Taking Advantage of Extra Curricular Opportunities

By Tessa Augsberger ’22
When Li Yam Kreitz ‘22 comes home from school, she has Krav Maga from 5 to 6 p.m., then goes straight to dance from 6:45 to 9 p.m.
“No, [I do not mind being busy],” Kreitz said.
Between athletics and performing arts, publications electives and academic teams, the school seems to have a lot to offer. In a survey sent to middle school students, 263 respondents weighed in on extra-curricular opportunities.
The majority of respondents participate in some sort of club (academic, affinity/cultural, social, service, language, etc. ). However, most of the respondents do not participate on academic teams (such as debate, math, robotics, JCL, and science bowl).
About 57 percent of respondents participate on sports teams (competitive or noncompetitive) at school. About 38 percent take part in sports clubs that are not associated with school.
About 47 percent of respondents participate in visual arts, and about 64 percent in performing arts.
All in all, most respondents do take advantage of the school’s myriad of extra-curricular offerings in addition to seeking opportunities outside of the school’s provided ones. In fact, the majority of all respondents take part in extra-curricular opportunities that are not associated with the school. One respondent reported participating in a biweekly kickboxing class and a weekly acting class. Another respondent reported participation in a UCLA math circle in addition to piano classes.
But when do extra-curricular activities become too strenuous? Some students fully dedicate themselves to only one activity. One respondent reported playing ice hockey for 20 hours per week outside of school.
Other students reported participating in a large variety of extra-curricular activities. For example, one respondent reported participation in: swimming, piano, cello, art and creative writing.
Kailey Suh ’21 fences and plays the violin.
“Along with the large amount of schoolwork that I have, it’s hard to balance school along with two very serious extracurriculars and I do struggle occasionally balancing the three. However, I don’t think that I would trade anything for it, and I wouldn’t change my decision of choosing to continue playing the violin and fence,” Suh wrote in the survey.
Another student, Everett Tolbert-Schwartz ’22, has a different perspective from Suh’s.
“My only problem with the activities here [at Harvard-Westlake] is that I want to do all of them, but I can’t because there are too many,” Tolbert-Schwartz wrote.
Students seem to take advantage of the school’s extra-curricular offerings.