It is important for students to participate in extracurricular activities since they can enrich students’ lives. There are some skills and traits that can’t be taught and trained in class. Here are some of the best extracurricular activities for students.

Volunteer work

Making a difference to communities is one reason students should devote their time to volunteer work. From cleaning up the streets to doing recycling work, you are making the communities better one way or another. 

In addition, you can meet people of all kinds when doing volunteer work, whether it is the people you are doing volunteer work with or the people from organizations you are working with.

Our class volunteered to clean up the environment for a neighborhood near our school. During the process, we met students from other schools that we wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise. 

Also, we were thanked by the people who lived in the neighborhood for cleaning up their sidewalks and alleys. It was an accomplishment for us since the neighborhood looked totally different after we removed the trash and weeds. 

Sports

Leadership, teamwork, and sportsmanship are traits or skills students can learn when they participate in sports. 

I joined a hockey team when I was in first grade. Teamwork is essential if we want to carry out drills successfully and win the game. If everyone in the team is selfish and always wants to score himself and never pass the puck, it is hard for us to win the game. As the saying goes, “there’s no I in team.” Teamwork is the most important thing in sports. 

In life, it is also impossible to succeed without teamwork. Students in my school often complain about group projects. They claim that their grades are often lowered due to the poor performances of their teammates, not because they themselves performed poorly. However, this is missing the point, as cooperation is also a part of the grading criteria, so poor cooperation is actually the main reason that they received low grades. 

Students in our school often ignore their teammates when they have difficulties instead of helping them. This leads to delays in handing in their projects then students start to complain that their teammates aren’t working hard. People who have this kind of mindset will probably not succeed in the future. 

Good sportsmanship is another major part of sports, but this trait is important in areas outside of sports. Honor, discipline, and resilience are all traits a team must have to succeed, but the same characteristics apply to working well at a company or an organization. Let’s say that you are working on an intense project and the job is stressing you out. If you are not resilient enough, the job will drive you crazy. If you are resilient enough, completing the job would be a lot easier.

As for leadership, a team captain needs to lead the team on and off-court. I was once the team captain and I had to deal with matters of all kinds. For instance, as the team captain, I was in charge overseeing warm-ups before games when the coach was not present. Sometimes it’s hard to keep things in control because everyone thinks warming up is a waste of time. 

However, warming up isn’t just about protecting yourself from getting injured, but also getting everyone prepared for the game. Instead of having arguments with my team, the better way was to communicate with them. I would have to tell them if they didn’t warm up they wouldn’t be allowed to play in the game, and this would mean they were being irresponsible toward both the team and themselves.

The same thing applies to life. When others don’t listen to you, communication is better than showing authority. So for me, it is harder to lead the team off-court than on court, because on the court, everyone has a common goal – to win the game. But off-court, it’s a lot harder for others to listen to you, that’s when the leadership skills you learn in sports comes in.

Student organization

Student organizations often hold events such as graduation ceremonies and parties. One party that our school’s student organization hosts attracts thousands of people every year. Members of the student organization have to look for singers and sponsors and lots of equipment for the party. This isn’t an experience that most students go through, and the skills learned from organizing such a large event are valuable for later in life.

Another reason joining student organizations is a good idea is that it trains students how to stand up for themselves. The student delegation in my school had discussions with the school to cancel the eighth period and succeeded. In Taiwan, there are seven periods allowed in high schools per day. However, some schools in Taiwan work around this regulation by arranging tutorial classes between the first and seventh period, while classes like math or Chinese are moved to an “eighth period”. This way, students then actually have eight classes to attend a day.

The school council fought against this, and negotiations were difficult since no student body has ever pushed back regarding this issue. We had to persuade the school that giving students their time back was better than keeping students at school. After a fierce debate with the school administration, students won, and the school agreed to cancel eighth periods for all grades. This incident was a good learning experience for students in how to stand up for themselves and others.

Public speaking / Oral expression

Public speaking and oral expression are important no matter what job you’re doing in the future. It’s important to be able to express your thoughts clearly to your colleagues or supervisors. If you can’t, it is useless for you to have great ideas since others can’t understand your thoughts. Or in some circumstances, poor communication skills can create misunderstandings and or get yourself fired.

Additionally, to excel in public speaking and oral expression requires lots of practice, so the sooner you start the better. There might be some tips you can learn to help you, but the most efficient way is to learn through experience. 

Last but not least, having great public speaking and oral expression skills allows you to influence others’ decisions. Let’s say you and your colleagues have different opinions on how the project should be done. If you have great oral expression skills, you might be able to persuade others to change their mind.

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Taiwanese students spend way too much time on schoolwork. However, studies aren’t the only thing that matter. Students should participate in some extracurricular activities rather than spending all their time on studies. Participating more in extracurriculars rather than spending all their time on studies will enrich students’ lives and help them learn valuable life lessons.