I am pretty sure that I would like to do a political science major in college. I have done mostly volunteering and music as my main extracurriculars. What can I do that is more government oriented? I am trying to page with my state representative but its just an application to fill out so it doesn’t show anything special.
Do what you love and love what you do for ECs. One of my kids had mostly music related ECs, and a lot of them. That and the swim team were it.
Kid majored in bioengineering. Clearly, her High School ECs had nothing to do with her eventual college major.
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You can pursue any ECs and become a polisci major. Anything you enjoy and that you can make a contribution to will work.
That said, if you are very interested in politics there is a pretty big election coming up so you could see about volunteering somewhere.
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Do what you enjoy. If you want to get a taste of political life, some things my daughter (NOT a poli sci major, btw) did in high school were internship with local state assemblymember, internship with local state senator, served on a city council committee, phone banked for political candidates and participated in get out the vote initiatives, worked with a youth-focused nonprofit to give webinars for high school and college students on the political process and basic civics topics, voting, how to get involved in your community, etc. So there are lots of options. But the important thing is to do what you actually ENJOY doing and not what you think colleges want to see.
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My two cents is if you are interested in politics, you just can’t beat volunteering for election campaigns, and in some ways the smaller/more local ones can be a lot more interesting experiences. But I would echo others in suggesting you don’t need to do this to impress colleges. I just think it is a great way to explore an interest in politics and get real world experiences that might help make some of your classes more meaningful to you.
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Volunteering is good. Many organizations may have advocacy or government affairs efforts while the legislature, or county or city councils meet and determine budgets.
More money for teachers, new construction, new curriculum, etc…
Your local political parties may have voter registration drives or get out the vote efforts.
As others said, do what you love - music is great.
But perhaps you can get a summer job at a law firm…or work with a local group like a shelter (homeless or animal) and in addition to helping out around, maybe ask for experience with the director in learning grant writing or about how they interact with local officials…as a bonus.
There’s many things you can do - and poli sci runs the gamut. My spouse and daughter mentored a refugee family - and then there’s the local group that does so - usually Catholic Charities or the Lutheran…not only are you mentoring, but you’re learning how to help them navigate public services and you even learn the laws related to refugee - so not only is it doing something to help people, but you can get great insights into the processes too.
There’s a lot of things - maybe not directly related - but tangential.
But no matter what you do - even working at a grocery store bringing in carts from the parking lot - anything is great!!!
Good luck
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Do volunteer work for a candidate running for office. Candidates love volunteers. It can be for a local election (assuming local elections in your area are contested) or state level. Do your research–pick someone who you would vote for and support. It’s a great experience and you’ll probably get a variety of tasks. Also, a good way to learn about the US election process.
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Look at local or State campaigns and offer to volunteer. Your odds of making an impact are greater this way.
If you’re liberal-ish, you can also call/email Run for Something (org for liberal 1st-time candidates); or if you’re conservative, look into RunGenZ’s needs – ask whether one of their candidates needs a volunteer, because young candidates often do!
Finally, you can join a Get Out the Vote organization; you’ll learn how to talk to people you don’t know, you’ll get to know cool new people, you’ll exercise -and you can even set sth up at your HS, like a voters registration drive competition.
See if your high school has student representatives on the Board of Education. We do here.
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