<p>is a sophomore in HS and would like to go to a Ivy/top college so learship position are important…problem is she’s an official in a club but not the president…so I wonder if there is anything I can do to help? I know she wanted to be elected President but she was elected for an official position only…any ideas for me…Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Beyond doing club activities, your daughter must constantly ask questions and offer comments during club meetings. It may sound minute, but believe me, they help immensely. As President of a club, I already know who will take my position after I graduate just due to this circumstance. It shows commitment, curiousity, and definitely exposure when elections come up.</p>
<p>Although most kids accepted at Ivies and other top schools have leadership skills, I don’t think they’ve necessarily held leadership positions. Leadership may be expressed in class and community service as well as through being elected. Adcoms are aware that club officers other than the president make important contributions to any organization. I guess I’m saying that not being president of a group won’t be seen as a deficiency in your child’s applications, so I’d encourage your child to concentrate on serving this group well. She may yet be elected president (in our hs, most leadership positions are held by seniors).</p>
<p>Girl Scouts is a way to obtain leadership skills - they have awards the girls can earn (called leadership awards), plus they can work towards the Girl Scout Gold Award (like an Eagle Scout). She doesn’t have to be in a troop to join GS; she could join as a Juliette (a girl who is active without a troop). It is a lot of work and time involvement though, although I don’t think you are going to find a quick fix to the leadership question. </p>
<p>Also, a community service project that she organizes would help. </p>
<p>Or volunteering with a local chamber of commerce might help. </p>
<p>Think in terms of something she can start, lead, direct. A new club? A community service project? Raising money for a charity?</p>
<p>Look for Youth Leadership programs, often run by the chamber of commerce or other local community organizations. There are alot of organized youth leadership programs out there. Does your high school have leadership tech classes? We had no idea that the only way to meaningful SGA positions at our high school was through the leadership tech classes until we stumbled on the info. (At least it means less of a popularity contest.)</p>
<p>honestly, the whole wanting to be a president of a high school club may not happen. those clubs have so many cliques and this and that, the leader probably knows who will be taking over and that’s that. i was part of a club in high school and we had two people running for president and one of the kids was going to be a junior and one was going to be a senior and the junior won. our current president decided that vote didn’t count and that she wanted the other guy to become president because he had been in the club for two years instead of one, and because she was really good friends with him. she went in and declared him winner. the rest of us who were there for the vote count were absolutely appauled, and the club shortly after disbanded.</p>
<p>i would just look for other things, i mean stay in the club, but maybe some volunteering activities or something like that. and maybe her club isn’t crooked so she can become president, who knows.</p>
<p>I would really just encourage her to follow her interests. My son’s leadership roles (captain of Scholars Bowl team and director of 2 plays) happened because he was pursuing his own passions and having fun with them. If your daughter has an interest that the school doesn’t have a group for, she might be able to start her own. A group of students at my son’s school started a Philosophy Club that morphed into doing poetry slams at a local cafe and now they’re putting together a book of their own poetry. Might never be published, but a cool thing to do. I’d suggest you not try to manage this too much. If it’s your interest instead of hers, that will come through.</p>
<p>The elite schools are looking for kids with special interests, abilities and accomplishments. Joining school clubs and participating in common everyday sorts of activities does not demonstrate anything beyond the ordinary. I doubt that winning a popularity contest for a club officer or president position is worth much either.</p>
<p>I would second the Girl Scout Gold Award idea (it’s a great program), but I’m thinking that if your daughter is already a sophomore, there may not be enough time to finish the requirements. The prerequisites alone take at least a year to complete, and then there’s the service project, which can be very labor-intensive.</p>
<p>If she DOES decide to try it, I’d suggest she go the Juliet route (as Pearl mentioned.) That way, she would avoid the appearance of joining a troop just to earn the award.</p>
<p>She should start her own club, recruit members (her friends), and set the agenda. If it has a service component or focus, so much the better. For instance, my daughter’s friend who is a “theater kid” founded a club where the kids watch movies together at the school, and the club donates the admission fees and money raised selling popcorn to some sort of nonprofit related to the performing arts. I thought that was a great idea.</p>
<p>I can’t think of purposely doing something to obtain a leadership position for college admissions. I think your D should only do activities she really wants to do for their own sake and due to her own initiative and interest. </p>
<p>That said, I agree with others that leadership is not defined merely by obtaining titles. Colleges like to see accomplishments, significant contributions to an endeavor, passion, and leadership. Leadership is something that can be done in so many ways that have nothing to do with an elected or selected position.</p>
<p>By the way, we don’t have a lot of “clubs” at our HS, and not all sports teams even have captains. </p>
<p>I can give you a couple of examples from my own kids that I think demonstrate leadership that were NOT selected titles/roles. </p>
<p>One example, D1 was in the Student Senate. Yes, she had to be elected to the Senate. She was not an officer, though she had run for President. One year, she wasn’t even elected a Senator (but was the other years). However, she ended up taking on two major leadership roles that she initiated herself over the course of two years. One was an initiative to establish a weighted GPA policy for our HS and the other was to create a Homework policy for our school. She really took these initiatives on with fervor. The first policy was passed by the School Board and the second was going through that process when she graduated. I believe her recs even mention that they had not seen a student effect change in a school like she had done. In other words, she led these intiatives and made a difference, more so than those who held an elected title in the Senate. </p>
<p>Another example is that D2, who is passionate about musical theater, initiated and created a musical theater piece for students. She produced, directed, musically directed, choreographed, and wrote the show (as well as performed in it). Proceeds went to a charity. She did this two years in a row. There had never been a student run production in our high school before. This was a major success and since she has graduated, students have taken her lead to keep things like this going there. Another time, she created an arts event around a cause in our community…peace/activism…and put it on to raise awareness in the community at a local venue, raising money along the way for Amnessty International. Again, her recs mentioned these major projects she initiated and led. She didn’t do any of this for college admissions but rather because she is very passionate about such endeavors. She has continued in this vein now in college. I believe she was even chosen as a Scholar to her college, in part, due to such leadership activities (we didn’t know about this Scholars program when she applied until she was accepted and selected, but looking now at the criteria, I can see how her resume and essays must have dovetailed with what they were looking for in their Scholars program).</p>
<p>Smaller examples of leadership was choreographing works for the dance troupes at her dance studio. </p>
<p>Those are just a couple of examples. Other students have started clubs. Others have initiated some project in their community. </p>
<p>So, look beyond selected and elected “positions” but have your D think about anything she wants to accomplish or initiate in her areas of passion. That involves leadership.</p>
<p>I’m not convinced that a display of leadership is essential for admission to an Ivy or elite LAC. </p>
<p>Each year 25% of the students from D’s girls’ sch enroll at HYP, 10% at Penn/Columbia (not including Barnard)/ Dartmouth and another 10% at Cornell/Duke/Williams/Brown/Wes. Overwhelmingly, they do it w/ strong stats (40% of the class are NMS semi-finalists, lots of AP classes, reporting AP scores of 4/5, etc.) and long-standing commit to a few ECs (usually a acouple of varsity sports and a service org), w/ no leadership role.</p>
<p>D also found that coming from NYC no one expected her to start a program and that adcomms were sufficiently impressed w/ her willingness to roll-up her sleves and pitch in w/o needing to be the boss.</p>
<p>I also do not think you MUST be a leader in order to get into a selective college. But I think it helps to be a mover, doer, shaker, shaper, etc. I think colleges would like to see involvement in activities in areas of interest. That involvement should show significant contributions to the endeavor and/or accomplishments/achievements, and/or leadership or other roles over a significant period of time. For instance, I have a child who was in three varsity sports. These didn’t have captains. But she could demonstrate lifelong passion to these sports and achievements on a state level. Same with in music. I think the capacity of the involvement, passion, achievement, and contribution is what matters. Leadership is one quality that counts, but not the only. Merely participating in things does not stand out, however.</p>
<p>The closest my son got to be a leader was being lead programmer for a computer mod for a popular computer game. He also had some nice experience in computer programming. I think the fact that he works well with others (despite being a rather stereotypical introverted programmer type) was more important than being a leader.</p>
<p>Thanks all for feedback. It is very helpful for us.</p>
<p>Mom112233,
If you could describe your D’s areas of passion and her current activities, I and others might be able to suggest some possible things your D might wish to pursue along these lines related to her interest areas. Let us know.</p>
<p>ssozievt, thanks so much for provind the examples about your kids. It gives a better perspective and more broad definition of leadership.</p>
<p>soozievt thanks for asking. My D has a passion for art. At her HS she has the opportunity to work with glass (according to her instructor she has the best art work of the whole class). She likes to dance, sports, tutors middle school students from public schools (there is an aim high program at her HS and the middle schoolers go there), and is very active in the minority student club (she’s an official there). One more thing, she used to be a competitive ice skater for about 6 years, but given the high tuition of her HS we can not longer afford to her ice skating activity so she’s only ice skating very little.
Any feedback and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!</p>
<p>OK, let me do a quick brainstorm. Before I do, I want to reiterate that ANY activities your D might decide to do next year, truly need to be because she really really WANTs to do these things. So, IF she is saying she wants to take on something new or different or more significant or as a leader, and just needs some suggestions of possibilities, that’s fine. But she really shouldn’t do anything to look good for college. The interest and desire need to be there.</p>
<p>With art…
Could she start an art magazine at her school…where there are submissions of pieces, as well as some articles, with a review committee and then publish it?
Might she consider starting an after school art class for elementary school children? Or give private lessons for kids? Start a summer “art camp” for elem. school kids? (my D created a musical theater program for youth in our area and is paid well to direct it)
Might she organize a way to do an art show that is a benefit for some organization in the community? Display it in a public or non profit place?
Might she intern at an art museum?
Might she gather some other art students and consider donating time to paint a mural or some other artistic display for some organization/space?
Might she start a small “business” selling her art to local craft stores (if she works in glass)? or at a craft fair?</p>
<p>Dance…
If she takes lessons at a studio, might she ask to choreograph a piece for the class or a dance troupe?
Can she teach dance classes to youth?
Might she gather other dancers and create and organize a dance show? A benefit perhaps?</p>
<p>Figure skating…
Can she be an assistant figure skating teacher for youth?</p>
<p>Sports…
Coach a youth club sport?
Organize fund raising efforts for her team?
Create some sort of spirit assembly at school related to sports?</p>
<p>Minority club…
Publish articles in local papers raising awareness on an issue? A regular column?
Set up mentorships with minority youth?
Organize an awareness day around an issue at the high school? An assembly?
Combine artwork in some way around a minority issue? ie…an art show that benefits some organization related to minorities? (the art show could even have a theme)</p>
<p>re Girl Scout Gold Award</p>
<p>There would be time for a girl who is a sophomore to finish it, in fact many don’t start it until their sophomore year as some had worked on the silver award previously which needs to be finished by the end of 9th. I have heard of girls who completed the whole process in one year but that is certainly not the norm. However many girls don’t finish until the summer after they graduate which is too late for college apps. Some do write that the Gold Award is in progress, or that the project is approved on their apps. Also, if one were to go this route besides the project advisor it would be worthwhile to have an advisor who is familiar with Girl Scouting in your community to help guide through the process. But as Scout59 said, it is quite a major endeavor and if all you are looking for is a leadership position it may not be the right thing for you. Girl scouting can give other leadership opportunities, there are leader in training courses and troop assistant, and counselor in training positions if this is something someone would be interested in persuing. Most of the things you can do in Girl Scouts do not require years of building up through the ranks and it is not unheard of for girls to join in high school.</p>
<p>Jackie</p>