Extracurricular is an extraordinary word that has multiple words combined into one. The first part, “extra” is defined as adding to an existing or usual amount. The second piece of the word “curricular” relates to the subjects comprising a course of study. When you combine both words, you get the meaning of extracurricular, “an activity pursued in addition to the course of study”. Students at all levels of study nationwide participate in various extracurricular activities such as clubs, sports, employment, etc. In this article, we dug deeper into figuring out which extracurriculars students at Panther Creek High School participate in and why they choose to get involved.

Panther Creek High School is ranked as the 12th-best high school in North Carolina. In a school as competitive as ours, students do as much as they can to gain an edge over other students. Extracurricular activities are one of the best ways to make you stand out in a crowd full of academically achieving students. Kavish, a 9th-grader at the school says he runs for the cross country team affiliated with the school. Many other students of all ages participate in school sports as one of their extracurriculars. 

More than 90% of colleges and universities nationwide report that they review applications holistically, meaning that the school looks at you as a person along with just your grades. Knowing this, students try to expand their applications as much as possible. Students make their applications more attractive to schools by adding plenty of extracurricular activities. 

On average, high school students work about 15-20 hours per week. We asked the students at Panther Creek High School and found that 55.1% of students are currently employed. Although employed students spend 7 hours at school and follow up with a few hours at work, most students said that working a job doesn’t have a negative effect on their grades.

Many students are aware of the holistically reviewed applications, so they feel like they are forced to add more to their already busy schedule and get into an extracurricular activity. With that being said, many students said they are often than not, overwhelmed with stress while managing multiple activities to go along with school.

With that being said, employment, sports, and clubs draw the attention of many high school students just like me. Although they may seem to have many benefits, they commonly add unnecessary stress and work to the students who already have enough on their plates every day. When you come across the extracurricular crossroads, I advise you to do what you can, but not too much to handle.