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HOW IMPORTANT ARE EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES?

Updated: Jul 28, 2021

Why are extracurricular activities such prime and indispensable, especially to students? What are the major benefits of after-school projects participation? Does it have any risks or negative impacts? This article will answer these questions and give personal advice on joining extracurricular activities! Follow us!

*Disclaimer: The information below is virtually based on my own experiences and knowledge while doing college research. Hence, open-minded internalization is encouraged! However, discussions and debating are appreciated.

Source: Mas Pixel


The globalization era has made a significant impact on humanity's evolution. Thus, people kept making an effort to give prominence to enhance their life quality, and to foster that process; they made it the primary purpose of education. Especially in the age of technology, that mission is even more appropriate, which requires youth to be a comprehensive individual, viz., they must balance them in academic ability and extracurricular skills.



Academic achievement has always been a grand scale to evaluate students' competency standards. Since the education system existed, people defaulted on the attested academic certificate to search for talents. Therefore, the differentiation in educational and training regimes is based on each student's 'ability level.' i.e., suppose your score (which is the most common way to determine students' capabilities) attains a required level. In that case, you deserve to have a high-quality environment that would give you more chances and higher academic standards. Nowadays, academic achievement is not the only way or the only expected aspect for youth, but more challenging and practical: many more skills are needed.


1. AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES' ADVANTAGES:

Since when did extracurricular skills become that important? And why is its impact so indispensable for us? This article will list the top benefits of out-of-school projects to demonstrate my thinking and viewpoint about this theme.


1.1 Setting up a self-motivated mindset:

Firstly, extracurricular activities forge you to have an effusive and proactive mindset. Social activities and collective operations would be an ample opportunity for you to meet and connect to many people with different natures and attitudes. That would provide you with a wide range and extensive perspective, responsibility cultivation, and an open-minded viewpoint.


1.2. Improve necessary social skills:

Spending time participating in school clubs or projects would be a chance for adolescents to hoard diversified and essential experiences and learn from the intensive training sessions, comprehensive events or field trips, and even from clubmates/colleagues. Those empirical practices will be the most efficient assistant in real life, as afterschool pursuits could reform multifarious skills' edges.


1.3. Raise self-confidence, higher self-esteem and enhance academic performance

Building long-lasting friendships, expanding your networking, gaining transferable and cross-functional skills such as communication, decision-making, integrity, problem-solving, time management, etc. Furthermore, developing leadership abilities on your own would bring you more opportunities as recruiters or employability managers after graduation. Moreover, social skills will help you be more confident, which supports your academic performance.


1.4. Provide a wholesome environment for developing judicious standpoints or opinions:

An extracurricular project provides an intriguing and engaging environment to foster interpersonal skills. Communication empowerment is a byword for example. As for extracurricular activities, communication plays a vital role in helping you achieve your targets and missions; therefore, people would be more communicative when working together to finish tasks. Thus, communication is as essential for social events as it is for academic examinations. That is also the main reason why many recruiters want to know candidates' communicative proficiency.


1.5. Explore your interests, boost broader perspective:

The more you join in and achieve success through multiple activities, the more chances to unlock your passions and discover implicit capabilities! In addition, engrossments' diversification subsequently broadens your viewpoint. For instance, taking part in a debate club could help you become a critical mind and have a multi-dimensional worldview.


1.6. Effective breaks:

Learn-and-play activities could help you strengthen personal thinking while doing some time off hitting the book. It's a productive way to both entertain and study!


2. DISADVANTAGES

Nevertheless, extracurricular activities nowadays are being overused by adolescents. Whereby, the attestation of skills and activities are fast debasing nowadays. Besides the indisputable benefits, there are still many disadvantages to extracurricular activities.


2.1. Time-consuming:

Any after-school projects require collaborators to pay a certain amount of time maintaining operations and doing tasks. To students, especially high-school students, to set up a balance between academic tasks and extracurricular activities are always a different quest, and sometimes they would struggle to cope with too many issues and let time waste, viz., they could not prioritize or do their best either to achieve academic prizes or out-of-schools plans.

2.2 Negative mental influences:

Paying lots of effort to contribute and cover all the things from schools to plus-activities could leave tiredness and frustration on your mental health. If this bad mental state becomes long-lasting, you won't be able to be in full possession to be productive and make effective products.


3. REFERENCES:

3.1 Projects/ Organizations:

All in all, the significance that after-school activities bring out is indisputable. In this age of globalization, social skills are our first and most important 'passport' for our life. These are some projects/organizations available for pupils. We will keep searching for projects and organizations to update this list:

1. Project SUGAR - A student-run project with educational missions, organizing the classroom, field trips for underprivileged children

2. AIESEC - Developing potential leadership skills for youth

3. SEALNet - A non-profit project aiming to foster leadership mindset as well as construct a firming Asian community

4. VOGE Tổ chức thúc đẩy Bình đẳng giới Việt Nam - An Vietnamese Organization with the top mission is to promote gender equality

5. Volunteer For Education H.C.M. (V.E.O.) - A networking platform that connects volunteers worldwide, aiming to support disadvantaged people.

6. iChange Youth Camp

7. Eunoia Project - A non-profit organization with missions supporting autistic children.


3.2 Reference Platform:

Moreover, you can learn and improve critical mindset and logical thought through some of these highly recommended pages/channels:

  • Monster Box

  • TED-Ed

  • VSPACE Education - An online educational platform for the pioneers by providing necessary tips, knowledge, and comprehensive mentorship for students in college appliances, tests, etc

  • impact

  • Vox

  • VOGE Tổ chức thúc đẩy Bình đẳng giới Việt Nam

  • Hỏi Chấm Project

  • Vương Quốc Bảy Bủm:


3.3 Contests:

Also, there are contests/cases/programs' conferences you can try to boost your skills therewithal:

  • Academic Contests:

Future Eastern Stars 2021:

  • Programs Conferences:

National Student Leadership Conference

  • International Entrepreneurship competitions:

a. Tiger Global Case Competition (TGCC)

Visit website: https://www.casecomp.org/

b. Youth Financial Analysis Competition (YFAC) (Register Form open until 31/7/2021)

c. Diamond Challenge

d. Blue Ocean High School Entrepreneur Pitch Competition

e. DECA Competitive Events

f. GENIUS Olympiad: Business

  • Model United Nations (M.U.N)

  • Hackathon/ S.T.E.M contests:

a. EduHack

Visit website: https://eduhack.eu/

b. NASA'S SPACE APPS CHALLENGE

Visit website: https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/

c. HackMIT 2021:

Visit website: https://hackmit.org/

d. Imagine Cup:

e. International Olympiad in Informatics (I.O.I.):

  • International Design Contest for high school students:

a. Taiwan International Student Design Competition 2021 (TISDC)

Visit website: https://www.tisdc.org/en

b. 2021 Design Challenge:

  • Debate Competitions:

a. National Schools Debating Championship 2021

b. Vietnam British-Parliamentary Championship

c. World Scholar's Debate Cup (WSDC):

d. World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC)

e. Beihang International Winter Online B.P. Open 2021

f. Singapore Pre-WSDC

g. Shanghai International Debate Open

  • Moot Court/ Mock Trial Competition

4. WRAP UP

In the end, extracurricular activities are still a useful assistant for every students' generation. We sincerely hope that this post will help you make the right decision and become balanced in academic achievement and after-school projects! See ya ^^

Credit: Ivy Hoang

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