Do you feel like every day is the same? Like you can live your life sleeping? Well that’s a perfect time to join a school club! Joining a school club not only helps pass the time, but it can also prepare you for life after high school.

According to the University of Wisconsins’ Office of Admissions and Recruitments, “Beyond academics, we look for qualities such as leadership, contributions to your community,  and achievement in the arts, athletics, and other areas.” 

Leadership is a key tool in a variety of settings, from school group work to corporate projects. Being able to lead a group or a project is great because it shows you are organized, have good communication skills, are committed to projects, and have the ability to keep everyone on track. A couple clubs that North offers to enhance your leadership skills would be Student Council and Link Crew.

In Student Council, everyone starts off just being a member but if you want to be more heavily involved you can work your way up to be a co-chair for a committee. Co-Chairing takes a good amount of leadership and responsibility. Taking on this role multiple times can help you adapt leadership skills and learn important aspects of being a leader. Then you can keep going up and run in the election to have an even higher position. Some roles include being President, Vice President, Treasurer, etc. 

For Link Crew, this club’s main focus is on the incoming freshmen and having older high school students to talk to and to have a guide for their first year of high school.This club truly is a way to work on breaking your comfort zone because you need to be comfortable enough to be honest with them and if you aren’t open and comfortable, they won’t feel comfortable or willing to be open. Which almost defeats the purpose of the club. 

Expanding your comfort zone benefits not only you but your social life and your ability to open up to others and try new things. Some clubs that can help you break out of your comfort zone would include Musical Theater, any Choir Club, and Stage Society. These clubs all require you to work with others. You need to be able to be unapologetically yourself and not allow yourself to hesitate. The more outgoing you are, the better the show and the more confident you will be! When you begin to break your comfort zone, it can be awkward and embarrassing, so why not do it around people you know and start now rather than later!

As you can tell, all clubs require some level of group work, which may be annoying at first. Trust me I only like it when I can work well and pick who I work with. However, if you can prove to yourself that you can use your leadership and ensure that you can work in a group and collaborate with one another, this proves you can handle working in groups and strengthening your leadership skills. Student Council is a great way to improve your group work skills and also enhance your leadership.

Joining a club doesn’t have to take much thought. Maybe you already have a friend in one that you can try. Trying new things is what high school is all about. It’s ok if you make mistakes or embarrass yourself. The worst that can happen is that you fail and make a mistake, but you can learn from it and then move on. If you’d like to join a club, many are accepting new members any day!