With over 40 different clubs, activities, and athletics at North High, whatever your passion is, there’s something at North for you to do beyond the classroom. You’ve probably hear d of outside of school events as extracurricular activities, and the evidence linking extracurricular involvement to success in and out of the classroom provides a strong case as to why you should get more involved this year.

The first and most known benefit of extracurricular participation is its effects on academic performance. Because of extracurricular activities proven tendency to improve your time management abilities, boost your drive to succeed, and sharpen your social and leadership skills, it’s no surprise that those who get involved tend to outperform their classmates. “Analyses revealed that regardless of students’ background and prior achievement, various parenting, volunteering, and home learning activities positively influenced student grades.” (Simon 2001) As impressive as this may seem, the benefits of involvement are much deeper than an increase in your grades and test scores.

Another less known benefit of extracurricular involvement is its effect on student behavior. Involvement improves behavior in two main ways, by fostering student responsibility and forcing social interaction. “Students that participate in extracurricular activities have reduced behavior problems. They have a responsibility to perform those tasks correctly. When students perform these things correctly they are rewarded for their good behavior and gain better self respect, self esteem, and self confidence.” (Massoni 2011) The ability to get involved in an activity that empowers you to be your own advocate instills a work-ethic and inner-responsibility that’s almost impossible to get anywhere else, but not only that, extracurricular activities force necessary social interaction.

It’s no surprise that the generation of the iPhone and Netflix struggles with antisocial tendencies, when you’re faced with the world’s largest library of commercial-free TV shows and actual human interaction, who can blame you for choosing Netflix? But have no fear, this is yet another problem fixed by involvement in extracurricular activities. “Participation in school activities, especially athletics, leads to higher self-esteem and enhanced status among peers, which some argue is deterrent to antisocial behavior.” (Brown, M.D., 2000) By getting involvement and becoming more confident in who you are, you’re opening up opportunities to not only improve yourself but to improve your relationships with other students at North.

Now it’s time to talk about how you can take steps to become more involved at North. Every study brought up in this editorial shows that regardless of whether you’re getting involved in athletics, academic competitions, or even a school club, your ability to think, interact with others, and succeed are going to improve dramatically. Knowing this, look around North to find something that interests you. If your interests include athletics, try out for a winter sport. If you’re more interested in academic competition, North has a state champion debate team, an EDC champion Academic Olympics team, and a history of winning individual titles at Science Olympiad competitions. If you consider yourself a more artistically minded person, then join Art Club and Thespians Society, two clubs open to anyone with interest in the fine arts. And after that, North still has over 20 different clubs ranging anywhere from Writers Club to Cooking Club, and everything in-between. Regardless of what you love, there is a place for you to get involved at North, and it’s worth your time to do just that.