Extracurricular Activities

In most countries, extracurricular activities are irrelevant to college acceptance: students take a slate of academic classes, get the desired grades in them, and then polish them off with high scores on standardized tests. No one cares what they did in their free time.

For better or worse, the United States is very different! American college applications consider the “whole student,” and to that end extracurriculars are very important — particularly extracurriculars that demonstrate leadership ability. For homeschoolers, this can present both an opportunity and a challenge. An opportunity, if you live in an area with lots of activities that you as a homeschooler have the time to participate in. But a challenge, if you live in an area where it’s hard to find like-minded folks who share your interests.

Rise Out is eager to support students who would like to to participate in extracurricular activities, or even start their own activities! If you are currently enrolled in one or more Rise Out classes, you may use our Contact page to suggest an activity. Rise Out members should also feel free to make activity suggestions on our Discord, where they can get immediate feedback from other students.

Want more information about how this might work in practice? Watch Jemmie’s video below, in which she describes how she founded an acapella group through Rise Out.