The Importance of Activities that Complement Learning Beyond a Classroom Setting

Your extra-curricular involvement plays a key role in the university admissions process. At highly selective schools, admissions officers will tell you that over 40% of applicants are academically qualified to get in, but they can’t admit all of those students (Emily Wolper, n.d., para 1). I totally agree the students in university participate in their co-curriculum activities such as club and society, sport, voluntary, and so forth. Students always involve in extracurricular activities not only for entertainment, enjoyment, and social purpose, but most important is to gain and improve skill. Thus, there are four reason university students should involve in co-curriculum activities which is gaining experience as a leader, building self-assurance, acquiring skill in well managing our time, and exploring new interest.

First, co-curricular activities are particularly good at providing opportunities for students to work in teams, to exercise leadership, and to take the initiative themselves. These experiences can make students more attractive to the potential of employers in the future. By having a wider range of experience in becoming a leader, students are able to prepare themselves better for the future, especially in today’s uncertain world. Engagement with non-academic pursuits is not only beneficial in students’ development, but it is known to be highly value by the employers (Andrews, 2013). There are many activities that can be held in the university and the students can get themselves involve as a leader. For instance, the Student Representative Council in every university provides a platform for the students in university in learning to be an altruistic and ambitious leader that is able to bring benefits to the university and also the other students.

Second, student will build self-assurance when they interact with each other in a team so that they are able to complete the challenging task together. Some of the introvert students will be trained to speak with other team members in order to improve their social skills. Meanwhile, this social skill will motivate the introvert students to show their confidence when they try to talk in front of many people. Extra-curricular activities help to develop the whole student. We cannot just produce one-dimensional students in our schools. Many students use their skills in extra-curricular activities like athletics or sports and their academic ability to gain athletic or sports scholarships to various universities (‘‘Extra-curricular’’, 2013, para3). Furthermore, most of the employers do not prefer to employ a book worm that only sticks to the bookshelf but is preferable to hire those that have high confidence in themselves and with excellent social skills.

In addition, student involvement in co-curricular activities in university will help them learn how to manage their time efficiently. Effective time management is critical for the success of students (Manns, 2010). Time management is important not only in university but also in workplace. Having a good skill in time management is an advantage to students in finding jobs after graduated. Since students are busy with their studies and the curricular activities they need to manage their time so that their schedule didn’t collide with each other. For example, having a good time management skill will allow students to prioritize the important things first such as their assignment, report and so on. If students don’t involve in any co-curricular activities they tend to delay their works because they thought that they have plenty of time and tend to waste their time. Therefore, involved in curricular activities is good to nourish the time management skills in students.

Students may also have the opportunity to explore a new interest and possibly discover a new passion by joining co-curricular activities. Some of the university students may feel lost at some stages, wondering whether they are on the right future path or not. By involving themselves in co-curricular activities, they may probably find the new enthusiasm that is worth for them to persuade. They will feel more motivated to invest their time in doing something they like to do, emotionally better and ready to take the challenge of studying variety of different subjects in university. Co-curricular activities are the only way to achieve target for students. They must be involved in such activities for the health of their brain and as well as their bodies (Riazameen, 2013).

In contrast, too much involvement in co-curricular activities in university will cause the students feeling lot of stress, being overly impatient, and feeling the constant pressure to give the best performance (Campbell, 2014). When students have a lot to handle in one time they will lose their enthusiasm in things that they are doing. When we do something that we are not enjoy to do, the outcomes will not be good. However, this kind of things can be prevented if students can manage their time properly. Students also can seek advices from the seniors who faced the same issue in balancing their studies and co-curricular activities. In fact, involve in many curricular activities can give a lot of benefits.

In conclusion, students should involve in many co-curricular activities such as debate and discussion, clubs, sports and games and so on because it gives many positive impacts on students’ life such as gain experiences to be a leader, can build self-assurance and can learn how to manage time properly. Involve in co-curricular also can help students in socialization, self-identification and self-assessment. From our opinion, students should be encouraged to join the co-curricular activities in university so they can practice how to balance their academic and co-curricular activities. Taking part in a variety of activities and opportunities helps you not only learn and grow as an individual but also builds your resume for the future. Consider what you want your resume to look like after you graduate (‘‘Balancing Academics’’, 2009, para 11).

Extra-curricular Activities Are Important For Students

Over the years, the writer have to persuade a number of parents to allow their children to continue participating in extra-curricular activities, because they felt that these activities distracted their children from their academic work. They felt this extra-curricular involvement just wasting their time. Hence, this situation is pathetic when a student was struggling academically or when the student wanted to focus totally on academics, and then they need to exclude everything else. Academic subjects and extra-curricular activities complement each other and develop a well-rounded, socially skilled, and healthier student. Besides that, extra-curricular activities help to develop the whole student. Many students use their skills in extra-curricular activities like athletics or sports and their academic ability to gain athletic or sports scholarships to various universities. Moreover, involvement in co-curricular activities help students learn time management, critical thinking, teamwork and social skills. They learn useful new skills from their chosen activity, and in integrating these activities into their daily life. These skills will be beneficial in later life and even become more marketable in the workplace. However, students find it much easier to gain admission into universities because they want something to offer besides academic qualifications. Finally, the writer hopes more parents and students will see the importance of extra-curricular activities and build their interests and hobbies so that the whole society will benefit. AKGM who is one of the readers commented below: “A lot of careers are built directly from hobbies.”

It is natural to want your children to excel in many aspects including in curricular. But some parents may not realize that they can push their children too hard. Parents think their children as a second chance to achieve their ambitious that they cannot have and resulting them to push their children. Pushing children to involved in curricular activities in young age can causes a negative impacts toward the children such as stress level increase, being overly impatient and feeling constant pressure. However, there are also benefits to let children involved in curricular activities such as can learn about different culture, boosts children chances to accepted in a good college or university and can improved health. Parents need to monitor their children’s curricular activities just in case their activities can be too overwhelming for them. Parents need to avoid from putting too much pressure to their children and always support them.