Academics or Extracurricular Activities?

Both! Of course, both! The big question here now is how do we balance them?

Here at AISG, we offer a wide variety of extracurricular activities. There are sports, community service groups, and fine arts programs. Students have the choice to participate in any of the activities they would like to be involved with. Of course, on top of that, they have a pile of school work and goals. Some may be to achieve academic success or maintain a consistent grade. Balancing these two areas is a hard job. Many times students either fall back in their grades, experience a lack of sleep, perform poorly at practice or are late for strict deadlines. Word of advice here first, make sure you prioritize and stay on top of your work.

Balancing academics and fine arts/sports may be stressful. There are afterschool practices, sometimes even concerts or games. Most of these students get home late from their practices and have to finish up their work or study for a test. If you are one of these students, you may have a hard time balancing your time between work, sleep and practice. When asked about the balance between swimming and academics, senior Alice Fiorito says, “I don’t procrastinate. I make sure my work is organized and that my deadlines are met, and if necessary, I put my training aside to focus on my academics.” It is very important to not procrastinate. For most students, academics do come first, so make sure you are giving yourself enough time to work. To help with that, you could make schedules and small deadlines for yourself. Do work that is assigned on the day, and don’t leave work to the last minute. Have an accountability partner. You also want to make sure you get enough sleep and are ready for the next day. You need the energy to excel in school and in practice the next day. As much as this sounds like a triple standard, it can be achieved. Additionally, there are APAC events where you miss 3 days of school. That’s a problem, isn’t it? In order to stay organized, talk to your teachers about this prior to the trip. Make up summatives and test before heading away, that way you won’t have to worry about the missed work.

Balancing academics and community services are easier. Most community services meet either during lunch or after school. With lunches, it is easier to balance. It is a short 45 minutes meeting and usually won’t be hard to manage. As long as you write it down and remember to attend, it is 100% doable. After school community services usually meet on Wednesdays or on Fridays. Usually, you’ll only participate in one community service after school, or at most two. This shouldn’t be too hard as it is just one day of your week. You can easily do your work a day before the meeting you have and commit yourself to the community service. It is important to understand that you are giving back to the community so you should devote yourself to helping out the community as well. Don’t stress too much about it. On the other hand, with outings on Saturdays or over the weekend they are harder to manage. These should be handled similarly by doing your work earlier. This way it ensures a stress-free outing where you can actually enjoy yourself and the trip.

Now if you are one of those students who is balancing between academics, community services, and sports it may get a little difficult. As a senior who is currently taking IB2 courses, I’ve had experiences with balancing academics and extracurricular activities for a while now. Over the years, I’ve participated in various extracurricular activities whether it be volleyball, basketball, NHS, media crew or coaching. If you take a look at my CAS reflections, you’ll see these activities all staggered on my CAS page. Balancing all these activities is arduous, but trust me, there are ways. Firstly, you’ve got to recognize how much is too much. Don’t overwork yourself. On top of upcoming summatives, projects, presentations, Extended Essays and Internal Assessments, joining extracurricular activities may be somewhat of a burden. To balance out my activities I make myself a schedule. I make sure my activities do not coincide with one another. It is very important to be organized. For instance, most varsity sports practice takes place after school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. During in-season sports, I tend to be more strict on myself with my work and make sure I complete everything prior to travel days or practices so I can get a decent amount of sleep and do well during practices. Honestly, the best advice I can give is, stay true to yourself, if you know you can’t handle it, it’s okay to take a step back. Make sure you are healthy and staying on top of your work, and everything will fit into place.

Here is the rundown of advice for you guys:

• Know your limit and don’t overwork yourself
• Stay organized, keep a schedule and follow it
• Don’t procrastinate
• Sleep early and hydrate