing a strong sense of work ethic. 
• Encouraging superior academic and athletic performance.
• Improving a high school student’s college application portfolio. 
• Offering children and youths the opportunity to develop friendships outside of the classroom. 
• Helping children and youth develop emotional intelligence which they also bring inside the classroom. 

FAQ on Extracurricular Activities

Do you still have some questions about extracurricular activities? We try to answer them below: 

How many extracurricular activities are too many?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. This depends on how you manage your time, and how many extracurricular activities you can handle without it affecting your sleep, stress, or school work.

The thing to keep in mind here is that your extracurricular activities should be achievable without being overwhelming. If, for example, your extracurriculars cause you to fall behind with school, then that’s probably already too many of them. On the other hand, if you feel like you have too much free time that you don’t know how to fill up, then taking up a couple of more activities probably wouldn’t hurt. 

Typically, students say three to four activities are achievable, without being overwhelming.

What do colleges look for in extracurricular activities?

Colleges typically search for applicants who can prove they are well-rounded individuals who like to stay engaged outside of the classroom, too. They’re looking to discover what makes you unique beyond your academic performance, starting from your hobbies and interests to your involvement within your community.

So, the extracurricular activities that are most likely to impress colleges are as follows: academic activities, community service and volunteering activities, and activities related to your personality , including sports, hobbies, special interests, etc. 

Do hobbies count as extracurricular activities?

The answer to this depends on the hobby itself.

Most hobbies can qualify as extracurricular activities, especially when you practice them in an organized way or as part of a club or a team. For your hobby to qualify as an extracurricular, you should show that you do it regularly. If you’ve practiced, say, singing once, you can’t list “singing” or “solo music” as an extracurricular activity.

However, if you’ve sand for your school’s choir more than once over a long period of time, then your music hobby can qualify as an extracurricular activity. 

Key Takeaways

And that’s a wrap! By now, you have an extensive list of extracurricular activities to choose from, as well as all the knowledge to use to your advantage when applying for jobs and universities. 

Before you go, here are the main points we covered in this guide: 

• Extracurricular activities can be great additions to your resume, especially if you are a college student or recent graduate without paid work experience, or if they are directly related to the field or position you are applying for. 
• The best extracurricular activities to add to your resume fall under these categories: academic, sports, volunteering, languages, cultural, and political activism. 
• You can list extracurricular activities in your resume by adding them under your professional experience, in your education section, or as a separate resume section.

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How To Use Extracurricular Activities In Your Resume [5 Examples]

Extracurriculars are important not only at the school or college level but help in developing personality traits and skills that help throughout your career.

While developing a resume, we often consider sections like education, summary, skills, and experience but other important sections get missed.

One among such forgotten or ignored sections is the extracurricular activities section. Though it seems trivial to many, it plays an important role in propelling a recruiter's hiring decision.

In this blog post, we decode why you need the extracurricular activities section in your resume and how you can use it to your best benefit.    

Keep reading to know:

• What are extracurricular activities?
• Extracurricular activities vs. co-curricular activities
• Why extracurricular activities help in career
• How to use extracurricular activities in your resume
• Tips to write extracurriculars in your Resume
• List of extracurricular activities for your Resume
• Skills to develop through extracurricular activities

Resume Examples with Extracurricular Activities on Resumod

What Are Extracurricular Activities?

Any activity performed beyond the course curriculum, while you are a student comes under the category of extracurricular. These activities are aimed at building a student’s intellectual, spiritual, social, physical and moral capabilities.

They broadly include engagement in:

• Student clubs
• Sports teams
• Volunteering
• Student government

Extracurricular Activities vs. Co-Curricular Activities

These two terms are often used synonymously, however, they are two different things.

Here are the key differences:

Extracurricular Activities are performed outside the scope of the course curriculum. They are meant to develop skills that are not part of the academic course, therefore usage of the word “extra”.

Co-curricular activities are conducted by the school as a part of the course curriculum, therefore the usage of the word “co”. These activities are performed to complement or aid student learning.

Why Extracurricular Activities Help in Career

The concept of extra-curricular activities is not new, and the inclination towards these is increasing every passing day. Once considered a tool to engage kids, it is now being seen as of crucial importance in both social and personal development.

• Networking: One of the most common reasons for you to engage in activities outside the classroom are developing networks that help you through your lifetime. Networking opens doors for many opportunities that might not be possible otherwise. One added advantage is that, once you learn how to build networks, it is a skill that gives fruit your entire life.
• Personality d evelopment: Your personality cannot be developed in four walls of the classroom. It is through engaging with people from various cultures and doing activities that do not focus on academics, that your true personality comes out. And employers prefer individuals with dynamic personality traits.
• Shaping thought process: Non-academic development plays a big role in developing your understanding of the world, creating perspectives, and developing beliefs, that further leads to developing a thought process. Your thought process decides how you solve problems and look through situations.
• Break the monotony: Who doesn't want a little play in life. These activities help to break the monotony of the usual life and develop creative capabilities. These creative capabilities further complement your daily tasks and help you to better focus on your core job or studies.

• Shows soft skills: Soft skills like communication, time management, empathy, decision making cannot be developed if you keep yourself engaged in course books. Extracurricular activities come in here to develop important life traits that are required besides having adequate knowledge.
• Teaches prioritization : Prioritising tasks and creating balance are underrated life skills. If you learn how to manage academics with your hobbies, it develops skills like prioritisation, time management, and attaining balance. You also learn how to plan your day to include everything and know how to make use of any free time they may have.
• Develop a sense of commitment and responsibility: If you participate in extracurricular activities, it develops a sense of commitment to whatever you are involved in, and this sense of commitment and responsibility extends to all other areas of your lives.
• Working in varied environments: It is through your involvement, outside the classroom, that you are exposed to newer environments. Continued practice to adjust in various environments through extracurriculars paves way for working in newer environments in your career.
• Covers up for no or negligible experience: If you do not have any internships or projects, extracurriculars are your way of showing your ability to work and make use of opportunities. Imagine a resume with nothing and imagine another resume with extracurriculars. Which one do you think the recruiter will pick?

How to Use Extracurricular Activities in Your Resume

Most job seekers create a different section to list down their extracurricular engagements, but that is not the only approach. There are multiple ways to showcase these

• Create a separate section: This is the most common way. Create a special section for the activities and put them in reverse chronological order along with the name of the organisation. Place this section at the bottom, so that your hard skills and job description remain the recruiter’s focus. This approach is most favourable for experienced professionals.
• Add with academics: One of the ways to organise extra-curricular activities, this saves a lot of white space. We suggest all new job seekers or freshers to use this approach. Write your extracurricular engagement alongside each of your academic degrees. It enables an easy glance and conveys that you were actively involved in developing yourself apart from learning through academics.

Tips to Write Extracurricular Activities in your Resume

Yes, extracurricular activities are engagements outside your classroom or workspace, but everything you do outside your professional space cannot be listed in your resume. Your extracurriculars should be improvising or enhancing your skillset.

Follow these tips to understand how to use extracurriculars in your Resume:

• Include only relevant activities: As kids, we’ve all been involved in some or the other activity. But that does not mean that all of it will find a place in your resume. Include activities that are recent, not more than a couple of years old. Ensure that they are helping you perform better in your present role or will help as you grow in your career

Expert Tip:

Can I use activities from my school days in my Resume?

• Focus on quality over quantity: Adding all activities just to fill up space is not a good practice. The Recruiter will make out your intent behind this exercise. Even if you’ve been a very active contributor towards the community or work hard on developing your interest area, pick the best out of them.

What should I do if I have a lot of extracurricular activities to write

• Structure the information well: Plan the extracurricular activity section. Use reverse chronological order and maintain consistency in terms of mention duration, location, description, and organisation you’ve been involved with.

List of Extracurricular Activities for Your Resume

There is no limit to extracurricular activities that you can do alongside your career or university education.

Here is a small list of activities for students, that help in skill development and job seeking. If you haven’t participated in activities yet, here is a list for you to choose from.

• Student Council
• Clubs or Societies
• Sports Teams
• Volunteer Activities/Organization
• (Non-)Academic Competitions

Skills to Develop Through Extracurricular Activities

We have seen above that extra-curricular activities play a crucial role in developing soft skills.

However, students always end up confused about what they have learnt through extracurriculars that can be put on the resume.

Check this list out to pick skills that you have developed by engaging in activities outside of your classroom:

• Organizational skills
• Working ethic
• Strong motivation
• Flexibility
• Strong adaptability
• High cultural awareness
• Good stress resistance
• Foreign language ability
• Independence
• Sportsmanship
• Time management
• Creative thinking
• Leadership skills
• Communication skills

With a rapid shift in how organizations function and movement towards remote culture, these are in demand higher than ever.

Source: Visual Paradigm Online

Resume of iOS developer

iOS developers create apps for iPhones and iPads that operate on Apple's iOS operating system. They are in charge of creating and programming the base application, as well as assuring its quality, correcting problems, maintaining the code, and implementing application upgrades.

An iOS developer's job is majorly a desk role, which does not offer much scope for networking and interaction. However, you require basic communication skills to function in a team. In Nikhil's case, he has worked volunteered at an NGO and led a team of 5. This shows his leadership as well as great communication skills.

Check full resume of iOS Developer in text format here

Resume of an Experiential Marketer

Experiential marketing, often known as engagement marketing, is a marketing technique that immerses or deeply involves customers in a product. Consumers can not only buy items or services from an experiential marketer, but they can also experience the brand.

Involvement in activities is not only appreciated at college. Even if you are a professional, you always get brownie points for engaging outside your core job. Nisha has addressed the audience as a guest speaker, which acts as a good corroboration for her public speaking abilities but also her knowledge.  

Check full resume of Experiential Marketer in text format here

Resume of Online English Teacher

Online teachers instruct and educate students of all ages all around the world using the internet, computers, and online tools. Online teachers provide instruction in every academic subject, based on the previous training and education they have already acquired.

Rashmi, besides being a teacher, is also a treasurer at the rotary club. This shows her skills in fundraising and budgeting. The involvement outside her job is also an indicator of her time management abilities. Both of these skills - budgeting and time management, complement her role as a teacher.  

Check full resume of Online English Teacher in text format here

Resume of PR Coordinator

PR Coordinators manage the public image of the companies or clients they represent, intending to increase their media presence and overall popularity. They plan and execute publicity strategies and campaigns, oversee printed, broadcasted, and online communications, and perform relevant market research.

Even before starting his career as a PR Coordinator, he won an award for representing the country and was applauded for his creative writing capabilities. These both play an important role in his career.

Check full resume of PR Coordinator in text format here

Resume of Fundraiser

Fundraisers often called Development Associates, work for the non-profit sector. They plan and organize charity, donation, and campaigns to raise funds for a specific cause. Development Associates work with various teams including research, digital media, communication, finance, and more.

A fundraiser's job requires continuous outreach, communication, and negotiation. Saumya developed these skills early on while she was the President of her college and cultural secretary before that. Both these roles required extensive networking, communication, and public speaking. Besides these, she also volunteered at various organizations, which shows her inclination towards the non-profit sector.

Check full resume of Fundraiser in text format here

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When & How to Add Extracurricular Activities to Your Resume

We've all been there—staring at a blank screen, trying to piece together the jigsaw puzzle that is your resume. And if you don’t have a ton of experience under your belt, it can be even more stressful figuring out what resume sections you need to include. 

When you’re new to the job market or returning from a long pause, you don’t want to overlook an important aspect of your resume: extracurricular activities . 

Extracurricular activities offer a unique glimpse into your character, skills, and passions; they tell a story about you that extends beyond your professional capacity and into who you are.

That’s why, in today’s post, you're going to master the art of presenting your extracurricular activities in a way that makes potential employers sit up and take notice.

Understanding extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities are things you do outside of your regular academic curriculum or professional work. In other words, these are activities you willingly participate in during your free time. 

This could range from volunteering at a local shelter, participating in a football league, organizing cultural events, or leading a book club. But that doesn’t quite answer the big question: why (and when) should you put extracurricular activities on a resume?

While extracurricular activities might be good in some scenarios, they aren’t always needed. 

Do you need extracurricular activities on a resume?

While there's no one-size-fits-all answer, Teal recommends including these resume activities in two specific scenarios:

1. When you have no relevant work history

If you're a recent graduate or trying to break into a new industry with no relevant work experience , including extracurricular activities on your resume can be beneficial. These activities are proxies for professional accomplishments, highlighting your transferable skills and demonstrating your potential to succeed. 

In this case, having a resume section dedicated to extracurriculars can be a good move. This is especially true for students who need to create their first resume with no professional history to draw from. 

2. When the activity aligns closely with the job

In some cases, you might have a lot of work experience; still, an extracurricular activity aligns so closely with a prospective job that it becomes a powerful addition to your resume. This can be particularly true if the activity demonstrates skills or knowledge directly applicable to the position. 

In these scenarios, incorporating extracurricular activities can add depth to your resume and make you a more compelling candidate. It's not always necessary, but it can provide the extra push your resume needs to stand out in the right context.

But be judicious in your selections. 

Only include those activities that add substantial value and refrain from adding activities to fill space. Resumes are short by nature, so make every word count. 

Do you already have professional experience at the entry, mid, or senior level? If so, you might be better off with a traditional resume focusing on your achievements rather than your extracurriculars. 

For that, you should consider getting started with Teal’s AI Resume Builder . It comes with built-in tools to help you create a personalized resume for each job application you send, regardless of your experience level.

Teal’s Keyword Checker, for example, highlights hard and soft skills mentioned in the job posting: 

This allows you to craft a resume that gives you an advantage with Application Tracking Software (ATS) , as you can use that language when describing professional accomplishments. 

Even if you don’t have a lot of experience and need to add resume extracurricular activities, this feature can really help you identify the best way of describing your experiences. 

Plus, when you use Teal’s generative AI to flesh out your resume sections, many of these words will be automatically injected into your text. 

You can do the same with any section to help complete better, more impactful resumes in less time. Finally, simply use Teal to generate a cover letter that matches your resume and is perfectly tailored to the job you’re applying for. 

But why not see it in action for yourself? Sign up for Teal’s AI Resume Builder and give it a shot.

9 examples of extracurricular activities on a resume (no job experience)

The following are examples of extracurricular activities that would work well on a resume if you don’t have lots of job experience. We’ve also added a list of transferable skills that these activities may convey. 

1. Professional and industry-specific clubs

If you're a member or leader of a club or organization related to your target job or industry, this is an excellent addition to your resume. 

The transferable skills from these activities might include:

• Industry knowledge: By participating in a professional club, you likely had access to industry-specific knowledge and resources that would be a good addition to your resume. 
• Leadership: If you take on a leadership role within the club, such as becoming a board member or organizing events, you demonstrate your ability to lead a team, project manage, and coordinate with diverse individuals. 
• Networking: Networking skills can be essential in business roles (like sales), where building and maintaining professional relationships is critical.
• Communication: Whether you're presenting at a meeting, writing for a club newsletter, or simply discussing topics with fellow members, you're honing your verbal and written communication skills. 

Of all the extracurricular activities on the list, participating in professional-related clubs should be a top priority for professional resumes. 

2. Freelance projects

If you’ve undertaken freelance work or projects , especially ones relevant to your target role, these showcase initiative and practical application of skills. Taking on freelance projects can showcase your skills in many ways:

• Proof of specific skills: Freelance projects, especially those relevant to your target role, demonstrate the practical application of your skills. For instance, creating a website or mobile app shows your technical skills if you're an IT professional.
• Problem-solving: As a freelancer, you need to identify and solve problems independently, indicating strong problem-solving abilities.
• Self-management: Freelance work requires self-management, time management, and the ability to meet deadlines.

Like professional or industry-related clubs, this should be highlighted for any professional resume if you don’t have many professional accomplishments for your resume . 

3. Volunteer Work

Volunteer work demonstrates a commitment to your community and, depending on the specific role, collaboration. But it also gives you a ton of transferable skills that could appeal to various roles:

• Commitment: Regular volunteer work shows a commitment to helping others and giving back to your community. It reflects positively on your character and shows you are responsible and reliable.
• Leadership and collaboration: If your volunteer work involves leading a team or project, it showcases your leadership abilities. Even if it didn't, simply working as part of a volunteer team shows your ability to collaborate with others.
• Project management: Coordinating a large fundraising event or similar initiative requires planning and execution, both of which are key project management skills.

Listing volunteer work on your resume can be particularly appealing to companies that do charity or non-profit work. Use Teal's AI Resume Builder to create an exhaustive list of your volunteer work, and pick and choose relevant work as it relates to the job you're applying for.

4. Sports teams or athletics

Being part of a sports team can show you're a team player, dedicated, and in some cases, have leadership skills.

Participation in sports teams provides several transferable skills:

• Teamwork: Sports inherently involve working as part of a team, demonstrating your ability to cooperate and collaborate with others.
• Dedication: Regular participation in a sport shows your dedication and commitment, indicating you are someone who can be counted on.
• Leadership: If you were a captain or took on any leadership role, it showcases your ability to motivate others and lead a team to achieve a common goal.

You don’t have to be the star quarterback of your football team to add this to your resume. Any team you were a part of can give you transferable skills that any hiring manager would find desirable. 

5. Event Organization

If you've been involved in organizing events in college or in your community, it could demonstrate organizational and communication skills. These are especially relevant for roles in event planning but also for roles that require project management skills.

Organizing events can provide you with several applicable skills:

• Organizational skills: Planning an event requires coordinating many moving parts and demonstrating strong organizational and planning abilities.
• Communication: Events involve coordinating with stakeholders, showcasing your strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Project management: Managing an event from start to finish is a form of project management emphasizes your ability to oversee a project and ensure its successful completion.

Events are a great example of a project that shows you can transform an idea into something tangible. 

6. Language clubs or cultural organizations

Whether it’s for your career or a personal interest that you want to highlight , involvement in language clubs or cultural organizations can demonstrate:

• Appreciation for diversity: Participation in these groups signifies your interest and respect for different cultures and perspectives, a highly valued attribute in today's globalized workplace.
• Communication skills: By interacting with people from different backgrounds, you enhance your ability to communicate effectively with diverse individuals.
• Language proficiency: If the club or organization is focused on a particular language, it can demonstrate your proficiency or fluency in that language, which is an in-demand skill in many multinational companies.

So many positions would benefit from a bilingual or multilingual worker. If you’ve participated in language clubs and you’re missing concrete professional experience, you should consider adding this extracurricular. 

7. Certification courses or workshops

Earning additional certificates or attending relevant workshops is a strong way to show you're proactive about learning and staying up-to-date in your industry.

Completing additional certifications or attending industry-related workshops demonstrates:

• Proactive learning: Certificates and workshops show you’re committed to continuous learning and keeping your skills current in a fast-paced industry.
• Industry knowledge: It can also highlight your deep understanding of specific aspects of your industry.
• Initiative: It's a clear sign that you take the initiative to go beyond what's required and continually advance your professional development.

Managers like “go-getters,” and nothing says that you get after it, like taking the time to push your industry knowledge deeper. 

8. Public speaking or debate clubs

If you're part of a debate team or Toastmasters, it displays your communication and critical thinking skills. These skills can be particularly relevant for sales, law, or any role requiring presentations or negotiations.

Participation in public speaking or debate clubs highlights:

• Communication skills: This kind of involvement proves your ability to articulate your thoughts and engage effectively with diverse audiences.
• Persuasion skills: Debating equips you with the ability to persuade others effectively, a key skill for roles in sales, marketing, and law.
• Critical thinking: Structuring arguments and rebuttals in debates also demonstrates your critical thinking and analytical abilities.

Public speaking is a rare skill and one that many hiring managers would find appealing. 

9. Mentorship programs

Mentoring programs, especially those related to your professional field, can demonstrate a host of valuable and transferable skills:

• Leadership: Mentoring involves guiding and influencing others, which shows your ability to lead and inspire.
• Expertise: If you're mentoring in your field of study or work, it reinforces your proficiency and knowledge in that area.
• Patience and persistence: These are often necessary when helping mentees learn and grow, demonstrating your resilience and patience.

These skills are highly applicable across many industries and job roles, making mentoring a strong extracurricular activity to feature on your resume.

How to list extracurricular activities on a resume (no job experience)

The trick to including extracurricular activities on your resume when you have no job experience is less about what you include and more about how you present them . 

Here's a step-by-step guide to getting it right.

Step 1: Identify the right activities for your resume 

Choose activities that demonstrate the skills relevant to the job you're applying for. 

• Did your role as the captain of a sports team showcase your leadership skills? 
• Did organizing a charity event exhibit your project management abilities? 
• Did volunteering at the local radio station teach you about teamwork and collaboration? 

Think about the key skills needed for the prospective role, and match them with the activities that best demonstrate them.

Again, for this, there’s no better solution than Teal’s Keyword Checker:

Even if you don’t have much work experience, you can still give yourself an advantage by using the right verbiage and keywords to express your extracurriculars. 

But rather than guess what these skills are and how you should convey them, Teal pulls out all that information for you. Then, you can use that information to build a resume that lands your next interview much faster. 

Check it out by getting started with Teal’s AI Resume Builder today. 

Step 2: Create an “Extracurricular Activities” section  

Once you've identified the activities, create a separate section on your resume, typically near the end. 

Important note: Again, only add this section if you don’t have any professional experience relative to the job description or if your extracurricular activities are so well aligned with the role that it makes sense to do so. 

Step 3: Format and describe each activity  

List each activity in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent. 

For each activity, provide a brief description highlighting your role, achievements, and the skills you used or developed. Remember, your description should be concise and compelling, aiming to make potential employers excited to learn more about you.

Final thoughts

Extracurricular activities on your resume are not just 'nice-to-haves.' They're valuable elements that provide a more well-rounded picture of who you are, showcasing the diverse skills and experiences that make you a compelling candidate.

But remember, it's all about choosing the right activities and presenting them in a way that aligns with your career aspirations and the job you're eyeing.

And, of course, Teal's AI Resume Builder is here to guide you every step, ensuring your resume and you stand out from the crowd.

Jumpstart your resume with Teal's AI Resume Builder today and showcase your extracurricular activities like a pro.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i choose which extracurricular activities to include on my resume, where on my resume should i list extracurricular activities, can extracurricular activities make up for a lack of work experience.

Nathan Thompson

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Listing Extracurricular Activities in a Resume

• Apr 21, 2024
• 1,160 views

When you're at the early stages of your career or still pursuing your education, incorporating extracurricular activities into your student resume can significantly enhance your prospects .

“When I was a teenager, I began to settle into school because I'd discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater.” Morgan Freeman

These extracurricular pursuits offer a valuable opportunity to showcase your skills and qualifications beyond what's typically found in your academic record. They serve as tangible proof of your diverse capabilities, providing a refreshing contrast to the more conventional academic achievements listed in your educational background.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll take a deep dive into the art of integrating extracurricular activities into your resume.

Together, we'll explore:

• What extracurricular activities are;
• What types of involvement can be beneficial to include in a resume;
• How to present this information effectively;
• Which activities to prioritize depending on the situation;
• When it's most appropriate to have them on the resume.

Our aim is to help you understand the significance of these activities in the professional realm. This article will shed light on the real-world value they bring to your candidacy.

What are extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities are things you do outside of regular school or work . They're not the required classes or job duties. Instead, these are involvements that can help you learn practical skills that are useful in your life.

When you get involved in extracurriculars, you can learn and grow in different ways. You can join clubs, volunteer, or do community service, which helps you develop yourself.

• Clubs let you meet people who like the same things as you, and you can work together on projects.
• Volunteering is about helping others and improving how you communicate, understand other people, and handle different situations.
• Community service makes you feel like you're making a difference in the world and shows how powerful it can be when people work together for a common goal.

The top 5 college organizations that will make your resume stand out are social justice clubs, student government, debate teams, academic major associations, and honor societies. (The College Post)

In simple words, extracurricular activities are like a bag full of opportunities . They're not just about school or work. They're about becoming a better, more skilled person in different parts of your life. They help you learn and improve, now and in the future.

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How to list extracurricular activities on a resume

Including extracurricular activities in your resume requires a strategic approach . Here are five essential steps to effectively integrate these activities into your resume.

1. Reflect on your involvement

Begin by creating a list of all the extracurriculars you are engaged in or have actively contributed to during your academic journey. Consider how each activity benefited you and the skills you acquired .

For instance, if you are part of a foreign language club, highlight your language skills, which can be valuable to potential employers. Focus on listing clubs or organizations where you were actively involved and developed transferable skills .

Moreover, consider mentioning activities where you held leadership roles , as these demonstrate your ability to take on responsibilities and make significant contributions. These can be being a part of student government or holding an executive role in an organization.

2. Prioritize relevant experiences

If you have participated in diverse extracurricular activities, prioritize those most relevant to your desired industry or position. Specify your level of involvement and interest in each activity.

List your clubs and organizations on your resume in the same way how you organize work experience. Include a job title, a brief description of your responsibilities, and the start and end dates of the position. (Ripple Match)

Tailor your list to align with the industry or role you are pursuing. Highlight the skills and experiences that will resonate with potential employers more easily. For example, if you are applying for a banking position , emphasize your membership in a student finance association over unrelated affiliations like knitting clubs.

3. Evaluate your qualifications

If you choose extracurricular activities for your resume , assess how your participation has enhanced your qualifications. For example, if you were on the student council, you likely developed excellent communication and teamwork skills.

Consider the following skills that extracurricular activities can help you acquire and emphasize on your resume:

Technical expertise. Academic and extracurricular activities can nurture specific technical skills relevant to your industry. Initiative. Involvement in extracurricular pursuits demonstrates ambition and the willingness to take initiative. Work ethic and dedication. Consistent effort and commitment in extracurricular activities highlight your dedication. Collaboration and communication. Working within clubs or organizations improves your soft skills , which are essential in various professions. Organization. Managing academics and extracurriculars showcases strong organizational skills. Leadership. Many activities allow you to lead and organize events, a trait highly regarded by employers. Problem-solving. Extracurriculars often involve real-world challenges, fostering critical thinking and creativity skills.

4. Organize your activities

The space you allocate to listing extracurricular activities should depend on your overall experience. If you had several internships or have substantial work experience, you may prioritize those experiences and include only your most noteworthy extracurricular activities.

However, if you lack work or internship experience, emphasize how your extracurriculars have equipped you for the position you seek. Start with your most recent or current activities and conclude with earlier involvements.

5. Use bullet points for detail

Under the name of each extracurricular activity, provide the dates of your involvement and your position or role. Follow this with a concise list of bullet points that elucidate the skills you gained and highlight your accomplishments. This format is similar to the work experience section of your resume .

It's essential to provide a comprehensive picture of your involvement. To do this effectively, you should include specific details under each activity.

Here's how to expand on the process of using bullet points for greater clarity:

• Dates of involvement. Begin by noting the period you were actively engaged in each of the extracurriculars. This shows recruiters the duration of your commitment and your ability to manage multiple responsibilities simultaneously.
• Position or role. Next, specify your role or position within each activity. Make it clear whether you were the club president, team captain, treasurer, or another significant role. This highlights your level of responsibility and leadership within the group.
• Skills gained. Under each activity, elaborate on the skills you developed or enhanced. For example, if you were part of a debate club, you might mention that you improved your public speaking, critical thinking, and research skills. Be specific about how these skills were cultivated during your involvement.
• Highlight accomplishments. Use bullet points to showcase your accomplishments within each activity. Did you organize an event, win a competition, or lead a successful project? Mention these achievements. Quantify your accomplishments whenever possible. For instance, if you raised funds for a charity event, specify the amount you gained.
• Awards and certifications. If you received any awards or certifications that are relevant to the job you're applying for, be sure to include them. Awards like "Club Member of the Year" or certifications in first aid can demonstrate your commitment and skills.
• Action verbs. To make your accomplishments more impactful, use power words when describing your role and achievements. For example, words like "led," "initiated," "organized," and "achieved" convey a sense of proactivity and accomplishment.

By providing these additional details for each extracurricular activity, you create a more precise and comprehensive picture of your experiences and skills. This helps potential employers understand the depth of your involvement and the value you can bring to their organization.

Examples of effective extracurricular activities

Sharing your involvement can be beneficial even if you are unsure which particular skills you acquired there. Recruiters will spot the activity that they know helped develop skills that are beneficial to the candidate picked for the role. (UpKey)

To offer a clearer picture, here are some examples of extracurricular activities that can be particularly impactful on your resume:

You'll create a more compelling narrative on your resume by delving deeper into these extracurricular activities. Specific experiences and achievements within each category will allow potential employers to get a better understanding of your persona.

When to include extracurriculars on a resume

In case you lack professional experience or you are still in college, adding extracurricular activities can strengthen your resume . They help showcase to potential employers that you do have the needed skills and qualifications. (Indeed)

Knowing when to incorporate your extracurricular activities in your resume is essential to presenting yourself effectively to potential employers. Here's a more detailed breakdown of when and why to include them:

In essence, the decision to include or remove extracurricular activities from your resume hinges on their relevance to your current career stage and goals . While there are general guidelines, remember that each person's journey is unique. It's essential to tailor your resume to showcase the experiences that best reflect your qualifications and aspirations.

While extracurricular activities can often enhance a resume by showcasing skills, interests, and personality traits beyond academic or professional achievements, there are certain situations when it might be appropriate not to include them .

Avoid mentioning extracurriculars:

• If they are not relevant to the job or industry you're applying for.
• If you have limited space on your resume and need to prioritize other sections.
• If you participated in extracurricular activities that could be perceived as controversial or sensitive (e.g., political activism, religious organizations).
• If you have extensive professional experience that demonstrates the skills and qualifications required for the job.
• If your extracurricular activities section is sparse or includes activities that are incomplete or unimpressive .

Examples of extracurricular activities for resume

Teacher resume.

Teachers often have a broad range of extracurricular activities they can include on their resume. Examples of activities outside the classroom that may be listed in a teacher's resume :

• Mentoring. Teachers can mentor students, either through organized programs or independently. This shows a dedication to aiding students reach their full potential.
• Coaching. Coaching sports teams is a great avenue for teachers to showcase their leadership and organizational abilities. It also shows an ability to motivate and inspire students.
• Tutoring. Tutoring students in-person or online is another way for teachers to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a particular subject area.
• Community involvement. Participating in community events or working with local nonprofits can showcase a teacher's commitment to the community while displaying leadership and communication skills.
• Professional development. Taking classes and participating in workshops show an ongoing commitment to learning and self-improvement, which is always impressive to potential employers.
• Public speaking. Giving presentations at conferences or other events can demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly and effectively, which is an important skill for any teacher.

Engaging in these activities can emphasize the various capabilities that teachers possess outside of the classroom, enhancing their eligibility for job openings.

Here's an example of how a teacher resume can look with the "Professional development" section:

Accountant resume

Accountants have a wide range of skills that are beneficial to employers. However, including extracurriculars on your resume can help you gain a competitive edge over other applicants.

Here are some examples of activities that demonstrate professional traits relevant to the accounting field:

• Professional societies. Participating in professional organizations, such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants or the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), shows dedication to your profession.
• Volunteering. If you volunteer with a charity or non-profit organization, it demonstrates commitment and compassion.
• Networking. Networking events are a great way to meet new contacts and build relationships within the industry.
• Conferences. Attending finance-related conferences enables you to remain abreast of the most recent developments and cultivate your abilities.
• Continuing education. Taking courses related to accounting can show that you are eager to learn and stay current in the field.

Mentioning your out-of-class activities in your resume will help employers recognize you as someone devoted to their profession and eager to exceed what's expected.

News reporter resume

News reporters need to be well-rounded individuals. In addition to their journalism degree, they should have experience and knowledge in other areas.

These are a few examples of extracurricular activities and experiences that could help any news reporter make a stand-out resume:

• Volunteering. If you helped at local media outlets, this shows initiative and a willingness to learn. It also gives reporters valuable connections in the industry.
• Public speaking. Having experience with public speaking adds an important skill to any journalist's toolkit.
• Writing or blogging. This allows a reporter to hone their writing skills and gain visibility in the industry.
• Working with nonprofits or charities. This demonstrates a commitment to helping others, something that news organizations value highly.
• Professional development. Participating in career advancement opportunities, such as seminars or workshops is a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in journalism and network with peers in the field.
• Conferences. Attending conferences and conventions related to journalism and media topics. This helps keep reporters informed about new advances in the industry, as well as providing valuable networking opportunities with fellow professionals.

By having a broad selection of non-academic activities and experiences on their resume, news reporters can indicate to those considering them for employment that they are well-rounded individuals who are committed to staying up-to-date and interested in the domain of journalism.

Here's an example of how you can mention your blog in a real resume:

Logistician resume

Logisticians are often required to have various skills to perform their job duties. Besides having a good understanding of the logistics process, they should also possess strong communication, analytical, and problem-solving capabilities.

To enhance a logistician's resume , consider the following extracurricular activities:

• Toastmasters international. Toastmasters is an organization that helps individuals improve their public speaking skills. Through this demonstration, employers can notice that the individual is ready to take initiative and improve their communication abilities .
• Volunteering at a local food bank. Volunteering at a food bank shows employers that the person possesses strong organizational and problem-solving capabilities.
• Professional associations. Professional associations offer members networking opportunities and access to industry news. Participating in one can help to demonstrate the individual's dedication to the logistics sector.
• Online course. Online courses provide an opportunity for individuals to learn new skills or brush up on existing ones. This activity can demonstrate to employers that the individual has a desire to keep apprised of industry trends.

By participating in extracurricular resume activities such as these, logisticians can demonstrate their commitment and dedication to the field of logistics. These endeavors can assist them to stand out from other applicants and get hired for positions they are qualified for.

Police officer's resume

Police officers are expected to possess extensive knowledge, a diverse set of abilities, and a wide array of skills. When crafting a resume, extracurricular activities can show potential employers that you have the experience and qualities necessary to be successful in law enforcement.

Examples of valuable extracurriculars to include on a law enforcement professional's resume are:

• Sports teams. Participating in physical activities such as running, weightlifting, and martial arts is a terrific demonstration of your dedication to health and fitness.
• First Aid/CPR Training. Being certified in first aid and CPR shows that you have the knowledge and skills necessary to respond quickly and appropriately in emergency situations.
• Self-defense classes. Taking self-defense classes can help you develop the skills needed to protect yourself and others in dangerous situations.
• Community service. Participating in community service can show employers that you are dedicated to serving your community.
• Volunteer work. Volunteering at local shelters or other organizations can illustrate your resolve to assist others.
• Leadership roles. Serving as a leader in a club or organization shows that you have strong communication and organizational skills.

These are just a few examples of extracurricular activities that can help make your resume stand out as a police officer. Highlighting to employers the experience and capabilities you have for the job could be a major factor in being employed.

Below is an example of using "Volunteer work" and "Self-defense classes" sections in a police officer resume:

Sharing extracurricular activities in your resume can significantly boost your employability , especially when starting your career or transitioning from academics to the professional world. These activities provide evidence of your skills, dedication, and interests outside the classroom.

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you will be able to build your resume that highlights your extracurricular experiences effectively. You will surely impress potential employers and increase your chances of securing your desired job.

Amanda Baker

Certified Professional Resume Writer

Amanda Baker is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and career coach with over a decade of experience crafting compelling resumes and career marketing tools. As a black resume writer, Amanda brings a distinctive perspective to her work, guided by her commitment to nurturing the next generation of job seekers. Her ultimate goal is to equip young professionals with the skills and knowledge to confidently navigate the competitive job market.

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12 extracurricular activities to boost your CV

If you don’t have a lot of work experience, you can still create a compelling CV by adding your extracurricular activities.

In this article, we’re going to show you the 12 best extracurricular activities you can use to boost your CV.

And we’re going to explain exactly how and where you should add them, if you want to make a big impression on employers, and land job interviews.

The best extracurricular activities for your CV will be those where you developed credible, transferable skills for the workplace. This includes both group activities, as well as any solo initiatives.

CV templates 

Sports teams

Being a member of a sports team is a great way to show an employer that you function well in a team. Being in a sports team is all about cohesion, coordination, and working together to achieve a common goal – just like working within a business.

Teamwork is vital in the workplace, so being able to prove your ability to contribute to a team will add value to your CV . Make sure to highlight the key skills you developed in team sports, including the following:

Top 5 skills

• Coordination
• Collaboration
• Communication

Clubs and societies

If you’re a member of any club, society or organisation outside your studies, it can be helpful to include these on your CV. Relevant organisations can include chess clubs, reading groups and debating clubs. Never include any political or religious organisations on your CV, as this can lead to unwanted discrimination.

The best clubs and societies to include on your CV will naturally be those directly related to the job you’re applying for, such as a finance society if you were applying for a junior role in a bank. However, being part of a club and society – no matter the genre – demonstrates some key skills that can come in handy on your CV:

• Critical thinking
• Organisation

Personal projects (writing, websites etc)

Having a personal side project  (or several) is a great way to demonstrate your skills and interest within a particular line of work. Whether you’re making videos on YouTube, writing a book or if you created your own website, it’s great to add to your CV.

You don’t have to worry about your personal projects being highly successful, either. What a potential employer will see is initiative and a keen enthusiasm both for work and the subject at hand.

Including personal projects on your CV can demonstrate the following skills:

• Subject matter expertise
• Independent working
• Research skills

Creative hobbies (art, photography etc.)

Creative hobbies, such as painting, acting or photography are great to include on your CV, as they demonstrate to an employer a number of important workplace skills. Being creative requires a certain attention to detail and patience, which translates well to any office or team environment.

Creative hobbies also demonstrate that you use your time productively and wisely, which is attractive to any potential employer. Creative hobbies can demonstrate the following:

• Attention to detail
• Observation
• Idea generation

Volunteering

Having volunteer work on your CV is a great way to show off a keen work ethic and valuable workplace skills at the same time. Volunteer work, despite being mostly unpaid, is no different to normal work – you’re still engaging with the public or a team, completing tasks, and following instructions.

Volunteer work doesn’t have to exclusively mean working for established charities, either. If you put in a few shifts at your university library or coached your school sports team, you can include this as volunteer work on your CV.

• Customer service
• Keen work ethic
• Accountability

Music & theatre

While you might not think to include music and theatre activities on your CV, participation in these types of extracurricular activities can actually be a major bonus on your CV. Theatre is one of the most fast-paced industries in the world, so you’ll develop a wealth of skills and learn how to work under pressure.

Similarly, learning a musical instrument takes self-discipline and endless practice. This demonstrates to any employer that you’re hard working, dedicated and committed to achieving your goals.

• Time management
• Ability to work under pressure
• Public speaking

School or University clubs

When attending secondary school and university, you’ll have the opportunity to join various extracurricular clubs and societies alongside your studies.

It’s always a good idea to join at least one or two school or university societies, as this shows an employer that you’re a self-starter and spend your time productively.

If you join clubs or societies that reflect an interest in your chosen career path, that’s a bonus. But you can still include other clubs and societies on your CV, as your participation alone can demonstrate some key soft skills:

• Presentation skills
• Co-operation
• Brainstorming
• Active listening

School positions of responsibility (prefect etc.)

It’s a great sign to any employer if you’ve already been given positions of responsibility during your studies, whether it be class representative or school prefect.

Employers love being able to depend on their employees for help when it comes to decision-making and problem solving, so including these roles is a great way to boost your CV and demonstrate that you’d be a dependable and valuable employee.

• Responsibility
• Conflict resolution
• Decision making
• Dependability

Travel & overseas study

Broadening your horizons with international travel is an enriching experience on a personal level, and it can even help boost your CV too. Travelling abroad shows an employer that you’re adaptable and can thrive in new and unfamiliar environments.

Solo travel is also a plus, as it demonstrates both your ability to be self-sufficient and your ability to communicate effectively. You should include studies abroad and education travel on your CV, but leave out any recreational holidays.

• Adaptability
• Self-management
• Interpersonal skills
• Cultural awareness

Second or third languages are perhaps the most underrated – yet highly valuable – skills to  include on your CV, no matter the job you’re applying for. Being multilingual – or even having a substantial level (B1-C2) – in a second language can tell employers a lot about you.

Not only are language skills highly valued in a globalised corporate world, but they also demonstrate soft skills that highlight your work ethic, discipline, and ability to retain information. Make sure to highlight your language level on your CV if you’re not yet fluent. (B1, B2, C1, C2, etc.)

• Verbal skills
• Information skills
• Multitasking
• Self-motivation

Practical hobbies (Building things, fixing computers etc.)

Having practical hobbies can be a great way to highlight your self-management skills and information skills, as well as your passion both for work and problem solving. You can include hobbies such as building things, fixing computers, and restoring vintage technological devices on your CV.

While you might consider it a niche hobby, practical hobbies show a potential employer that you’re equipped with several soft skills, many of which are highly desirable in the day-to-day running of a business or office.

• Questioning
• Critical thinking skills
• Experimenting

Should I include extracurricular activities in my CV?

If you have little to no work experience, adding extracurricular activities to your CV is a great way to show employers that you have transferable skills for the workplace.

Whether it be from a debating team or volunteer work, participation in extracurricular activities can show motivation, organisational skills and leadership skills – all of which are valued by employers.

But, do be selective about the extracurricular activities you include. Leisurely passive activities (such as watching TV or eating out) are not particularly interesting for an employer. Pick activities that demonstrate credible workplace skills for best results.

How to include extracurricular activities in your CV

You should include your extracurricular activities in the “additional info” section at the bottom of your CV. You should write them in a way that demonstrates the key skills learned and developed, as demonstrated below.

Where to include extracurricular activities in your CV

The best place to include any extracurricular activities on your CV is under the “additional info” section at the bottom of your CV.

This is because while they’re certainly helpful, extracurricular activities can’t be the main focus of your CV. You have limited space when writing your CV, so it’s best to have any work experience and your education as the main focus. Extracurricular activities come in handy when displaying soft skills such as teamwork, innovation, adaptability and flexibility.

Also, don’t add every single extracurricular activity that you’ve ever participated in. You want to highlight the key activities that add value to your skillset, as these will be the most interesting to your employer.

How to write extracurricular activities in your CV

It’s important to know how to format your extracurricular activities on your CV if you want to grab the attention of the recruiter. You should highlight your key skills relating to the extracurricular activity, rather than rambling too much about unimportant details.

In fact, it’s best to keep extracurricular activities as short and to-the-point as possible. The best way to format your extracurricular activities is in a list structure , with the most important and impressive activities listed first. For example:

This guide should help you understand how to add extracurricular activities to your CV in a coherent and effective way.

The important thing to remember is to include information that your employer will find useful and interesting – leave out the fluff and focus on your key skills.

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Extracurricular Activities in Resume 2023 [10+ Tips to 50+ List]

Is it essential to add extracurricular activities in resume?

No, but adding extracurricular activities in your resume can offer you bonus points in the recruitment process.

Currently, when humans are making machines smart, why would they want to hire someone who works like a machine?

Recruiters want to hire someone who can align with company culture apart from having suitable skills required for the job.  

Recruiters analyze this by the extracurricular activities in resume. Keeping this in mind, we are here showcasing the importance along with the whys, whats and hows related to the extracurricular activities in resume. Here you will see:

• What are extracurricular activities in resume?
• Where should you mention extracurricular activities in resume?
• What are the best extracurricular activities in resume?
• How to list extracurricular activities in resume?

You may face multiple hurdles while building a resume, as it is not a piece of cake even for experts. Hence, we recommend using HyreSnap Resume Builder , which can effectively build professional resumes in a few minutes.

For now, let us get more details about extracurricular activities in resume:

What are Extracurricular Activities in Resume?

Extracurricular activities in a resume refer to any activities or experiences you have participated in outside of your formal education or work experience. These activities include sports teams, clubs, volunteer work, hobbies, and more.  

Including extracurricular activities on your resume can be beneficial as they can demonstrate skills and qualities valuable in the workplace, such as leadership, teamwork, and communication skills.  

When including extracurricular activities on your resume, it's important to choose activities relevant to the position you are applying for and highlight the skills and experiences most relevant to the job. 

For example, if you are applying for a job in marketing, you may want to highlight your experience in a marketing club or your involvement in a social media campaign .

Overall, including extracurricular activities on your resume can be a great way to showcase your skills and experiences beyond your formal education and work history.

Extracurricular Activities Vs. Co-curricular Activities

Extracurricular activities and co-curricular activities are both activities that students can participate in outside of their regular academic coursework . However, there are some differences between the two.

The main difference between these two activities is that Extracurricular activities are not directly related to a student's academic coursework. These can include clubs, sports teams, volunteer work, or hobbies.  

Whereas, Co-curricular activities are activities that are directly related to a student's academic coursework. These include field trips, science fairs, or music concerts. 

The school or the teachers usually organize co-curricular activities, and participation may be mandatory or strongly encouraged.  

In terms of including these activities on a resume, both extracurricular and co-curricular activities can be valuable to highlight.

Where Should You Mention Extracurricular Activities in Resume?

When mentioning extracurricular activities in a resume , we recommend placing them in a section highlighting your skills beyond your formal education and work history. 

Here are a few options for where to mention extracurricular activities on your resume:  

In a dedicated "Activities" or "Extracurricular Activities" section: You can create a separate section on your resume to highlight your extracurricular activities. 

This section can include clubs, volunteer work, hobbies, and other activities you have participated in outside of your formal education or work experience.  

In the "Experience" section: If your extracurricular activity involves a leadership role, you can mention it in your resume's "Experience" section, just like you would for a job or internship. 

For example, if you were the captain of a sports team or the club president, you can list this as an experience.

In the "Skills" section: Extracurricular activities can also demonstrate skills valuable in the workplace, such as teamwork, communication, or leadership. 

You can highlight these skills in your resume's dedicated "Skills" section and provide examples of how you developed these skills through your extracurricular activities.  

No matter where you mention your extracurricular activities, be sure to focus on the skills and experiences most relevant to the job or educational program you are applying for. 

Use specific examples and quantify your achievements whenever possible to make your extracurricular activities stand out on your resume.

Why Should You Add Extracurricular Activities in Resume?

There are several reasons why you should consider adding extracurricular activities in your resume:

Demonstrates well-roundedness: Extracurricular activities can show that you have diverse interests and experiences beyond your formal education and work history.

Highlights skills and qualities: Extracurricular activities can demonstrate skills and qualities that are valuable in the workplace, such as leadership, teamwork, communication, and time management.

Sets you apart from other candidates: Including extracurricular activities on your resume can help you stand out from other candidates who may have similar educational backgrounds and work experiences.

Shows initiative: Participating in extracurricular activities can demonstrate that you are proactive and take the initiative to pursue your interests and develop your skills outside of the classroom or workplace.

Relevant to the position: If your extracurricular activities are relevant to the position you are applying for, they can demonstrate that you have experience in the field and are passionate about it.

Overall, including extracurricular activities in your resume can provide a complete picture of who you are as a person and a professional. 

It can also help you demonstrate the skills, qualities, and experiences most relevant to the job or educational program you are applying for.

What Are The Best Extracurricular Activities in Resume?

Extracurricular activities in your resume showcase your capabilities apart from your technical skills. Below we have mentioned some extracurricular activities that you can add to your resume to stand out of the crowd of competitors:

Foreign Languages

Knowledge of any foreign language can impress the recruiter during the interview process. Additionally, some jobs have specific language requirements. You can strengthen your shortlisting chances if you have learned that language already.

Student Council

To be a part of the student body in college or high school, you must be elegant, sharp-minded, and a quick learner.

The student body members have diverse responsibilities, which develop extraordinary skills in them. If you are or have been a part of any student body, you can add that experience in your resume to present yourself as the right fit for the job.

Showcasing your sports achievements doesn’t only present your physical capabilities but also your mental ones.

Most sports activities require coordination, teamwork, patience, dedication, and continuous improvement. This is why recruiters love to see sports achievements in a candidate’s resume.

Organizations/Clubs/Societies

You can show if you have ever been a part of any school club, society, or organization. It may include your school or college drama club, debate club, e-cell, etc.

Being a part of a bigger community means you have the expertise and skills to work in a corporate hierarchy. It means you have skills like:

Volunteering

Most people assume that volunteering is not a job. Hence it is not giving a worth.

But volunteering is a job without pay. While volunteering, you will have to devote your free time, complete tasks, and meet targets. Recruiters pay attention to the volunteering experience in a candidate’s resume.

Peer Tutoring

Peer tutoring is a way to spend your time for others' benefit.

Be it a part of school tutoring or any other educational program, peer tutoring means you have a keen knowledge of a specific subject and are comfortable sharing that knowledge to let others grow better.

Generally, professionals hesitate to share their extensive knowledge with juniors. Hence, recruits value this trait a lot.

Fundraising

As its name suggests, fundraising is a specific task given to you in an organisation to raise funds. 

It is not easy as it sounds, and it needs strong skills to be a successful fundraiser. Hence, if you have raised funds in your previous experience, you must add it to your resume.

Relevant Hobbies

You can list your hobbies as extracurricular activities if they align with your applied profile. For example, your hobby of writing can play a great part in your shortlisting for a content writer profile.

Non-Academic Competitions

You can also add the details of any non-academic competitions you participated in. It will showcase your capabilities to handle challenges.

Government Related Activities

Similar to the non-academic competitions, you can add government-related activities too in your resume. It will showcase the following:

How to List Extracurricular Activities in Resume?

Listing extracurricular activities on your resume can demonstrate your diverse range of interests and skills. Hence, we recommend making a separate section while adding extracurricular activities in resume.

Here are some tips for effectively listing extracurricular activities on your resume:

Choose relevant activities: Only include activities relevant to the job you are applying for or showcase skills important for the position. 

For example, suppose you're applying for a marketing position. In that case, you might want to list activities demonstrating your communication skills, such as being a debate team member or participating in public speaking competitions.

Be concise: Keep your descriptions of each activity brief and to the point. Employers are more interested in your skills and accomplishments than in the details of your extracurricular activities.

Highlight accomplishments: Focus on the accomplishments and skills you gained from each activity rather than simply listing the activity itself. 

For example, instead of just saying you were a school newspaper member, you might highlight that you served as an editor and learned valuable skills in editing, writing, and teamwork.

Order by importance: List your extracurricular activities in order of importance, with the most relevant or impressive activities at the top.

We recommend a separate section listing all your extracurricular activities for an organized presentation. 

Here are some examples of how to list extracurricular activities on your resume:

Remember to tailor your extracurricular activities to the specific job you are applying for and highlight the skills and accomplishments that are most relevant to the position.

HyreSnap Career Assistance

Adding extracurricular activities in resume is equally time-consuming as other parts of it. Hence we recommend you be completely focused while adding your extracurricular activities in resume.

Or, you can use HyreSnap Online Resume Builder powered with AI technology. It will help you craft a technically sound resume in easy steps. Below are some features you will encounter while using our free resume builder:

We have listed every essential step to add extracurricular activities in resume professionally.

Below you can have a quick review of everything mentioned above if you missed anything: 

Apart from this, you can contact our career experts if you need additional career assistance. We are 24X available at [email protected] to help you get your desired job in 2023.

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How to Look More Competent With Extracurricular Activities on a Resume

Hiring managers are looking to see if you have the key skills and knowledge for the role. Work experience isn’t the only way to show that – extracurricular activities work well too. 

It’s easy to forget about extracurricular activities when you’re focused purely on trying to come up with work experience to write about. 

Work experience is, without a doubt, one of the most important sections of a resume…

But extracurricular activities on a resume look good because they can highlight desirable job-related skills and qualities. Some of these include leadership, software proficiency, and more. 

In this guide, here’s what we’ll go through:

• Top resume examples with extracurricular activities
• The best extracurricular activities to mention
• How to list extracurricular activities on a resume
• When and when not to include extracurricular activities

Top 3 Examples of Extracurricular Activities on a Resume

Extracurricular activities are tasks, projects, or associations outside the standard academic curriculum that you’re involved in. These are the activities you do in your spare time. The main reason you’re doing them is because you choose to, not because you have to. It’s completely voluntary. 

And therefore, you’re choosing to pursue a passion or interest. The reason you’re pursuing the passion or interest? Most likely for personal growth reasons and to explore or develop new skills. This gives hiring managers a positive impression of your character.

See below some of our top resume examples with extracurricular activities. 

The Best Extracurricular Activities to Put on a Resume

The best extracurricular activities to include on a resume are those that highlight relevant experiences, skills, or achievements. Here’s a few examples:

• Associations, clubs, and societies
• Academic or work projects

Certifications

• Volunteering
• Passion projects
• Study abroad programs

Aim to list things that show you’ve accomplished or participated more than the average graduate. 

Associations, Clubs, and Societies

Associations, clubs, sports teams, societies… All of these are good to highlight because it shows that you’re the type of person to take initiative. 

Here’s a few examples:

• Business society
• Science club

Each of these indicates a commitment to personal growth since you’ve actively pursued your interests. Plus, taking part in any of these types of organizations shows that you have a level of teamwork and interpersonal skills.

Skills to Highlight From Associations, Clubs, and Societies

• Leadership skills
• Communication skills
• Organization, planning, and management skills
• Initiative and self-motivation
• Presentation skills

Academic or Work Projects

Any side projects or work-study programs are great to list on a resume because it shows that you have a level of technical expertise. It implies that you know how to take the initiative to learn, gain, and use your skills or experience to solve real-world challenges. 

Skills to Highlight From Academic and Corporate Projects

• Collaboration skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Project management skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Research and analysis skills
• Technical skills (e.g. programming languages and tools you’re proficient in)

Certifications on a resume are qualifications that highlight professional skills and knowledge. These are attractive to a prospective employer because it’s evidence of your expertise in a specific field. And the fact that you’ve completed this in your spare time shows that you’re committed and passionate when it comes to your professional growth. 

Skills to Highlight from Certifications

• Data analysis and analytics
• Language skills
• Management skills
• Software proficiency
• Technical expertise

Here’s a few reasons why hiring managers value volunteer experience :

• You’ll have gained transferable abilities that prepare you for your new role
• You’ve committed to unpaid work, which gives a positive reflection of your attitude and work ethic
• It helps you stand out since volunteer work implies that you have a genuine interest in making a positive difference 

Skills to Highlight From Volunteering

• Communication skills 
• Customer service
• Organizational skills
• Public speaking

Passion Projects

Passion projects refer to hobbies and interests or side hustles. This includes business and creative pursuits such as starting a YouTube channel or writing a book. These are effective to put on a resume because it showcases your self-motivation and discipline to manage your time to pursue your interests. 

Additionally, it makes you look more interesting as a professional. Not only are passion projects a good conversation starter for the interview, but they also help you stand out.

Skills to Highlight From Passion Projects

• Analytical skills
• Creative thinking skills
• Research skills
• Technical skills (e.g. digital marketing skills and tools you’re proficient in)
• Time management skills

Study Abroad Programs

Not everyone gets accepted into a study abroad program. This is one reason why it’s impressive to hiring managers. Another reason is that it shows your willingness to step out of your comfort zone to pursue personal growth. It also shows that you’re able to navigate through different cultural norms. 

The soft skills developed are especially transferable in a corporate environment. 

Side note: something similar you could talk about is online coursework that you completed in your spare time! 

Skills to Highlight from Study Abroad Programs

• Adaptability skills
• Cultural awareness
• Independence

How to List Extracurricular Activities on a Resume

Write the resume section title followed by a few more details:

• Organization name
• Start and end dates
• Bullet points describing what you did or learned

We’ll go through each of these in more detail below. 

1. Make the Resume Section Header Clear 

The first step is to make the title of your resume section clear. In most of our own ATS resume examples , we do this by making the section header in bold and all-caps text.  

There are other ways to phrase extracurricular activities for your resume section header: 

• Involvement

If you want this to be more general so that you can write about more things in the same section, we’d recommend using the header “involvement.” The benefit of this is that it saves space so that you can maintain a one-page resume . Plus, these headers are less generic phrases compared to just saying “extracurricular activities.”

2. Enter Your Role

Enter the title of your role. If you’re unsure, you can just say that you were an active member of the organization or association. 

Here’s a few more common examples of job titles for extracurricular activities:

• Class representative
• Social secretary
• Team member

3. Include the Name of the Organization

After entering your role, write the name of the organization you were a part of. Include this as a subheader so that it’s clear to the reader. 

4. Mention the Start and End Dates

Include the dates you started and stopped doing the extracurricular activities. Use the month and year when mentioning dates. If it’s ongoing, write “present” for the end date to let the hiring manager know it’s something you’re still doing. 

5. Include the Location

Enter the location where you did the extracurricular activity. Write the name of the university followed by the city. However, if the extracurricular activity isn’t based in a university, just mention the city when including the location. 

6. Write About the Skills You Applied or Developed

Write resume bullet points describing your role by highlighting the skills you applied or developed. And if possible, highlight the impact of your efforts. Focus on the results that you achieved and how your contributions helped make a difference. 

Start the bullet point with an action verb to highlight how you carried out your responsibilities. Then, highlight the outcome that was achieved as a result of your efforts.

Another approach is to write a bullet point describing the purpose of the program you completed. 

Here’s a few different examples:

• Learned fundamentals of real estate markets and property valuations by discussing government policy decisions, valuation equations including net present value and internal rate of return
• An intensive leadership program to help students develop and refine professional qualities through collaboration and participation in community impact projects.
• Facilitated weekly training modules to educate new members on various careers at an investment bank    

Use Rezi’s AI Resume Writer to Generate Bullet Points

Still struggling to come up with bullet points for describing your extracurricular activities? You’re not the only one. 

That’s why our users love Rezi’s AI resume writer feature . 

Here’s how it works: 

• Enter your role or job title
• Press “AI writer generate” 
• Wait for the results
• Either press “AI writer generate” to try again or press “apply suggestion” to save the bullet point 

Watch the short clip below to see our AI resume writer in action!  ‍

How to Write About Extracurricular Activities in Other Resume Sections

There are 4 other sections where you could write about extracurricular activities on a resume: 

• Work experience section
• Education section
• Skills section
• Additional section

The other option is to write about extracurricular activities in an individual section as discussed above. However, it’s worth embedding into other sections when you’re running out of space and not wanting to go over to a two-page resume . 

Work Knowledge Section

Only write about extracurricular activities in the work experience section when it’s something you carried out in a previous role. 

But, this must be relevant to the job you’re applying to. For example, if you’re applying for a management position, mention activities where you had leadership experience such as being one of the student councils or the president of a school club.

Keep the description concise. Only mention the extracurricular activity briefly. Put emphasis on what was achieved from the skills you applied in your role. 

• Developed strong leadership and teamwork skills through active participation in a local community service organization, organizing and leading a team of volunteers for various projects and events, including fundraising campaigns and social initiatives.
• Actively participated in the XYZ University Marketing Club, collaborating with a team of students to plan and execute marketing campaigns that increased event attendance by 20% and generated a 15% boost in sales.

Education Section

Under the qualification you’ve listed in the education section , add bullet points describing extracurricular activities.

For instance, after listing your bachelor’s degree, write a bullet point or two about the societies you were part of. Highlight the skills you learned or developed as well as your biggest accomplishments during your time in the societies you were part of. 

Skills Section

A common category to add in the skills section for listing extracurricular activities is “fields of interest.” Compared to other sections, however, you can’t go into detail about the responsibilities you held. 

See the example below.

Additional Section

Here’s a few examples of different additional sections where you can write about extracurricular activities:

In this instance, use the same approach as discussed earlier. Enter your role, the organization name, start and end dates, and location. Then, write bullet points describing what you did as well as the skills you learned.

Should You Put Extracurricular Activities on a Resume?

You should include extracurricular activities when you lack work experience. Although your work history and academic qualifications are the main focus of a resume, extracurricular activities can still help demonstrate valuable skills. They can also help you stand out from other candidates by highlighting unique experiences related to personal growth. 

When to Include Extracurricular Activities on a Resume

Extracurricular activities work best on a resume for students and graduates applying for an entry-level position. However, it also works well for those making a significant career change. 

On that note, we’ll go through a few instances when you should include extracurricular activities on a resume. 

You Have Limited Work Experience

You might have limited professional experience when you’re applying for your first job or when  you’re making a career change. In either case, an extracurricular activities resume section would be helpful for showcasing transferable skills and knowledge. 

It Highlights Specific Skills That Are Relevant to the Job 

Include extracurricular activities when you’re able to write about specific job skills that are directly related to the industry and job responsibilities. For example, mention how you held a leadership position in a student organization. 

Noteworthy Achievements

Here’s a few examples of notable achievements :

• Winning competitions
• Receiving awards
• Taking on management roles and applying leadership skills
• Joining reputable research projects

These types of achievements showcase your dedication and ability to excel, all of which help you stand out from other job seekers. 

Volunteering Experience

Volunteer work is impressive to hiring managers because it demonstrates a strong work ethic and commitment to making a positive difference. That’s because you’re doing unpaid work to give back to the community. Moreover, it shows that you’re familiar with working with different people and taking responsibility. 

It Shows Creativity

Here’s a few examples of creative pursuits:

• Learning a new instrument 

These can be good to mention because they imply that you have the discipline and time management skills to pursue the craft. 

Moreover, listing creative extracurricular activities adds personality to your resume. This shows hiring managers that you can contribute to a positive company culture and foster collaboration with colleagues that share similar interests.

When Not to Include Extracurricular Activities on a Resume

Don’t include extracurricular activities when it doesn’t imply that you can make an impact. You also want to keep away from extracurricular activities that don’t contribute positively to your professional image. 

Irrelevant Hobbies and Interests

Unless your personal hobby demonstrates relevant skills, it’s best to leave it out. Only include hobbies and interests when it’s related to the job responsibilities.

For instance, writing on a student resume that you enjoy binge-watching Netflix and playing video games doesn’t exactly give the best impression. Going on a night out every Friday doesn’t form the best impression either when you want to show that you’re an outgoing and sociable person that’s easy to work with. 

You Have Extensive Work Experience

Work experience is usually more important than extracurricular activities. 

Most times, if you had to choose one, you would write about a previous job on your resume instead of an extracurricular activity. 

The only exception is when the extracurricular activity highlights a bigger impact or achievement. It’s more directly relevant to the role compared to your previous job. An example could be research projects and publications from reputable organizations.

Lack of Achievements 

Leave out vague activities that lack substance. Forcing this on your resume and trying to make them look good by using random buzzwords does more harm than good. For instance, hanging out with friends or listening to pop music and being a fan of Taylor Swift. None of these provide insight to potential employers on your personal development. 

Use Extracurricular Activities to Prove You’re Ready 

Securing an interview is about highlighting the fact that you have the ability to do the job well and that you’re a good fit for the company culture. There are other resume sections, like extracurricular activities, that help you do this. 

To summarize, here’s what extracurricular activities on a resume can highlight:

• Attitude and mindset
• Personality traits
• Software proficiency 
• Technical knowledge

Aside from your work history and formal education, extracurricular activities are also proof of your ability to succeed in the role. 

Astley Cervania

Astley Cervania is a career writer and editor who has helped hundreds of thousands of job seekers build resumes and cover letters that land interviews. He is a Rezi-acknowledged expert in the field of career advice and has been delivering job success insights for 4+ years, helping readers translate their work background into a compelling job application.

The 10 Best Extracurricular Activities for Students

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Beyond the Books!

Engagement in extracurricular activities is important for students. They promote a learner’s mental skills, health, social, and academic performance. Students may engage in sports, music, school, clubs, or volunteering. They may get part-time jobs, internships, or join business clubs.

These activities help students learn life skills, such as responsibility, time management, and collaboration. These skills help learners prepare for the career world after graduation. The list of the best extracurricular activities for students can be long. Students should choose the best.

Best extracurriculars for college students

There are hundreds of extracurricular ideas for kids and other students you can imagine. However, every activity may not be perfect for you. Engage in an activity that benefits your passion or talent. Consider your interests, goals, and the commitment the activity demands. 

You may try out several activities before you make a choice. Engage in activities that offer you learning and growth opportunities. Look forward to having fun and improving myself. Here are some of the best extracurriculars for college students. 

1. Join the entrepreneurship and business club

If you love entrepreneurship or starting a business, this club can be perfect for you. You will learn the best knowledge about financial and business management, and it also serves as a place to enjoy the best extracurricular activities for students. Members often engage in different competitions and learning. The team may compete to create a startup or marketing plan. You may attend financial workshops or visit the leading startups in your location.  

The best extracurricular activities for college keep learners busy, requiring proper schedule management to maintain a healthy balance. These roles can sometimes be overwhelming, potentially causing students to miss out on homework or necessary revisions. I experienced the same problems until I discovered help with my homework online. Consult with an expert at any time for research papers or any other academic work. These experts are extensively experienced in many areas of academic writing. Their work is high-quality and as per instructions. 

Joining an entrepreneurship and business club offers numerous benefits. It provides valuable business knowledge for managing finances both during and after college. Students gain practical business and innovation skills, along with leadership and teamwork experience, making it an excellent extracurricular activity.

2. Engage in a culture and language club

If you want fun extracurricular activities for students, this club might be perfect. Culture helps you broaden your worldview. You learn to respect people whose customs seem different. Cultural education helps eliminate stereotypes and promote acceptance. You will learn a different language in a culture and language club. 

It boosts your confidence and expands your memory. This club can't open career opportunities in many parts of the world. You may get a chance to engage in a cultural exchange program. These programs give students opportunities to interact with other cultures. You get a chance to travel and broaden your experiences with the world. 

3. Go for a part-time job

Here are more extra activities for students who are career-oriented. Part-time jobs are popular with university and college students. Many students who take part-time jobs do it to earn extra income. They work in farms, stores, online, and many other places. You can also do a part-time job as part of your best extracurricular activities ideas. The jobs provide you with many benefits when you pursue them as extracurricular activities for students.

• You learn to balance time and work through enhanced time-managed skills.
• Gain work experience, which will be critical when applying for jobs after college.
• Develop crucial professional and soft skills like collaboration and problem-solving.
• Develop financial freedom from the earnings you get while working.

4. Volunteer and community service

Volunteer work and community service do not attract any payment, so they might not be seen as good extra activities for students. However, you will learn many skills and benefits during scholarship applications. The work may involve tutoring other students. Help them improve in the areas they may be lagging. You may help with cleaning the environment in places like parks or beaches.

You might be required to donate money to support the needy in society. Volunteering benefits you by building networks. These people can help you get recommendation letters, jobs, grants, and other areas. Community service empowers you with social awareness. It helps with personal growth and skill development, like project management.

5. Take part in sports and athletics

Sports and athletics are one of the best extracurricular activities for students, from high schoolers to university students. Sports help you to stay physically active for the betterment of your health. The most popular sports activities in schools are football and basketball. Many students engage in track and field races, swimming, and tennis.

Sports improve your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Your social skills develop when you play for your school’s sports club. You become a good time manager and improve communication and teamwork. You may get a chance to play for your school during major competition events. You can even earn a place on the national team.

6. Get an internship

Not every internship has to be seen as boring. You can make it look like the best extracurricular activity for students by the way you learn there. Many students take an internship in their final college year. You don’t have to wait until your final year. You can get an internship at any level of a college education. Freshman internships, for instance can help you decide the major you will study. This activity helps broaden your experience and career view.

Internships can be part of your high school's best extracurricular activities. You may work in any field, like technology, production, and healthcare. You get a chance to explore different career options. You apply what you learn in college in a real-life scenario. Internships expand your professional networks and help you to build your career goals.

7. Join an environmental and sustainability club

Environmental clubs can be perfect if you love nature and care for the environment. You will learn detailed information about nature and its care. The team engages in many environmental care activities like recycling. This club trains you to be action-minded in nature matters. It trains you to make a difference wherever you go, no matter how small it can be. Members learn leadership skills and engagement with communities. 

8. Music and performing arts

This is really one of the best extracurricular activities for students. Music and performing arts members may engage in an array of activities. They can do theatre work, start bands, dance groups, or choirs. These activities teach students to be creative and develop self-discipline. They benefit students in many ways. 

• Learn to express your emotions through written words or singing.
• Build confidence to stand before crowds and engage them.
• Improve your brain through better thinking, focus, and memory.
• Appreciate culture by interacting with people from many places.

9. Join a STEM program

STEM programs in schools may differ in scope, membership, and goals. The STEM program in your school should be focused on learning and innovation. These programs provide practical and fun learning experiences, so they can easily be considered as one of the best extracurricular activities for students. They engage you in many STEM areas like technology, engineering, and innovation. The programs boost innovation and build technical skills . They prepare you for a career beyond college.

Find convenient, comfortable student housing near your campus community so you can excel in your studies and extracurricular passions.

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10. Join an art and craft club

Here’s another choice that you can consider as one of the best extracurricular activities. Art and craft clubs are best for students who love creativity and curiosity. You may engage in digital art and traditional art creativity. The club encourages members to be imaginative and creative. The activities are full of fun and help you appreciate art. 

Creative art and craft have many health benefits. They help relieve stress and build motor skills. Your brain becomes sharper, and your confidence improves. You can turn the skills into learning activities while still in college or after.

Extracurriculars for college play a crucial role in students' lives. They provide learning opportunities where students discover their special abilities. These activities are useful for promoting students' health and well-being. Students learn work skills, entrepreneurship, health, and socialisation. Learners may get engaged in sports, clubs, art, or investments. Engagement in these activities develops well-rounded students and prepares them for success after a college education.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are extracurricular activities and examples, what is the most common extracurricular activity, how to choose extracurricular activities for students, when should a student begin to take part in extracurricular activities, is there a way to balance college study with extracurricular activities for students.

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The Admissions Criteria That Top Schools Really Care About

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Harvard College Admissions

When navigating the competitive college admissions process at Ivy League and other top schools, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of advice, myths, and speculation. Parents, school counselors, and successful applicants are often eager to share their opinions about what truly matters to admissions officers, and weeding through this plethora of information can quickly become overwhelming. While prospective students cannot know for certain what admissions committees’ deliberations look like, there are ways to gain insight into what schools value most in their admissions considerations. For instance, the lawsuit against Harvard revealed that admissions officers rate students on a scale of 1–6 (with 1 being the most desirable score) on the basis of their academic, extracurricular, athletic, and personal skill sets. While the lawsuit offered unique insight into Harvard’s admissions process that isn’t readily available for all other institutions, there are still ways to determine institutions’ primary considerations—the most accessible being the Common Data Sets (CDS).

The CDS is a detailed report compiled by colleges and universities to share their institutional data, including admission statistics and criteria. Each school’s report includes a lengthy list of admissions considerations from class rank to interviews, talent, legacy status, state residency, essays, and extracurriculars. Colleges indicate the level of importance that each item bears in their admissions process (ranging from “very important,” to “important,” “considered,” and “not considered”). While the information is not comprehensive—for instance, understanding that a school values extracurricular activities does not tell us what kind of involvement the school looks for—it can be a helpful starting point for students as they strategize for the admissions process.

Here’s what the most recent CDS tells us about the admissions criteria top colleges care the most about:

Rigor of Secondary Record

Very Important At Schools Such As : Berkeley , Johns Hopkins , Tulane , UCLA

While many students focus their energy on upping their GPA, it is critical to note that top schools care just as much about the caliber of classes students enroll in. Having a 4.0 means nothing if a student is simply acing the easiest classes available to them. Almost every Ivy League and top school lists the rigor of a student’s academic record as “very important” in their CDS report. As such, students should start enrolling in the most challenging courses available at their school early in their high school careers—whether APs, IBs, or Honors classes. This is particularly important for coursework related to a student’s intended area of study.

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Application Essay

Very Important At Schools Such As : Stanford , Princeton , Brown

The application essay is an important element of a student’s application because it showcases multiple facets of their candidacy—not only can it demonstrate their academic skills through their strong command of language, but it is also an opportunity for students to share the intangible elements of their candidacy such as their talents, personal qualities, and character (all factors that are listed as “very important” alongside the application essay at all of the schools listed above). Students should strive to compose essays that stand out through their creativity and originality, and that authentically represent their distinct voices.

Extracurricular Activities

Very Important At Schools Such As : Dartmouth , Vanderbilt , Yale

For many Ivy League and top schools, what students accomplish outside of the classroom is equally important as what they accomplish in it. Though not explicitly stated in their Common Data Sets, we know from experience that top schools look for students who demonstrate significant involvement in a few key activities rather than superficial participation in many. This depth of commitment indicates that students can balance multiple responsibilities and contribute meaningfully to campus life. Therefore, students should start to hone their passions and identify opportunities for leadership in activities that they are passionate about early in their high school careers.

Character / Personal Qualities

Very Important At Schools Such As : NYU , Notre Dame , Carnegie Mellon

As a part of the holistic application review process, schools evaluate more than students’ on-paper accomplishments—they also care about how a student’s values, personality, and defining characteristics make them a unique fit for their campus community. What intangible qualities are colleges looking for? This largely depends on the school to which students are applying, but the best way to determine which characteristics to highlight is to read about the college’s mission and values and determine where their own personal qualities align. For example, Carnegie Mellon looks for students who demonstrate “leadership, motivation, passion and perseverance, concern and advocacy for others.”

Recommendations

Very Important At Schools Such As : Northeastern , Emory , Amherst

Letters of recommendation offer qualitative information about students’ academic skills and character, whereas numerical values such as GPA, test scores, and class rank provide quantitative information. They are particularly important because they are the only element of a student’s application that offers a third-party evaluation of students’ skill sets. As such, students should approach these letters with as much strategy and thoughtfulness as other elements of their applications. Every student should select teachers who have thorough knowledge of their academic skills (ideally in the discipline they intend to pursue) and who they have established relationships with over the course of their high school career. Students can also use these recommendations strategically to fill in gaps in their other materials—for instance, if a student struggled academically their junior year, a teacher can attest to their growth and progress over time; or, if a student had a challenging family circumstance, a school counselor can share how they overcame personal difficulties and flourished as a community member and scholar.

Every college has its own unique campus character and institutional values, and thus places emphasis on different elements of students’ applications. Understanding which criteria are particularly important to the schools to which they are applying will help students prepare thoughtfully and strategically throughout their high school careers, ensuring that they enter the application season with confidence and preparation.

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• June 19, 2024

The Benefits of Participating in Extracurricular Activities

Oluwadara Adetula

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What type of student are you? Are you the type that enjoys extracurricular activities or the type that shies away from them? Extracurricular activities are more than just fun and games or a waste of your precious time. They are a vital part of a well-rounded education for K-12 students like you.

What Are Extracurricular Activites?

Extracurricular activities are non-academic pursuits, such as sports, arts, clubs, and volunteer work, that students participate in outside of their regular school curriculum.

Participating in these activities can significantly enhance your school experience and provide numerous benefits. Whether it’s joining a sports team, participating in a drama club, or engaging in community service, these activities play a crucial role in developing various skills and attributes that are essential for your personal growth and future success.

We’ll discuss some of them in this post.

5 Benefits of Participating in Extracurricular Activities

1. improved academic performance.

Did you know that engaging in extracurricular activities can actually boost your grades? Studies have shown that students who participate in activities like sports, music, or clubs often perform better academically.

This is because these activities teach valuable skills such as time management , discipline, and responsibility, which translate into better study habits and improved focus in the classroom.

2. Development of Social Skills

Joining a team or a club helps you meet new people and make friends. It teaches you how to work with others, communicate effectively, and resolve conflicts. These social skills are crucial for your personal and professional life. Being part of a group also gives you a sense of belonging and can boost your self-confidence .

3. Physical and Mental Health Benefits

Another big plus is that sports and physical activities keep you active and healthy. They reduce stress, improve your mood, and help you maintain a healthy weight. Even non-physical activities like chess or debate can improve your mental health by providing a constructive outlet for stress and anxiety.

4. Exploration of Interests and Talents

Extracurricular activities allow you to explore your interests and discover new talents. Whether it’s playing an instrument, acting in a play, or coding , these activities can help you find your passion and might even influence your future career choices.

5. College and Career Readiness

Many higher education institutions and employers look for well-rounded individuals to join their organisations. Participation in extracurricular activities shows that you are motivated, can manage your time well, and have a variety of skills. It can make your university applications stand out and give you an edge in the job market.

In conclusion, extracurricular activities offer numerous benefits that go beyond the classroom. They help you develop academically, socially, physically, and personally, setting you up for success in all areas of life.

PS: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and all play and no work makes Jack a mere toy!

While you engage in extracurricular activities, don’t forget to make learning fun and easy with the uLesson app. Download and subscribe to the uLesson app to simplify difficult concepts and boost your grades! You can learn in your browser too.

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