By Olivia Barba
Richardson, Texas
When filling out a job or college application, it’s important to showcase activities that you’ve been a part of outside of school. This allows colleges and jobs to get a sense of who you are outside of your grades. It shows that you’re passionate, eager to learn, and dedicated to helping others or learning about different career fields.
How does it strengthen your college application?
Volunteer and Internship experience can be included in the extracurricular section of your application. Having a strong extracurricular section shows colleges that you are a well-rounded person and gives them another metric to evaluate you outside of grades.
How does it enrich your resume?
Employers like to see that their applicants have experience in the workforce, as here they can cultivate soft skills as well as practice working with a team. An internship is an opportunity for people to gain these skills without actually being part of the workforce. It’s a great entry-level position that cultivates growth. The challenges and learning experiences that are gained from an internship can also be great stories for the behavioral question portion of the interview.
Where to find internship and volunteer opportunities.
LinkedIn and Handshake are great platforms to look for internships. For volunteer opportunities, the local food bank, library, and animal shelters are great places to volunteer at.