Leadership Outside Sports

[TheFourth]

All,

I am currently a Junior in high school and have been browsing through the forums again trying to prepare myself for the upcoming application process. In my search, I began to see one major flaw in my current resume: sports. I have run track all throughout high school, yet never lettered and team captain spots are not offered. Although I have never lettered, I do CrossFit five days a week and am still physically fit. I was wondering if my leadership roles outside of sports would help make up for the lack of varsity/team captain. If not, in what ways could I improve?

These include:

• Drum Major(Will be the "head" next year- highest leadership position in the program)
• Student Government for three years(Plan on 4)
• NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, Spanish Honor Society
• Flight Sergeant, Commander, PAO, and Great Start Instructor in CAP(all at different times of course)
• First Chair in the district for the band(highly competitive, serves as leadership evaluation for us)
• Serve in my church tech team

If the rest of my stats would be helpful, I'd be happy to share them but I didn't feel it necessary. Thank you so much for looking this over, I just couldn't find anything answering this.

 

[USAFA_86]

First of all, go to the DoDMERB topic and read the pinned thread called "Sports, and your academy application." The Academies like to see sports on resumes because they show that an applicant has learned valuable lessons such as responsibility, perseverance, leadership, integrity, etc. The CFA is how they will probably determine your athletic potential and physical readiness for the SA's. If you do not have sports in your application, all you need to do is show them that you learned these lessons from other places in your life. The essays are a great place to do this and there is even an optional 3rd essay that literally asks you if there is anything else USAFA should know about you. Good luck!

 

[CB2515]

First of all, go to the DoDMERB topic and read the pinned thread called "Sports, and your academy application." The Academies like to see sports on resumes because they show that an applicant has learned valuable lessons such as responsibility, perseverance, leadership, integrity, etc. The CFA is how they will probably determine your athletic potential and physical readiness for the SA's. If you do not have sports in your application, all you need to do is show them that you learned these lessons from other places in your life. The essays are a great place to do this and there is even an optional 3rd essay that literally asks you if there is anything else USAFA should know about you. Good luck!

That is what I did exactly! By the way, @Christcorp hands out very good advice so I would recommend reading through his posts. I totally feel you since I have a similar extracurricular list to you and can't really squeeze in a ton of sports. I'm a candidate this cycle and I took the 3rd essay to explain my lack of sports and framed it as that through my other extracurriculars, I have gained many of the same experiences (teamwork, cooperation, etc.) if I had participated in more sports. I also explained some of my unique extracurriculars and what I had gained from them. I would still recommend joining at least one sport though. Even if you can only fit it in for one season of your senior year, having 1 sport is better than none.

 

[T-37IP]

That looks pretty similar to my DS. You should try to be president (or highest possible) in the clubs. Were you a marching band section leader? That's a good one. You can expand on student government. Are you doing Boys/Girls State next summer, if not, do it? Volunteer hours in the community. My DS is a junior volunteer firefighter. You seem to be well on your way.

 

[TheFourth]

That looks pretty similar to my DS. You should try to be president (or highest possible) in the clubs. Were you a marching band section leader? That's a good one. You can expand on student government. Are you doing Boys/Girls State next summer, if not, do it? Volunteer hours in the community. My DS is a junior volunteer firefighter. You seem to be well on your way.

Thank you so much! I plan on reaching out to my counselor in December about Boy's state, and volunteer frequently. I was not a section leader, I immediately became a drum major as soon as I was able to be on our leadership team but in our program, Drum Major has more responsibilities than a section leader.

That is what I did exactly! By the way, @Christcorp hands out very good advice so I would recommend reading through his posts. I totally feel you since I have a similar extracurricular list to you and can't really squeeze in a ton of sports. I'm a candidate this cycle and I took the 3rd essay to explain my lack of sports and framed it as that through my other extracurriculars, I have gained many of the same experiences (teamwork, cooperation, etc.) if I had participated in more sports. I also explained some of my unique extracurriculars and what I had gained from them. I would still recommend joining at least one sport though. Even if you can only fit it in for one season of your senior year, having 1 sport is better than none.

Thank you as well, I will definitely make sure to outline the experiences I have gained from my other extracurriculars. I do participate in our track team and have done so since 7th grade, I am just not an exceptional pole vaulter, although I plan on transitioning to throwing because I see more potential there.

Thanks to all!

 

[T-37IP]

Thank you so much! I plan on reaching out to my counselor in December about Boy's state, and volunteer frequently. I was not a section leader, I immediately became a drum major as soon as I was able to be on our leadership team but in our program, Drum Major has more responsibilities than a section leader.

Thank you as well, I will definitely make sure to outline the experiences I have gained from my other extracurriculars. I do participate in our track team and have done so since 7th grade, I am just not an exceptional pole vaulter, although I plan on transitioning to throwing because I see more potential there.

Thanks to all!

"Exceptional athlete" is the measure. Coachable, hardworking, teammate, consistent, great attitude, leader, etc, those are qualities you want your coach to put in your letter of recommendation. My DS is a good, but not great swimmer, BUT you won't find anyone on the team that works harder and THAT is what the coach focused on in his letter of recommendation. With respect to Boys State, you can bypass the school, go to the Boys State website directly. You'll need a "sponsor" and then address your local American Legion. I believe you coming up on registration cutoff dates, so don't delay.

 

[Personal Organizer]

My DS is also a drum major this year so I know what a strong leadership role that is, however most people don't. He explained the role in his Candidate record/resume, discussed it in one of his essays, and, I believe, he actually talked about it with his ALO in his interview. In sum, make sure to take the time to explain what it means to be First Chair and Drum Major somewhere in your application. We are in a very rural area, so he also used his 4-H experience to fill in more leadership roles. he's an average cc runner, but got the Coach's Award last year for the way he got his team mates to all PR at District, in addition to Letters in soccer, cc and track. I don't know if he'll get an appointment, but I'm pretty sure you do not have to be a star athlete to be successful.

 

[OldRetSWO]

With respect to Boys State, you can bypass the school, go to the Boys State website directly. You'll need a "sponsor" and then address your local American Legion. I believe you coming up on registration cutoff dates, so don't delay.

Bad advice.
I coordinate Boys State for my county of 20 Legion Posts and am a Staffer at Boys State. Considering that I was a co-author of my State's operations manual, I think I'm qualified to say that. The majority of Legion Posts start off by talking to Guidance Depts in the High Schools. I generally reach out to 5 or 6 myself. Each of those are asked to nominate Boys to the Legion Post which is supposed to actually interview the boys. Those who successfully interview are directed to apply AT THAT POINT. If your school counseling dept is not able to help you then contact yuor nearest Legion Post. If the Boys State coordinator is not easily found (no uncommon) then speak with the Post Commander. For Girls State, reach out to your guidance folks, then the local American Legion Auxiliary and if they can't be identified, the Legion post commander. Going online and applying is NOT the way to start off in this state or in many others.

General comment: Please remember that many of the people offering what looks like great advice are fellow applicants or parents of applicants who are working their way through this for the first time. This is not to say that the advice given is necessarily bad but try to understand who the longtime posters who have worked admissions for many years are.

 

[OldRetSWO]

All,

I am currently a Junior in high school and have been browsing through the forums again trying to prepare myself for the upcoming application process. In my search, I began to see one major flaw in my current resume: sports. I have run track all throughout high school, yet never lettered and team captain spots are not offered. Although I have never lettered, I do CrossFit five days a week and am still physically fit. I was wondering if my leadership roles outside of sports would help make up for the lack of varsity/team captain. If not, in what ways could I improve?

These include:

• Drum Major(Will be the "head" next year- highest leadership position in the program)
• Student Government for three years(Plan on 4)
• NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, Spanish Honor Society
• Flight Sergeant, Commander, PAO, and Great Start Instructor in CAP(all at different times of course)
• First Chair in the district for the band(highly competitive, serves as leadership evaluation for us)
• Serve in my church tech team

If the rest of my stats would be helpful, I'd be happy to share them but I didn't feel it necessary. Thank you so much for looking this over, I just couldn't find anything answering this.

If you were one of my congressional interviewees that I'll see next week (and whose packets I should be studying right now) I would like the Drum Major a lot - and ask how many people and how often you actually run things (think about warm ups, marching, etc). The CAP stuff is interesting but emphasize the most important because you might be hiding the key role among others. If Commander is what it should mean, don't be pushing PAO. First Chair in District Band sounds great at first but how many times do you actually work together? If its like District bands that I've seen, it is a few rehearsals for one or two performances and thus far less impressive than Drum Major or Commander of CAP (if you're the leader or close to the top of the group) as they meet/operate on a continuing basis.

By the way, for what its worth, about 15 yrs ago, I was at a gathering of experienced BGOs, most of whom also did interviews for Congressmen and Senators and I posed the question "If a candidate had to choose between being Drum Major for and Captain of Cross Country" where the Band plus Drill Team, flags, etc was 100 kids and Cross Country was 10 kids, the group was unanimous to choose Captain of Cross Country. Not to make you more anxious but just so you understand the landscape. In General, we want to see Leadership but Team Captaincies seem to go well with the demands of the Service Academies.

For what its worth, I was not a Team Captain.

 

[BuckeyeDad20]

To echo earlier comments:

Boys State: my DS high school did nothing and knew nothing about Boys State. We visited a couple legion posts looking for help. The were super nice, but one had already allocated spots through the local public school (different district). The other Post had not allocated all its spots and was happy to interview my DS and then sponsored him. Got kinda lucky imho that there was still spots left. So I encourage you to seek it out and if you get no love form your high school then seek out a post.

non-athletics vs athletics....Based on feedback my DS got, it seemed to be more competitive vs non-competitive was a point. He played sports, but was Captain of the Debate team. Obviously not athletic, but still have to go head to head, lose/win, take your lumps and win gracefully while helping teammates. Trying to keep his teammates motivated after a crushing loss is a great lesson. Which is another point to the leadership - the boards are wise enough to ask what you learned or did - just checking the box isn't enough - demonstrate that you learned something about teamwork and leadership through the activity - not just that you organized something.

 

[RedDragon]

Son was drum major but did letter in 3 sports as well. He was a team captain for two of them but will always say that the DM was the best leadership experience he had in high school.

He received appointments to USAFA the Coast Guard Academy and West Point. He is now in helicopter training after graduating from West Point.

 

[TheFourth]

If you were one of my congressional interviewees that I'll see next week (and whose packets I should be studying right now) I would like the Drum Major a lot - and ask how many people and how often you actually run things (think about warm ups, marching, etc). The CAP stuff is interesting but emphasize the most important because you might be hiding the key role among others. If Commander is what it should mean, don't be pushing PAO. First Chair in District Band sounds great at first but how many times do you actually work together? If its like District bands that I've seen, it is a few rehearsals for one or two performances and thus far less impressive than Drum Major or Commander of CAP (if you're the leader or close to the top of the group) as they meet/operate on a continuing basis.

By the way, for what its worth, about 15 yrs ago, I was at a gathering of experienced BGOs, most of whom also did interviews for Congressmen and Senators and I posed the question "If a candidate had to choose between being Drum Major for and Captain of Cross Country" where the Band plus Drill Team, flags, etc was 100 kids and Cross Country was 10 kids, the group was unanimous to choose Captain of Cross Country. Not to make you more anxious but just so you understand the landscape. In General, we want to see Leadership but Team Captaincies seem to go well with the demands of the Service Academies.

For what its worth, I was not a Team Captain.

That posed question does concern me, but in a strange way, it gives me the motivation to keep building my resume, and hopefully make varsity by the end of my senior year. Thank you for all the insight from the POV of a BGO, it was very insightful and I'll keep it in mind moving forward!

..Based on feedback my DS got, it seemed to be more competitive vs non-competitive was a point. He played sports, but was Captain of the Debate team. Obviously not athletic, but still have to go head to head, lose/win, take your lumps and win gracefully while helping teammates. Trying to keep his teammates motivated after a crushing loss is a great lesson. Which is another point to the leadership - the boards are wise enough to ask what you learned or did - just checking the box isn't enough - demonstrate that you learned something about teamwork and leadership through the activity - not just that you organized something.

Seems like your DS and I have similar experiences, being in leadership roles of non-athletic but competitive organizations. Do you mind if I PM you and ask about your DS other stats?

Thanks all again for the insight, it is really helpful in me crafting the rest of my junior year