Some high school students are already back at school, spending their last days of vacation preparing for the first big football game of the season.
But these students aren’t football players. They are members of high school marching bands taking part in an annual tradition: band camp.
“My favorite part of summer band camp has always been seeing the progression of the band throughout our two weeks,” Dominic Trulli, 17, a recent graduate of Aberdeen High School in Maryland, said via email. He participated in marching band throughout high school.
“We start out as kids with no marching band experience — having to learn everything from drills and charts to marching and playing at the same time,” he said, and become “a unified band who can wow crowds with an awesome field show!”
Aside from developing teamwork skills, high schoolers who participate in band may reap other benefits. Music training may help teens improve their hearing and language skills, according to a new study from Northwestern University.
Studies show that students who participate in extracurricular activities, like marching band, may do better academically. And students’ extracurricular involvement could affect college admissions decisions.
While most children participate in extracurricular activities, they are more likely to participate in sports than in lessons or clubs, like music and dance.
Find out [how to make your extracurricular activities pay off.]
But parents of teens who are not sports-minded need not worry, as there are typically many other team-oriented after-school activities available. In addition to marching band, parents could consider guiding their teens toward the following activities beyond sports.
— Theater: For recent graduate Aaron Cohen, 18, participating in theater gave him a place to belong at Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“I had started out high school eating lunch by myself in the library, and ended up with so many friends,” he said via Twitter.
One high school theater student on Twitter agreed.
@alipannoni most high school students are so quick to judge theater kids, but if they joined theater they’d really be blessed with a whole
— Double Alpha (@KingJhee) July 30, 2015
@alipannoni new perspective. The theater environment has a family style feel to it. It’s great, and it’s a home for everyone
— Double Alpha (@KingJhee) July 30, 2015
Theater students can also develop skills like meeting deadlines, accountability and more, says Alison Hall, a drama teacher at Woodside High School in Newport News, Virginia.
Troubleshooting is another big one, she says. If something goes wrong on stage or backstage, students will need to figure out how to get through it by themselves because the teacher is not necessarily going to be there.
— Robotics team: Other teens might enjoy developing engineering, science and technology skills while building robots.
Members of the robotics team at Saunders Trades and Technical High School in Yonkers, New York worked together to create a 74-inch, 120-pound robot named “Leonard,” Yahoo! News reported earlier this year.
The students were planning to show off Leonard’s skills at a national robotics competition , the report said.
“I just like building stuff and I used to like building stuff when I was a little kid,” Angela Tran, a robotics team member at Andrew Hill High School in San Jose, California, told the local television station. Tran’s team was planning to compete in the same event.
Discover [three tips to help your teen transition to high school.]
— Student government: Members of student government organizations typically plan schoolwide events like homecoming and help lift school spirit.
“The school would be a pretty drab place without student council,” says Christi Shannon, a teacher and student council adviser at Canyon High School in New Braunfels, Texas.
Student councils today typically offer more than those of yesteryear. Community service, for example, is a big part of student council at Shannon’s school. And often students don’t have to be elected to participate in these kinds of organizations, she says.
Marissa Thobe, 16, a rising junior at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Towson, Maryland, says participating in student government has allowed her to develop leadership, organization and communication skills.
“I’ve just learned more about talking to other people and communication with adults and that’s helped me a lot,” she says.
Have something of interest to share? Send your news to us at highschoolnotes@usnews.com.
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4 Team-Oriented Extracurricular Alternatives to High School Sports originally appeared on usnews.com
