As soon as the blaring alarm of the final bell rings through the school, doors are thrown open and thundering footsteps sound throughout the hallways. Most students are rushing to get home and collapse on their beds or catch up with their friends. Some, however, pull on jerseys or grab their scripts, and get ready for another round of learning.

Students participate in extracurricular activities everyday, and in doing so they learn important skills that can help them in school and in life. Extracurriculars can bring students together, as well as teach them how to organize themselves to be prepared for college and being an adult.

“I think that extracurricular activities make you a more well-rounded person. By that, I mean it gives you another person’s viewpoint, you can make new friends, you can solve problems,” parent Brenda Hardy said. She went on to say, “I think that people who learn to like adapt and learn to manage their time and their efforts, I think that will give them skills that they’ll use their entire life.”

The skills one can learn in an extracurricular activity include: problem solving, community contributing, leadership skills, how to communicate with others, as well as how to find commonalities among peers. They can also learn to be compassionate, and how to think creatively.

“My communication skills have gone up. So has my confidence. Also, my creativity has gone up; just using the more creative side of my brain. I’ve noticed that I’ve been more creative in school because of being able to stretch my creative abilities in extracurricular activities,” a theater student named Bailee Fowler said.

All while students learn new skills, they can also learn a crucial skill for success: organization. Learning to successfully balance all of the activities going on in your life can help a student when they need to balance between things such as a job and college. Managing the time and efforts placed into extracurriculars can “boost your academics”, as Brenda Hardy stated.

“I make sure that I get at least the minimums for working on Robotics and school, and then I’ll go back and see if I have time to add more detail into projects or spend some more time on robotics,” Hope Dean shared how she manages to keep a balance between her extracurricular and her academic efforts. “I make sure to prioritize all my assignments and projects throughout the week.”

Learning to prioritize is also an important part of extracurricular activities, but it’s also important to remember that extracurriculars aren’t just fun events to keep students occupied after school. There are actually times in a students life when having participated in extracurriculars could help them.

“I know that colleges and employers look for extracurricular things on college applications and resumes.” Brenda Hardy said, when speaking about the benefits of participating in extracurriculars. She also added that she “was surprised that I could be friends with people from different backgrounds and different age groups and people that on the surface we didn’t have anything in common.”

Extracurriculars have given students many excellent benefits, and as Hardy has said, “I think if you can fit it into your schedule, you should do something fun and maybe something that gives back.”