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Nolan Coburn
Professor Jerri A. Harwell
ENGL 2010-067 (Position Proposal)
5 April 2016
Position Proposal
Being involved in extracurricular activities in high school can and does have a major
impact on the lives of students. Student involvement often sets the tone for high school,
continued education and life afterward. Many students however fail to get involved in high
school and do not get the rewards that the involvement in extracurricular activities offers to
youth both during and after high school. I have seen the benefits that being involved in high
school can offer a student directly, through my own life experience and I have also furthered my
understanding of the effects of being involved in high school through research.
Starting out in high school as a sophomore I was not involved in high school I did fine in
school and got pretty good grades but I did not have many friends and did not take pride in
myself or my work. I did what was required to get by but there was a lot more to gain from high
school that I was not taking advantage of. I was just floating through high school because it was
the thing to do. It was while I was drudging through this boring year however that my mom
made me take voice lessons and through those voice lessons I started to get involved in the choir
program at my school.
After taking voice lessons I really got into singing. I joined my high schools concert
choir my junior year and also was a brother in the schools musical Joseph and the Technicolor
Dream Coat. My senior year I stayed in concert choir and also made it into my high schools
madrigal group. I also did All State where I joined a choir with high school students from across

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the state and I got an enhanced diploma in music. I also sung in church a few times over the
years, I sung in groups, duets, and even a solo for my church.
Being in all the choirs and different musical groups I was in, the last two years of high
school, really changed the
experience that I had at high
school. I made a ton of new
friends and really started to
enjoy school. I had things to
look forward to like choir tour in
Ney York and San Diego. My
entire attitude towards high

Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat

school shifted, I was no longer just floating through but I was really making my path. It was an
amazing and different experience being in the high school musical and being in madrigals was
incredible, especially during the Christmas season where we did over sixty gigs for elementary
schools, rest homes, hospitals, churches and more.
The music programs I was in during high school also changed the person that I was. I
built a lot more self-confidence and willingness to put myself out there and try new things. I got
more involved in school and tried out new programs like NHS and a business class that was
offered at a the Canyons Technical Education Center. Today I still benefit from the selfconfidence and willingness to try new things. This semester I am taking a scuba diving class. I do
not know that I would have taken scuba if I had never shifted my focus from floating through life
and doing the required stuff to making my path through life full of awesome things.
From my own experience, I have seen that being involved in high school can make a big
difference in a persons life. I have found through research that this positive correlation between
high school involvement and improved outlook and performance as a student is a trend that tends

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to remain true for the average student. I have found a lot of evidence of this correlation in many
research studies and I have found many theories that explain why we see this correlation. Many
people are concerned however that many students are actually over scheduling themselves with
extracurricular activities and because of this they are not performing as well academically and
have a more negative outlook. I have found in my research that while it is possible for a student
to take on too much extracurricular activity, few students do and there is a much bigger problem
with students not being involved in high school at all.
It has been proven through many various studies that students who are involved in
extracurricular activities are more likely to succeed in high school and college. According to the
University of Michigan, teens that are involved in activities during high school are more likely
than teens that didnt participate in any organized activities to have higher grades as high school
seniors and to still be in college six years later( Solinger 1). I have found many studies that
point to similar positive correlations between a students high school involvement, their outlook
in high school, and their success in high school and continuation into college. One of the studies
that I read about studied three classes at Southeast Polk high school, this study surveyed students
in an art class, talented and gifted class, and a sophomore English class and found that in all of
the classes the students who were involved in high school had higher mean GPA. Another study
that I read used the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 as their data and assessed how the
breadth and depth of student involvement in extracurricular activities affected the students
mathematical test scores, grade point average, educational expectations and post-secondary
education. This study found that the breadth or number of different activities a student was in
involved in had a positive correlation in all four areas until the correlations became negative
when the student exceeded between five and seven extracurricular activities. The students who
were moderately involved in high school generally had higher math test scores and GPAs, and a

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better academic outlook and were also more likely to be involved in post-secondary education
two years after high school (Fredricks 302). The study found similar results for the students who
were had higher depth or hours of involvement in extracurricular activities. In assessing
depth,

Correlations between breadth of student involvement and academic performance

the

researchers also found a similar correlation between depth, and a students involvement in
post-secondary education four years after high school (Fredricks 302).
Throughout my research process I also read over many theories that talk about why
extracurricular activities help students to succeed. I am going to focus on two primary
advantages that my research pointed to and that I found in my own experience. I am going to
focus on the skills that students develop through the participation in extracurricular activities and
the supportive network of peers and adults that students gain through participation in these
activities.
Students who participate in extracurricular activities learn many useful skills. One of the
articles I read said, Extracurricular activities can enhance students time management and stress,
management skills, improving overall productivity (Importance of Extracurricular Activities
1). Time management is a major skill that students who take on extracurricular activities learn.
For example when I was involved in my high schools musical, every day I would go to school,

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then to musical practice, and then to work and would usually arrive home between eight-thirty
and ten oclock at night ready to do my homework. During this period of time I learned how to
manage my homework time very effectively and I learned how to really focus in and get my
homework done. I finished that semester with a 4.0 GPA and with a lot of lessons learned about
time management and what I could achieve if I really worked smart and hard. This ability, to
organize time, is also very useful later in life. When students are done with school, they will be
expected to juggle a job, a family, and many other things that require successful time
management skills (Solinger 2). There is definitely great value in learning how to manage time
in high school because most people find, life gets even more crowded after high school. There
are other skills that students learn from participation in extracurricular activities, including
discipline, goal-setting, teamwork, accountability and responsibility (Importance of
Extracurricular Activities 3), these skills are also valuable as students take them into the reset of
their lives.
Another major advantage participation in high school gives students is the network of
supportive peers and adults that it links them to. Participation in organized activities can link
youth to supportive adults and academically-oriented peers who can provide them with social
capital and encourage them to comply with school norms and values (Fredricks 306). I
definitely felt a supportive network that of wonderful friends and adults who stood behind me
and pushed me in the right direction when I got involved in high school. I felt this especially
strongly in my madrigal group. As the madrigals we did so many performances together,
especially during Christmas time, and spent so much time together that we all developed an
incredible bond between ourselves and with our instructor. When I was in madrigals I always
knew I had friends that supported me. I also could study with my madrigal friends and get help
with anything. I also know that many of the madrigals felt especially responsible to keep their

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grades above a 3.0 so that they could stay in the group not just for themselves but for everyone
else to. There was definitely a ton of positive peer pressure that helped all of us do our best in
school.
There is a growing concern that many students over-schedule themselves in
extracurricular activities and because of
this do worse in high school. Two of the
studies that I read were concerned with
the over-scheduling problem. One of
these studies: "Too Much of a Good
Thing? How Breadth Of Extracurricular
Participation Relates To School-Related
Affect And Academic Outcomes During
Adolescence by Casey A Knifsend and
Sandra Graham found that it was

Madrigals at Temple Square

optimal for students to participate in one to two activities. After that there was an extreme
negative correlation associated with more activities. Students who took on three or more
activities performed worse than students who were not involved at all. This study concluded that
while there are advantages in being moderately involved in high school there is definitely a
major problem with students who are overinvolved (Knifsend, Graham 379). This study stood in
contrast with the other study I read. This study by Jenifer A. Fredricks was the study that I used
earlier that discussed the effects of breadth and depth in student involvement. This study
found the optimum number of activities to be around five activities. It also showed an advantage
of all students who were over involved over students who were not involved at all. The only

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exception was in the breadth study where it was found that students who were involved in
more than nine activities did worse on the math tests (Fredricks 302).
Another finding by Fredricks was that

Correlations
between
depth of
student
involvement and

relatively few students were actually

overscheduled and that there were a lot more students who were not involved at all. Fredricks
found that only 3.3% (of students) spent over 20h per week on extracurricular participation
(303). Fredricks also found that only 7.2% (of students ) involved in 7 or more activities(303).
This was in contrast to the finding that 21.3% (of students) did not participate in any
extracurricular context (and), 34.6% did not participate during atypical week (Freddrikcs 303).
It can be seen through both studies, despite optimal involvement being contested, that some
involvement is favorable. It can also be seen through Freddricks research that there in not a very
big problem with students overscheduling themselves but there is a much bigger problem with
students not being involved at all.
In light of my findings, both of the advantages of being involved in high school and of
the many students who are not involved in high school, I believe that it is important for schools
to go out of their way to get more students involved. I am now going to discuss how involvement
in school reaches beyond just academics. Then I will suggest ways that high schools could
implement strategies to get more students involved in high school.

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Involvement in high school reaches beyond the academic scope I discussed above.
Among the nonacademic advantages are the nonacademic skills that students learn through
engaging in extracurricular activities. These skills include skills in the activity itself, which could
give the student an advantage in life or simply a recreational outlet. There are other skills that
Fredricks mentions in her journal including task persistence, independence, following
instructions, working with others (and) interpersonal competence (304). Students who
participate in these activities also learn social skills. All of these skills taken together can really
enhance the life of students who participate in extra curricular activities.
Another nonacademic advantage of involvement includes reduced risk of dropping out of
high school (Fredricks 304) and risky behavior (Importance of Extracurricular Activities 3).
The article, "The Importance of Extracurricular Activities for Teens" discusses a program called
SKATERS that helps at risk teens, it says Participation in extracurricular and school club
activities increases resiliency in youth by promoting protective factors and reducing risk
factors(2). Students who are involved in extracurricular activities a typically take part in less
risky activities than their noninvolved counterparts. This is because the students who are
involved are busier, have a support network of friends and adults, and feel more accountable to
their team or club for their actions. This is another major nonacademic advantage that helps
students get through high school without problems associated with risky behavior.
It can be seen from the academic advantages and other advantages I have written about
above that there truly are some major advantages in getting involved in extracurricular activities
in school. There remains the question of how to get more students involved in high school. I
think that there are many strategies that schools could take to get more students involved. One
suggestion I have is that schools could have a class about the various activities offered at the
school. In middle school I had a CTE class that took one semester and introduced me to the

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various aspects of CTE. The class that introduces students to the various extracurricular
programs could operate like this one and it could either be a required class or a class that is
highly recommended especially for students who do not know what they want to get involved in.
The class could also be structured like a class that I had I high school called AIP. AIP was a half
an hour class that took place every day in my first quarter of my sophomore year. The
sophomores went to the class while the rest of the school had a study or break period. In AIP I
got introduced to the school but I was not really introduced to the programs the school had to
offer. I think that including an extracurricular introduction program in programs like AIP could
really help students to get involved.
Schools could also use their counselors to get students involved; my counselors in high
school told me what classes I needed to take to graduate. I think students could really be helped
by their counselors in getting involved in school if the counselors would also talk about the
students interests and recommend a program for the student to get involved in. Both the class
and counselor assisted methods could also help educate students on the negative effects of
overscheduling themselves.
My final suggestion that I propose is that schools work to stop cutting extracurricular
funding and instead work to increase the number and quality of extracurricular programs that
they offer. Freddricks says in her journal that The No Child Left behind Act has resulted in
many schools making cuts to their extracurricular programming. The findings of this study
suggest that cutting these programs may be a short sighted and misguided policy decision. In
fact, extracurricular programming may actually help schools in meeting the requirements of No
Child Left Behind (304). I agree with Fredricks, it is important for schools to provide students
with a wide variety of quality options for their extracurricular activities. Knifsend and Graham
also wrote about the importance of including a wide variety of extracurricular activities for

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students to participate in, they said, an adolescent who is academically and artistically inclined
my feel alienated from school if he/she can only participate in sports or other clubs that are of no
interest. Thus it is essential that schools offer a number of extracurricular activities that capture
the diverse interests of the entire student body (388). It is definitely very important that schools
provide the necessary breadth of activities so that each student can become involved and reap the
benefits.
Through this paper I have shown that there are many academic and nonacademic
advantages when students get involved in high school. For some students, it is of the greatest
importance that they do get involved, whether it be because it will help take them away from a
destructive path or because it will lead them to find a path of incredible possibilities, getting
involved in high school will make a dramatic difference in their lives. I have pointed out many
ways in which schools can get more involved in getting students to participate in extracurricular
actives, and I propose that schools take action on implementing one or all of the strategies that I
suggested. As schools help students get involved in extracurricular activities, they will help them
grow academically, become better students, and blossom as incredible people and citizens; is this
not the goal of every high school everywhere?

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Works Cited
Fredricks, Jennifer A. "Extracurricular Participation and Academic Outcomes: Testing The OverScheduling Hypothesis." Journal of Youth And Adolescence 41.3 (2012): 295-306. ERIC.
Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
Knifsend, Casey, and Sandra Graham. "Too Much of a Good Thing? How Breadth Of
Extracurricular Participation Relates To School-Related Affect And Academic Outcomes
During Adolescence." Journal Of Youth & Adolescence 41.3 (2012): 379-389 11p.
CINAHL Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
Solinger, Jayna. "A Students Involvement Encourages Good Grades." Iowa Sate University.
Web. 4 Apr. 2016. <http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rhetoric/105H16/cofp/jlscofp.html>.
"The Importance of Extracurricular Activities for Teens." I Have A Plan Iowa. Iowa Department
of Education. Web. 04 Apr. 2016. https://www.ihaveaplaniowa.gov/Home/Article.aspx?
articleId=IGeYH2kUApurN7JfmoFVeQXAP3DPAXXAP3DPAX>.