Throughout my school career, especially during high school, I have had the opportunity to participate in a vast multitude of volunteer, government, and research-based extracurricular activities that have helped me become a better student and more articulate when I speak in front of audiences.
Included below is an outline of all the civics-related extracurricular activities I have participated in during my career as a student in South Lyon.
National Junior Honor Society – 6th-8th Grades
I was invited to be inducted into the National Junior Honor Society at the end of my 6th grade year. The National Junior Honor Society (or “NJHS”) has 5 pillars, and one of them stands for community engagement. In NJHS, I participated in volunteer and service project opportunities and continued to complete these activities outside of club meetings.
Debate – 9th Grade-Present
I am a member (and the secretary of) of my high school’s debate team. Our debate team is in a legislative format, where one member says a speech in affirmation of a “bill” that team members from each school write, and then another person says a speech in negation of that “bill”. This cycle continues until there are no more speeches for that “bill”, and then we vote on whether or not we want to pass it. Debate has given me a deeper understanding on how Congressional sessions, and our government in general, operate, as well as how the American people can play a role in it.
National History Day – 9th Grade-Present
I love history, and my career aspirations as of the moment are to become a middle school American History teacher. This reflected through my interest to participate in National History Day this year, as well as last year. National History Day requires an extensive (and sometimes annoyingly large) amount of reaserch. For my project (which was a documentary that I edited myself, along with 2 other team members), I contacted the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office in the hope to receive autopsy records, (and nearly disputed that office over FOIA records), and I also collected documents from FBI sources. In all, National History Day allowed me to understand our country’s public document legislature and allowed me to learn more about important but obscure events in US history.
Artifact and Reflection
Artifact: My National History Day documentary from last year – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpfFt6umOhpBAkEJq3ZFwiDprw4yDv6G/view?usp=drive_link
Reflection: not required for this entry/was not specified on the slideshow. However, I will include a brief one anyways.
As I said in the descriptions of the civics-related clubs that I participate in, I LOVE volunteering and research, and these were right up my alley. I enjoyed writing about what they tought me and how they have affected me thus far.
Outside of these clubs, I continuously volunteer, especially at my local church and, occasionally, at my school. I enjoy being active in my community and I look forward to continuing to do so in the future.
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