Are There Benefits to Joining Extracurricular Activities?

With there being over 20 clubs and activities here at HHS, a common question is: Is joining extracurricular activities beneficial? 

Specifically, is joining extracurricular activities effective in building leadership skills, teamwork experience, academic performance, and time management skills? 

Getting involved, whether in a sport or a club, is worth it because joining an extracurricular activity helps set students up for challenges and many other beneficial things. Clubs and activities teach students life skills, such as learning how to work hard, have fun, and accomplish their goals. 

Joining a club or activity has a lot more advantages than one may think. It has been proven that being involved with outside activities helps you develop more empathy and social skills, especially if one were to start during their adolescence. There are plenty of pros to joining a club or activity. Former high school student, Robert Crystal who attends Yale speaks about his experiences with athletics. He has personally learned better: leadership, organization, balance, discipline, and working with others. Robert participated in a bunch of sports in high school. He participated in track and was a cross country runner. He claims that being a mid-distance runner taught him; self discipline and team camaraderie brought him great teamwork skills which is now helping him being in an Ivy League school. He was involved in his school newspaper, music and performing arts, community service, and honors classes. All of these skills are now rewarding due to him being involved with his school during high school. 

If you were to ask an athlete about their most rewarding feeling while being involved  in their sport, one may say there is no greater feeling than overcoming a challenge through a group effort. According to Benjamin Franklin International School, “Whether students are executive members of a club, leading a fundraising project, or preparing a team for a competition, they will gain valuable experience in decision making and will refine their communication and organization skills. They will learn how to present ideas and engage an audience, how to interact with people outside their inner circle of friends, and people with different life experiences, allowing them to build new relationships and make new connections using a variety of media. All these skills will serve them well not only at school but also at the university and at their chosen professional careers in the future.” Being involved not only gives you something to do, but it is useful overall for future life difficulties. 

If one is thinking about joining a club or activity, it is beneficial to all in the long run.