Get Ahead This Summer: Research and Activities That Stand Out on College Applications

Webinar Transcription

2025-11-24 – Get Ahead This Summer: Research and Activities That Stand Out on College Applications

Stephanie: Hello everyone. Welcome to our webinar tonight. Today we are hosting, “Get Ahead This Summer: Research and Activities That Stand Out on College Applications.” My name is Stephanie Hoang and I will be your moderator today. I am a senior advisor with CollegeAdvisor and I’ve been with the company for two years.

I’ll start off just by orienting everyone with the webinar timing, so we’re going to start off with a presentation. Then we’ll answer your questions in a live Q&A on the sidebar. You can download our slides and you can start submitting questions in the q and a tab any time. Alright. Um, and now I’m going to introduce our speaker tonight.

Katie Chiou. Katie, could you tell us a bit about your background?

Katie: Yeah. Hi everyone. Um, excited to be here. I’m Katie. I have worked with CollegeAdvisor and in the college admissions world actually for a really long time now, I think almost eight years. Oh. Which is wild to say. I, um, used to work in essay editing and then went to college and medical school at Brown, where I was part of the combined BSMD program.

Happy to answer any questions on that, if that comes up. And now I am a first year resident over here at Mount Sinai.

Stephanie: Awesome. Thanks for being here, Katie, and sharing all of your wealth of knowledge with us. Um, so before we get into the presentation tonight, I’m gonna quickly pull the audience just to see what grade folks are in.

Um. And if you are a support person, like a guardian or educator, please select other. Um, and while, while all of our attendees do that, Katie, do you mind sharing what was your favorite summer activity when you were in high school?

Katie: Oh gosh. That’s a good one. Um, there was one camp that I did that was over at UCLA.

It was an engineering camp. And I’ll talk more about this too later. I actually ended up not enjoying engineering whatsoever, but I really enjoyed the experience of, um, being on such a big college campus and kind of like living life in the college campus neighborhood and like getting boba at the local places.

Um, that was a fun time.

Stephanie: Oh, I love a good kind of like summer camp. Mm-hmm.

Katie: Um,

Stephanie: awesome. I’m trying to figure out how to show the poll results and I don’t have that in front of me, but that’s okay. Um, maybe I’ll report on that a little later. Um, but while thank you everyone for doing the poll. Um, and so, uh, I’m gonna actually pass it back to you, Katie, to jump right into our presentation.

Katie: Yes. Sounds good. All right, everyone. Okay, so today we’re gonna be talking a little bit, I, the title of our presentation is about research, but I think generally about extracurricular activities. Um, and we’ll start by talking a little bit about why it’s important at all for college admissions. And I think most people understand, right?

Um, in, at least in the US admission system, the, the word holistic is thrown around a lot. And I will say that when we talk about holistic, I think a huge part of it actually comes from extracurriculars and essays, particularly as we’re looking at some of the more competitive schools and programs out there.

And really extracurriculars are a chance to give an admissions officer very quickly and like right off the bat, a sense of who you are, what you’re interested in, and what your background is. And it’s really your first chance to make. A big impression, I would say. Um, when you’re reading through an application, right, and you’re seeing like, oh, this person has amazing grades.

They took a lot of apps, there’s, there’s things that are impressive about that, but it’s not really until the extracurriculars where you start to really form an image and a picture of the applicant in front of you. And so extracurriculars, which you will come to find when you open up your common app for the first time, for those of you who are seniors right now, or sophomores or juniors, hopefully too, um, there’s actually 10 extracurriculars, um, on the common app section.

So only 10, meaning that you cannot have more than that, and ideally you want to hit about 10. And I should start by saying that those 10 sounds like a lot that can comprise of things, including part-time jobs. It can comprise of things including like. Babysitting your younger siblings or like kids in the neighborhood to make some money.

Um, those are all ways in which you are spending your time outside of school. And so they absolutely count us extracurriculars and tell us a little bit of something, um, about who you are and what you do and, you know, where you spend your time outside of school. It’s really important to include those things.

Um, the other thing that often people don’t realize is that when you’re reporting your extracurriculars, you also have to report how much time you’re doing you’re spending on them. So how many hours per week? How many weeks per year? And then how many years are you doing it? And so there is something to be said about, right?

Like thinking about when you’re reporting this information, like what extracurriculars led a little bit more continuity, for example. So maybe you. Played sports across like three years, or maybe you played an instrument or a part of an orchestra across three years. And then there’s some that are naturally gonna have less of that continuity.

So if I did a summer program, for example, right? That’s obviously gonna be three months of the summer, but it’s going to be all day. And so you’re gonna report like a much like lengthier amount of hours for that short time period. Um. I would also say that this is really the first chance, again, you have to make an impression of who you are, but also to make an impression favorably.

Um, when I’m looking at extracurriculars, right, I’m looking and, and already kind of getting a glimpse of, okay, what is this person interested in? What do I expect that they’re going to be talking about in their essays? And also where are they showing leadership? What kind of leadership are they showing?

What kind of like little passions are they showing through their extracurriculars? This is kind of, again, your first chance to make that impression. So how can summer activities really impact your overall application? So I will start out by this, this slide is all about me and I apologize. I usually have the about me slides a little bit later in the presentation, so I’m like building up to it.

But I’ll start here because I think it gives a good, um, example of, of, of later on when I lay out all the things that are important about. Planning your extracurricular. So for me, at the time, I actually applied into cognitive science with a linguistics focus. Um, and this was intentional. So what often people don’t realize is that what major you apply for doesn’t actually have to necessarily be the same as the major you actually end up majoring in.

Um, at most schools, you actually declare your major at the end of your sophomore year. And so what that means is that when you’re thinking about what you’re writing down as your major, when you’re applying, you want to be a little bit strategic about it. You wanna think about what fits in with your application.

And so again, this is like a, I’m starting all the way back, like starting your freshman sophomore year as you’re planning extracurriculars. You also wanna be, start, start thinking about like what picture and what ultimately, how it’s all gonna come together. Um, so Quantum has the linguistics and a lot of my essays ended up being about, a little bit about biology.

Again, I’m obviously pre-med. I ended up becoming a doctor. Um, and also I had a very deep interest in humanities and that was something that, um, I was able to illustrate through my extracurricular. So from my humanities side, I was able to talk about a lot of writing competitions that I participated in, especially during the summer.

And a lot of the times during the summer on my off times, that was the time period. Let’s be real. It wasn’t during school. Um, when I was writing those essays and entering those competitions, um. I was also the editor in chief of High School Literary Magazine, and then won a couple of awards in speech and debate as well on kind of the more biology side.

I was the captain of my Science Olympiad team, um, primarily doing biology related events. And then I also completed summer programs, which I’ll speak more about in medicine and bioengineering specifically. So I would like to say that out of these, I’ve kind of like given you all a pretty broad understanding of my extracurriculars at this point.

And I would say. Right. None of them were things that you would be like, oh, this, like you are, uh, I didn’t win. I didn’t, I didn’t cure cancer. I didn’t do anything like beyond the pale where you’re like, oh, I could never do that. And yet had a very, very successful college admissions process. And so, um, I put that out there to kind of tell everyone that it’s not about being like the, the next Olympic athlete.

It’s not about like doing the craziest extracurricular activities. Sometimes it’s just about how you tell the story. Um, I’ll speak a little bit more about volunteering ’cause that was a big part of my summers as well. But one thing that I actually did a lot, I I, that ended up being a focal point of my application was that I volunteered a suicide hotline.

Um, and throughout all of this, when it came down to that crucial point in my senior year, having all these extracurriculars and having all these activities that were kind of diversified, but also chunked up into these categories, it really helped me. Kind of make an argument for why I wanted to study cognitive science with linguistics focus.

So I talked a little bit about things from like personal characteristics, like having empathy, being able to stay under, staying, stay calm under pressure when I was like on the phone with someone who was suicidal. Um, all the way to academic interest. Like I was able to talk about cases that I encountered, um, on the suicide hotline and relate that to studying neuroscience for Science Olympiad and relate that to my love of language and how important language was to me.

So, right. Those were ways in which I could kind of pull things together and make it so that the cog science, the linguistics focus made sense at the end of the day. Okay. So what are different types of summer experiences and what do colleges value the most? Well, we’ll start with college summer classes.

So these are the ones that you often see advertised. It’ll be like, um. At least at Brown. I know we did this every year. It was like a Brown College summer class type of situation. And I think the most important thing to note too, I think very important things to note is one, these often cost quite a bit of money.

They are not. Inexpensive experiences. And so you really want to be, um, thinking about, you know, if we’re spending money wisely when it comes to these programs, especially as I’ve seen that a lot of these have increased in costs astronomically since I went through the college applications process. And so you wanna be thoughtful about how to evaluate a program to make sure that it’s actually something that, you know, you’re getting like worth out of that your kid’s also learning a lot out for parents out there.

Um, and that it’s worth money. Um, when it comes to these college classes, I think that the things that you would expect to get out of it, you would not expect to have a better admissions. Um, chance at that school. So someone who goes to Brown or Harvard or any summer class you, that’s not going to help your admissions chance at that school.

I wanna start there. That’s as a really important disclaimer. Um, I think it’s often on, on a lot of like the little fine print for a lot of these college summer classes. Um, but it’s really important to note that it, it really doesn’t make that difference. Um, where it can help though is you, you get a chance, I will say to experience what it’s like to take a college class.

Um, especially if you’re taking like smaller seminar classes, um, there’s a chance to kind of get really involved in discussion. And experience what it’s like to be in like a small class format for the first time. Um, especially if you’re someone who’s interested in like writing or let’s say like you wanna think about, um, urban policy and how that relates to like environmental planning, right?

That would be a really interesting specific class that you would get a lot, a lot out of by taking it outta college campus. Um, you might meet professors and you might meet people. That, but I would not, I would not say these are people who would ultimately end up writing letters of recommendation for you, nor should you depend on it.

What can be helpful though, however, is experiencing what that college campus is like. So maybe you can speak a little bit to like what it’s like living in that particular city or in that particular college town. What draws you to it when, you know, fast forward two years later, you’re a senior and you’re having to write your essay about, oh, why do you wanna come to this school?

Right. That might be one way in which it can help. But again, I want to emphasize that I think the, these are really cool programs to experience what it’s like to be in college. And also it’s not a must. It’s not something where you should be pinching pennies and going hungry in order to be able to afford.

’cause at the end of the day, this is not something that’s going to guarantee or improve your admission chances at that school. Um, you are, you are just as able to do a very valuable experience and summer experience without spending that kind of money. Um, and looking elsewhere. Okay. Second thing is gonna be research programs.

Um, I’ll speak a little bit about, a little bit more in detail about what those look like as I was someone who did a couple of those programs during the summer. Um, and here I’m, I’m thinking more about, right, there’s like STEM research and there’s also social sciences research, and you wanna be thoughtful about what kinds of programs you’re looking for, because these also tend to cost some amount of money, although tend to be a little bit more affordable in the college summer classes.

Um, third thing is volunteering. How do you make the most time of your dedicated, like, having that huge chunk of summer, right? Because you, for the first time, like not for the first time, but for a time that’s not in class, you get to spend the whole day. So what can you do that’s extra special or different with the volunteering time that you have where you can commit to a project and see how it moves forward over the course of a summer?

Um, community college classes are absolutely worthwhile to be doing, especially, um, when it comes down to like things like also SAT prep, um, right. Preparing for things that, you know, might be tough to do when you’re also in school and taking a bunch of classes and doing like in school extracurriculars.

Those are all valuable things we doing with your summer. And then finally taking time off to recuperate. Um, genuinely I remember high school as being a very, very hectic time where you’re balancing like a bajillion things at once. Um, in a lot of ways it’s actually quite similar to med school where you are similarly doing like a lot of extracurricular and trying to juggle all these things.

Um, and so it’s taking the time off to rec, recuperate cannot be I is important for wellness and also makes you a better person when and, and better student once you get back into school. So when it comes to research specifically, what are we talking about when it comes to research? Um, I found that this, this is a question that comes up sometimes when I’m talking to my students.

We are specifically talking about peer-reviewed, evidence-based research, published academically. That’s what I mean by research. So if you, for example, are really, really interested, let’s say. I don’t know, an Alzheimer’s disease and you decide that you wanna do research on it, and you wanna start a blog talking about Alzheimer’s disease.

That’s very cool, very interesting. You could probably make something interesting out of that, that is not research you going on, doing research on your own time or even using like chat GPT or open evidence that doesn’t count as research. Research is specifically what it typically looks like is that you are working with an academic institution like a university, um, like local university for example.

And you are typically working in some sort of lab. And when I, I, I use the word lab in quotations because it’s not always like a. A literal lab where you are sitting on a bench and there’s pipettes and there’s microscopes, although sometimes that is the case. Um, sometimes a lab is just comprised of like a bunch of people and they like, you know, have a couple of tools here and there.

Like physics labs always like really, really interesting. ’cause they always have like weird machine going on. Um, but sometimes a lab might like a psychology research lab, sometimes a psychology research lab, just a bunch of offices and then like an interview room, right? Um, where you’re interviewing people about whatever you’re researching.

So it’s not always, um, a whole like microscope set up type thing. Um, what’s important though, as, as you all are out there looking for research opportunities, um. It’s important to find a mentor. Um, and by that I mean typically someone who is what we call a principal investigator or pi. This is someone who typically, or I think almost always has a doctorate, either a PhD or an md, or why not both?

Um, and they lead the lab and they typically like head the research. And so as a, as a young high school student, oftentimes what you can do is you can honestly look up labs and professors and who’s doing what research at your local university and just cold email them. Um, and don’t expect to get a lot of replies.

These people are very busy, but you really only need one or two replies in order to make something of it. Um, and so. Starting there is often a very good idea. It’s also a good way to kind of get us a sense of what is research and what are people researching. I think oftentimes like right, we think of research as like, oh, people are doing, um, like cancer research, like we’re trying to solve cancer.

And then when you dig into it, like, what does cancer research actually look like? Oh my God, it’s so complicated as a whole world of things out there. Right? Um, and there’s like, there’s a whole, like, there’s all these words that you’re gonna have to learn and all this, like get getting engrossed into is this something that I’m interested in, is something that’s like not so much my interest.

You’ll figure that out as you go and as you research, okay. Um, oftentimes you don’t get to pick and choose in terms of like what kind of lab you wanna work in. So when I say like cold email, I think cold email broadly, like email everyone, even if it’s like, oh, I really wanna work in Alzheimer’s research.

I promise you’ll have time to do that later in your career. Right now. Email broadly. Email beyond neuroscience, like email everything. Um, I remember for me, like, I have no interest in environmental engineering whatsoever, and I emailed a bunch of environmental engineers because when I heard them speak I was like, oh, these people seem like they would be good mentors.

Um, and following a good mentor is always a good, a good, um, idea early on in your career. Okay. Uh, research does something that’s important. For years, I am still working on doing research and finding research mentors and, and all of that jazz. It’s something that will haunt you for the rest of your career if you decide to stay in academics.

And the ultimate goal of doing research when you’re a high school student is very, very small. Like, just exposure to research is already like getting your first step, and that’s already amazing. Um. Ideally, if you’re looking for something like a research program, things that you wanna look out for are that there are some sort of final, like they’re assigning you a mentor.

That’s number one. And then number two is that there’s some sort of end goal or product ideally that comes out of it, whether it be like a poster symposium that happens within the program, or it can be all the way from like a poster symposium to like how to write an abstract to how to write the introduction to a paper.

And then if you have a published article as a high schooler, congratulations, you are way ahead of where I was at the time, um, to winning science fairs. If you are truly that one in a million person, um, I believe in you and, and you being out there. So those are all examples of what research can look like, but also what is particularly fruitful about research that you can report back when you’re talking about extracurriculars on a college application.

Okay. How can you start to research and choose some experiences that really align with your interests and future goals? I, I know this seems obvious, um, if any of you have ever attended any one of my other talks, my big thing that I always say is start with self. Reflection. Um, there is no such thing as too much self-reflection, and I promise you it’ll pay off when you are a senior and you are starting to write your essays and you are sitting down and you’re like, I have no clue what I’m gonna write about today.

Um, having that bit of self-reflection and writing and writing genuine, strong essays that are true to you, but also kind of uniquely you can really make a huge difference. When I look back on my college essays and I still have all of mine, I read through them and I still, I say like, these still ring true for me.

And then a lot of the things that I said that I was going to do, um, in those essays, I actually ended up doing. Um, I, I’m, I’m a psychiatrist now. I’m going to child psychiatry. And so a lot of this, like when I talked about the suicide hotline, working with teenagers way back in the day, I couldn’t have possibly have foreseen this, but there was some part of me that understood.

You know what my interests were and kind of chased after them when it came to extracurriculars. And that really only comes with self-reflection and also with, I would say keeping your ear to the ground. Like what are upperclassmen doing? Like what’s out there in your community. Like you can Google all you want, but other people have also Googled ahead of you.

And so if you hear about an opportunity that’s really interesting to you, chased after it, that’s actually what I did with the suicide hotline. I heard someone else was doing it and I was like, this sounds right at my alley. I’m going to bend over backwards to make this work for me. Um, and then thinking about it in terms of experiences and skills is also another way to do it.

Um, so thinking about what skills you might need. So for those of you who might be interested in computer science or, or engineering, right, what are ways that you can get exposed to coding or to like different math skills or, or different like bench work skills if you’re interested in getting a PhD in virology, for example.

Like what are ways in which that you can wedge your, put your foot in and do some kind of like busy menial work, but like still meaningful menial work because you’ll be learning about what it’s like to be in a lab and watching people who are steps ahead of you in your career and seeing what their lives are like.

Um, in medicine we do a lot of what we call shadowing, which just means literally shadowing someone for the day to see what a day in their life is like, and there’s nothing quite as valuable as that because you really learn a lot about, even within medicine, like different specialties. Um, you’ll learn a lot about like what someone’s day-to-day life is like and what you, what kind of satisfaction you can get outta that day to day life.

And whether it’s for you or not. Okay. So what you can, what should you consider when evaluating these opportunities? I put money here because it’s so true that I am aware that money has became, become a huge part of extracurriculars and specifically summer extracurriculars. Um, you know, where there’s a will, there is a business.

And so how can you evaluate if it’s a worthwhile program? I think first things first, is it for a dedicated amount of time? I think some of the like really exorbitant programs that I’ve seen have been marketed as like weekend leadership programs. They cost thousands of dollars. And while I’m sure something is valuable, being offered and being taught hopefully at these things, um, I would also say if that’s something that you can afford, like you can afford a thousand dollars weekend retreat, that is perfectly okay.

I have firm belief that you can learn leadership through other mechanisms. Um, when I say. Timeline. What I mean is ideally, especially in a research program, you want like a re a decent research program. You really can’t get much out of, honestly, for years. There’s a reason why a PhD takes many years, but at least four weeks.

Ideally. Um, I’m looking like a month long program, if not like six weeks or eight weeks. You want like a decent chunk of your summer. We get dedicated to this program and it really should be like an everyday all day program. Um, where you are, again, being assigned to a research lab, you are being assigned a mentor.

Maybe there are some classes at times, but honestly it should primarily if it’s, if we’re looking for research, it should primarily be working in the lab. Um, and then you want that final presentation as well. Um, when it comes to like those classes, I think sometimes those classes can be a really great way for, for them to bring everyone in the program together and do some mentorship and do some connection.

Um, but when it comes down to like actually getting something out of it, ultimately a class. Is a class and there’s not, you can’t do research within a class, if that makes sense. That’s not really quite how research works. Um, you also wanna be thinking about competitive competitiveness of programs. So when I say that, what I mean is what year are you?

Um, a lot of the more competitive programs are only offered for your junior year, summer, and also a lot of these competitive programs, honestly, maybe they’re open to both years, but you’ll apply your sophomore year and probably get rejected and then you might apply again your junior year and again in, because they prioritize juniors typically for a lot of these programs.

And so you wanna be thinking and applying to these programs pretty broadly. Um, there are some like really, really famous programs. I’m thinking. For example, the summer science program, SSP, I’m thinking of like MIT is a program called Mites. Um, the humanities said there’s a program called Task, TASP, and.

These are wonderful programs that are incredibly competitive nationally. I would not anticipate getting into one of those programs your sophomore year. So don’t lay all of your eggs in one. That’s the phrase, right? Like put all your eggs in one basket. You wanna be applying broadly. So apply also locally, um, depending on what state you’re in.

Most states have some sort of programming available to students from their state. Apply there because oftentimes they’ll also prioritize in-state, um, students, especially at public universities. Um, so those are kind of starting ways to do the research. Um. I will talk a little bit more about how to find programs in a little bit, I promise.

Okay. What steps can you take to make sure that they stand out? So again, you have a ton extracurricular slots, um, just kind of generally, not formally, but generally these are kind of like the, uh, like the, the categorization of the types of extra extracurricular slots that exist. So when you are filling them out, typically you’ll put them in a category.

And so these are the band of categories that exist and you kind of wanna have some diversity across these, um, different slots. Like you don’t want to, for example, like let’s say you take an SAT. Prep class. Like you don’t want that to be, your only extracurricular is only SAT prep classes, or you don’t wanna be the one who like did the exact same program every single year in a row maybe.

Um, so in that case you might try to think about ways in which you can get an awards or honors, whether it be through school or through different competitions outside of school. Like, I don’t know, again, I did sense Olympian debate. Those are examples of that. Um, so you wanna be diversifying across these in terms of creating variety, but you also wanna chunk them up into what they say about you.

Um, and ideally you don’t want them to be all, all, all over the place with no depth in them. So an example I give here is, um, a weak extracurricular resume, I would say is one where you’re in a bunch of different, like volunteering school clubs, but you have no leadership in any of them. And it’s kind of unclear to me like what you did as part of these clubs.

Like, okay, so you went and hung out for lunch once a week, let’s say, um, in like your favorite teacher’s classroom and you like. Theoretically, or having an American Cancer Society meeting, but like, what did you guys actually do? And like, maybe there was a fundraiser, but it’s unclear if you were even present, right?

Like those are examples of if you have only those activities, that’s where you’re lacking in both diversity, but you’re also lacking in the depth. And that’s a a case of to me, where I’m like, I don’t really understand like what you’re interested in or what came out of that extracurricular. Um, so when you’re thinking about your list, you wanna think about things that, again, chunking it up.

So I can give an example from my extracurricular portion where I chunked it up into kind of more like STEM related things and then more humanities related things. And then across the board of those, um, there was clearly leadership demonstrated in there. And there was some amount where I dedicated a lot of time to these extracurriculars.

Like just by me reporting the hours I spent after school doing science lumpia. It became a pretty prominent, a clearly prominent extracurricular of mine. I would also say that it ended up being an extracurricular that I wrote a small essay about. I talked about how I felt like I failed as the captain of the team.

And then after I graduated, I actually read an a recommendation letter from one of my teachers and he wrote like so long, it was like a five page long recommendation letter about what the Science Olympiad team, like, what the context of the Science Olympiad team was as, as someone from a school that didn’t have a lot of funding.

Um, and also what I did as a captain, and I will say after I got in, sometimes you get notes from admissions officers like saying like, hi, like, like we really enjoyed this part of your application. And I had multiple, I think both Yale and Princeton commented on. Science Olympiad specifically, which if, if anyone knows anything about Science Olympiad, it’s like not the craziest extracurricular out there.

It’s not like something that’s like, you’ve never heard of it before, like super rare, California only type of extracurricular. It’s something that like exists, like a decent number of schools. It’s, it’s like not like the rarest thing in the world. And so for that to be commented on, hopefully as there’s an example to you all that even like the most mundane and extracurriculars can really make a huge impact if you talk about write about and like participate in them in the right way, if that makes sense.

Okay. Last thing I’ll say is keep your eye out for an extracurricular that really speaks to you. So for me, that ended up being the suicide hotline That ended up being like, the main crux of my personal statement. And also it ended up being like a, like a, a frame of reference for a lot of other essays that I spoke about.

I would frequently reference back to, for example. My first, um, encounters with thinking about child abuse and what that was like, or, or thinking about like adolescent language development or like the importance of words or the parts of words to me. Right? There’s multiple ways in which I referenced back this particular extracurricular and that’s what made it, at least for me in looking back also like such an important part of this, of like my application in general.

So thinking about ways that you can take something, even if it’s not something that’s like inherently quite as interesting or as cool. Um, take thinking about ways that you can take it to the next level. So the example I put here is maybe you started volunteering at the library and you were like primarily like shelving books and maybe doing a little arts and crafts here and there.

I certainly remember doing that. Um, and you turn it into something more, right? As you continue to volunteer there, typically the librarians get to know you better, and then you also get to know the community better. Like what community does the library serve? What are the needs that you know you could possibly serve in the population through the library?

Um, there might be English as a second language. It might be like teaching. Um, like pe, people who are a little older, how to use the internet. It might be helping people fill out like forms online, like tax forms, right? It could be all sorts of things. Um, people have a lot of need for all those things.

Libraries a good home for that, so, right. Those are ways at which you can kind of like upgrade, if that makes sense. Your extracurricular, okay. Resources or tools. I would say that the CollegeAdvisor website is a really good one. Um, I will say I have been out of this fear for a little bit, so like my last presentation I recommended just spending a lot of time Googling and I was told that these days AI actually is very helpful and I was like, oh man, I’m dated.

Um, but back in the day I used to spend every single winter break, um. Googling finding websites. There used to be this one website from, I think it was from like University of Rochester or something like that, where they had like this long, long list of just like summer programs for people interested in pre, like in pre-med.

Um, and I would click through every single one of the links. I would look through like what their criteria were, what the application required, and most importantly, what the deadline was, which is why I said winter break because a lot of these applications often are due February and March. So for those of you who are like doing your research now, now is a perfect time.

Like right now with Thanksgiving break, winter break ish time, this is a great time to be doing a little bit of that research and planning out what you might apply to come March or February. And also all these applications require like essays and letters of rec. You need time to get those things together.

Um, and so it’s a good way to start kind of looking at that now. Okay.

Stephanie: Uh, thank you so much Katie. Um, I’m reminded so much of, you know, my own summer activities, which was my favorite part of high school, and very much when we talk to our students about summer activities and how to stand out, it’s about developing that personal brand for yourself, um, and how you mentioned, you know, how, how to really make meaning of all the activities that you do.

Katie: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: Um, so thank you so much for sharing. Um, so that is the formal, the end of the formal part of the presentation part of our webinar. So I hope you all found that information helpful. And remember that you can download the slides from the link in the handout tabs. Also, this webinar is being recorded, so if you missed any part of the webinar, it’ll get sent to your email link if you registered for it.

Now moving on to the live q and a. I’ve been reading through some of the questions you all submitted in the q and A tab, and as we get to each one, we will paste them into the public chat so that you can see them and read them out loud before responding. And I’ve been answering some of those questions as well.

Um, so as a heads up, if you are, um, a webinar attendee and your q and a tab isn’t letting you submit questions, just double check that you join the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. Alright. Um. We are going to take a quick pause here for me to talk about CollegeAdvisor.

So if you have questions, this is a great time to put ’em into that q and a tab before we jump into the q the live q and a. Um, but for those of, um, you in the room who aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. And CollegeAdvisors team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process in one-to-one advising sessions and essay editing Through our digital platform, CollegeAdvisor has had 10,000 total lifetime clients and a 4.8 out of five rating on Trustpilot with over 750 reviews after analyzing our 2023 to 2025 data.

We found that clients working with CollegeAdvisor who have a strong academic and testing record are 2.6 times more likely to get into an Ivy League school around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and five times more likely to get into Johns Hopkins, UCLA and NYU when compared to national acceptance rates.

So you can increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team using the QR code on the screen. So if you scan that, it’ll take you to more information. During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out.

So at the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages that we offer, that pair you with an expert like Katie or myself who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. We’re here for the whole process. Um, and like I can, I can speak to that, you know, my students, I have a caseload of students and we are in the midst of all of those college applications, but we also work with juniors and um, sophomores who are looking to, you know, plan ahead and strategize on how to stand out in their applications.

All right, so back to the q and a. Um, Katie, I’ll, I’ll hand a couple of questions over to you. We’ve had a few people in particular who have questions about, um, balancing sports and other extracurriculars. So for instance, if someone’s in, um, a JV baseball team or a volleyball camp that, you know, takes a lot of time over the summer, would it be wiser to focus on staying involved in sports or doing other, you know, research summer activities?

Katie: Hmm. That’s a very good question. I’ll be honest. I am someone who is not at all on our plate. I was not very good at sports and, but I, what I will say is right. I think there’s something to be said about sports and recruitment and also how strong that looks on your application. Um, one of my. Best friends, um, and also a roommate when I was at Brown, um, one of her main extracurriculars was being captain of her hockey team, and that was like a prominent part for her of, of her high school journey, but also they did well State-wise.

And so I I to sound cynical, but a part of it is how well does the sports team do kind of like in your area, regionally, locally, like in your state? Those are all things that I would want to ask about. Um, I would also say, right, it absolutely, sports takes up a lot of time and that is something that admissions officers are very aware of and also you report and so, right, like there’s, that helps people, kind of helps the admissions officer rather, whatever is what I’m trying to say.

Get a really good sense of what you’re doing with your time. And so that absolutely counts for, you know, a, a major chunk of your extracurricular time. That being said, um, I do think it’s important if it’s something that like, you know, maybe you don’t foresee if you’re in the JB team and you don’t foresee yourself going to use the varsity team or for something that you don’t get a lot of joy out of, I think that’s like a, a huge part of it.

Like, how much joy do you get out of it? Is it like something that, like it’s costing you more than it’s giving you. Um, that might be something where you think about, hey, what are some other, like what are ways that you can work your schedule around, um, or decrease your training schedule such that you can also participate in summer programs and, and activities that you’re interested in.

Um, but a lot of my, I would say a lot of my classmates and friends at, you know, now that I’ve made it through to the end, um, we’re able to balance both sports and extracurricular activities if they just, I mean, it’s really tough when I get that, but during the summer by sort of like blocking out different time periods for different things.

Stephanie: Yeah, thank you for, for answering that question. And, and one thing I always talk to my students about is authenticity when it comes to activities. You know, sometimes students apply or enroll in tons of activities to stack their resume, to have all these leadership activities, but there’s a certain degree of, you know, is this something gen you’re genuinely interested in that sometimes admissions readers can tell just, just from the application.

Um, kind of along those lines, you know, I had a student in here asking a question about, you know, whether you, um, recommend prioritizing, shadowing and internship versus a job to earn money that’s not as applicable to their future.

Katie: Gotcha. I think even a job that’s not as applicable to your future, it tells us a lot about you.

Right? It tells us, um, and I, I say this a lot usually as a joke, but like even as a doctor now, a good. Chunk of my job is customer service. Um, it’s about how to talk to people. It’s about how to, um, make sure people who like help explain like, complicated topics to people who are unhappy and are not feeling very well.

And so part of that is like customer service. And so there’s a lot of like applicable soft skills that you are getting out of working a job. Um, that, and, and that’s something that is like you can talk about and you can know. And even for me, like when I was on my residency trail very really recently, I talked about what it was like working with CollegeAdvisor and that as, as a job experience, even though it wasn’t like, it’s not technically related to medicine whatsoever.

Right. Um, so I wanna say that there’s something valuable to that. Um, I would also say like, you know, it’s very much dependent on what your financial situation as well. Um, if it’s something where. You have the privilege to be able to explore something that’s like, you know, more shadowing and you’re not earning money off of it.

Um, but you’re able to get by and your family’s able to do well without it. Um, I would say that’s something that I would absolutely consider exploring because that’s it. It’ll give you a little bit of feedback about whether or not this career passion of yours is, is true to you or not, right? It might be something where you shadow and you’re like, oh, absolutely not.

This is not for me. Um, this is what I like happened to me. I did like a bioengineering program and I was like, oh no, this is not for me. I could not possibly see myself doing this in the future. And that’s also information and helpful thing, like a helpful thing to learn about yourself. Um, so basically, I guess I’m saying neither option is a bad option and both are about how both can add some variety to your extracurricular, but also tell you something more about, um, which path to continue down.

Stephanie: Absolutely. And you know, you had mentioned just reflecting and I re recommend all students do that. You know, it’s, it’s all about how you talk about your activities when it comes to essays at the end of the day, um, kind of in line with what you just shared. You know, one student wants to ask about, um, whether extracurriculars are for discovering what I want to do for my future.

So this is a ninth grade student, and they wanna know, should I be exploring my interests or locked in on my future aspirations as a vet, for instance.

Katie: Oh, I see. Interesting. I, I assume they mean vet, like veterinarian. Um. I dunno. Um, so here’s what I’ll say is, and this is as someone who has now gone through multiple rounds of applications and every time there’s always like a couple of people who are like, I know exactly what I’m going to be.

And realistically half of those people at least change their minds. And so when I say, when I think about someone who’s locked it, I would say always explore. There’s so much out there that we like just simply could not possibly be aware of. Especially as a freshman in high school, I hated history throughout high school ’cause I had a teacher who would call on me cold Turkey, like in law school.

And I got to college and I took a history class and I was like, this is, this is, this is literally not the same subject anymore. I also like didn’t know that anthropology existed and that’s what I ended up majoring in. There’s so much more out there. So I would say continue exploring. That being said, when it comes to practicality, right, and extracurriculars, and I understand like locked in meaning.

Have like a story to your extracurriculars. I would say, especially as a ninth grader, it’s always a good idea. Like try a little bit of a lot of things, right? You might discover that you end up liking or hating things, and then you can always drop those things after ninth grade. I think really extracurriculars especially become more serious during 10th grade and then hopefully by 11th grade you’re kind of like reaching the peak of your extracurriculars, whether that’s like leadership or like a passion project, whatever it might be.

Um, and so in ninth grade, take your time, try different things out. Like I, I mentioned this in my talk, like I did a little bit of speech and debate in ninth grade and into 10th grade, and now I was like, actually this is incredibly draining and this is exhausting me and I really hate doing this. And so I ended up dropping it.

It wasn’t an extracurricular that I ha I had time for honestly as, um, I rose up in leadership and like had more pressing things to do and expected to do better as well and the extracurriculars that I was already in. Um, so take your time, explore, and then after that you can kind of whittle it down from there.

Stephanie: Thank you. Um, there’s a couple questions around, you know, other research projects, um, perhaps even private research projects, and I think I mentioned passion projects, for instance, in the chat. Um, for people who are, um, you know, maybe need something more flexible or aren’t able to find something, how do you recommend students start a private research project?

You know, based off of perhaps some volunteer work that they’re already doing?

Katie: Oh, interesting. I guess, yeah, I saw this question. I was like, I don’t know. I, I think when I, when someone says private research project, just the place where I hesitate is again, going back to the definition of what research, like in the definition of what I’m saying, like this research means, which is that it has to be like a peer reviewed academic publication.

That’s what I mean by like strictly by when I say research, that doesn’t mean though, that like you can’t do a passion project. And that’s I think a little bit more of what. Like private research project would fall under. I think I would categorize that under passion project and not so much research by that in that, in that case.

And so with a passion project, I think there’s a lot of emphasis on like feeling like you need to start something new or novel or like be really out of the box. And again, hopefully I gave you guys enough that’s, this is why I started with my extracurriculars is to give you a sense of like. I don’t know that I like, can clearly say, Ooh, this one thing was my passion project.

Like I didn’t write a book. I didn’t like, you know, I didn’t do something wild. Because at the end of the day, sometimes you’re searching so hard to do something novel and creative that it ends up being something that feels pretty empty and hollow. Um, and I think admissions officers and even myself having worked in the business for a while, like we can kind of sense it, um, try to chase after the things that are really exciting to you and appealing to you.

Um, like if I had to label one thing as my passion and my extracurriculars, it would’ve been the suicide outline. The reason why I knew that was ’cause I went home every day was I felt more energized. I was like. Excited to go back and, and think about the conversations that I had, but also analyze what I could do better and what I could improve on.

And um, that’s where like the things kind of come, come out, right? So maybe not library, but maybe you really enjoy art and you start volunteering as an art docent or something in your local art gallery. And you find different ways that you can, whether it’s like bringing in more youth voices into your art gallery, whether it’s like something about the community that you see that you could bring, um, things to, right.

Finding ways where you’re kind of like following your passion and delving a little bit more deeply into it as a better way, I think to describe it then to go out and try seeking something just because it’s novel and new, but not necessarily because something that you have invested interest in.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Stephanie: It definitely does. I mean, I think, you know, students, um, and you know, we didn’t see the poll responses earlier, but we have a lot of ninth, 10th, and 11th grade students of course, which make a lot, makes a lot of sense. Um, you know, students wanna know, you know, how do I find research options without connections or prior experience?

I know we mentioned like Google ai, um, or kind of just mm-hmm. Near ear to the ground. Um, and then also one student in particular wants to know, you know, do you have any recommendations for students who are, um, planning to have a gap year, for instance, how do you find shadowing or research? Mm-hmm. Um, if you’re out of that kind of, um, you know, resource pool.

Katie: Yeah. Um, and I, I say this as someone who like fully got into research, no experience, no connections. I don’t know anyone who does research. I don’t know what that means. Um, I. Did a lot of learning about like what even the research field looks like. Um, when I was, honestly, honestly, when I got into co college really was when it first started.

Um, but I spent a lot of time, so part of it was when I was researching these programs, that’s why it was so important. I was emphasizing earlier that the research program itself connects you with the mentor because that, that connection, that really is the hardest part. And that’s when you first get your step, like your foot in the door and you start meeting people.

And you, and like even not like even really meeting people, but maybe just like hearing about other people, like other PE people give talks randomly like that you can attend and you can be like, oh, that was a really interesting lecture. I’d be interested in that. And then email them afterwards. Um, something that I often did was, so I’m from Los Angeles, um, which I will say like to my credit, was at a very big city.

Um, so something that I honestly did was that I would go on the UCLA website and I would click into departments that I was interested in. So let’s say biology in this case. And I would literally look through, they list their professors online and you can look through professors and typically if you click in.

And to their bios, it’ll also have an email and it’ll also have their previous research or what they’re currently researching in their lab. And that’s a really great way to just start getting, again, your foot in the door, seeing what people are looking at. And it’s also a great way to explore other departments.

Like I didn’t, again, know what anthropology was, but after I got into college, a lot of what I did was genuinely go on the Brown website, look through the anthropology professors, and look at what anthropology research looked like and what intrigued me. And then I would just email that person and say, Hey, like, hi, I’m a high schooler, this is my background.

I said that you were doing research on this thing. I like, I would be really interested in working with that, like in any capacity that you have available potentially. Like even here’s my resume and like, can we meet or can I, can I work with you in some capacity? Um, or can you point me in in the direction of someone who might be looking for someone to work with?

And that’s honestly where I start. It’s just cold emailing.

Stephanie: You gotta pound the pavement and make some. Absolutely. And you know, I think, um, you know, research is not the, obviously the only activity. Some students are, are wondering, do I have to do research? I think we would all agree, no, you don’t have to do research.

There are many ways, um, to stand out in terms of activities. Um, what are some common mistakes that students make when they are applying to activities, to internships, to shadowing experiences?

Katie: Hmm. That’s a really interesting question. I think, honestly, one of the biggest mistakes that I’ll see is just not leaving enough time for you to pull together an application or to like meet a deadline.

Um, one of the most annoying things would be like if I, that, that would happen for me is I, I would like find a program but the deadline already closed and I’d be like, oh my God, I really like that sounds really interesting. And sometimes some of these programs are like fully funded, like these, like the ones that are like free programs typically.

As you might guess, have a lot more like things that like hoops you to jump through in terms of like, you have to get a letter of recommendation, you have to write an essay, do this and that, or you just fill out a portal, like all these different things. And so truly the earlier that you can get started on researching the better.

And the other thing I would say is as you’re doing your research into extracurricular programs, um, again, it doesn’t have to be a program. Also look locally, look for things that are not like formally done because you can make something out of it. And the fact that you made something out of it makes in itself for a good extracurricular.

Um, and even if it is a program, go broadly. Like do things that are outside of what you might think are your interests, because who knows, maybe you will fall in love or you’ll learn that you hate it. And, and either way you are learning something more about yourself. Once again.

Stephanie: Definitely it’s, it’s definitely trial and error. And that’s part of the journey too, right? Um. Um, how do you recommend students track their activities? Because, you know, we’re going from ninth grade all the way to 12th grade, and by the time you’re a senior, you might have forgotten about, you know, these specific experiences you had as a freshman, which you could be writing about, right?

As you’re talking about how your journey to, you know, um, to college. So how do you recommend students track that?

Katie: That’s a really good question. And I had that actually exact same fear when I was in medical school. So I ended up making like a little, I had just a notes app on my phone and I would just write every single time I was offered a new position or I didn’t join a new extracurricular, I would just write it down in this notes app.

And guaranteed, I promise you, like a year ago, I went back and looked at it and I was like, oh, I did not remember I did any of these things. Um, so very good that I wrote them down. Um, and every time also, like I added a new accomplishment, I would, I would put that there, um, which reminds me to do that. Now.

Every time like I publish a new research article, I also make sure to update my resume actively and honestly having like an. Ongoing updated resume is really helpful ’cause that means that anytime you’re like applying to a new program for the summer or you’re just like when you’re applying to college, it’ll come in handy to have it on like, and have it be relatively well updated so that you don’t have to go in and like really start from scratch and revamp the whole thing every time.

So that can be, that’s a nice, I think life tip in general. Um, as far as the like remembering the experiences, I actually made an effort to, I would like, whether it be journaling or self-reflecting or some sort of blurbing, again in another notes app, I would write and reflect on experiences that I was.

Experiencing as I was going through them. So my sophomore year I did like a pre-medical program where I was being exposed to like surgery for the first time, cardio surgery. And as part of that, I like wrote a little like blurb of an essay, um, about the thing that I was doing, which was like, we were doing like really interest, like we were doing really cool aortic, like we were practicing suturing.

And, um, that chunk of an essay ended up making actually into my final application for, for Brown, actually. And so, you know, writing about things in the moment, they, it’s like it takes time of your day. I know it’s really annoying and it’s frustrating, but also it captures it in a brighter way. Like you remember it in the moment.

And also it’ll pay off for you in the long run, I promise. So if you can journal or write things down as you remember them in the moment, I promise you you’re gonna forget that experience in a year.

Stephanie: I definitely agree with that. Um, and I personally like to take pictures of things that I’m doing as well because I’m like a visual person and it’s nice to have like a photo of you presenting your poster or something.

Yes. Just to, to, um, have a different version of that. And along those lines, um, you know, what are the types of documentation that you might need to submit for your extracurriculars? How do you show your hours or, you know, when you did those activities, um, what might that, what might be asked of you in your application?

Katie: Yeah. For the most part, there’s not any formal documentation that most places require. Like if you, let’s say you say I volunteered for 200 hours at the local hospital. There’s not something that the schools will ask of, um, in order for you to report, like there’s no documentation required. That being said, um.

I will say, people will often ask me like, oh, like, why can’t, like, how come people don’t just like go around making up extracurriculars? And the truth is because when you write an essay about it, it actually becomes very apparent very quickly what is real and what, and, and genuine and what is fake. Um, and I know that that sounds like kind of, um, hard to comprehend on the other end of things.

But now having read like lot, like thousands of essays, it, it kind of like stands out to you very quickly what be, what’s genuine, what’s not genuine. Um, so for most, I would say for most cases, like not any specific form of, of documentation. I will say if you take a community college classes, um, something that you need credit for, that absolutely you need, you need like proof of to get the credit for.

Um, but yeah.

Stephanie: Definitely we can, we can tell, we can snip it out pretty quickly. Um,

Katie: because the too, like yeah, if you say you won a, an award competition, like I, I mean like you can, you can, if you Google someone’s name, sometimes that award competition comes up and you can see all the past winner of it. For example.

Stephanie: Um, you know this question, you know, we’re nearing the last couple of questions by the way, so make sure you get your questions in. If you have any final things for Katie. Um, what kind of resume does say a 10th grader could a 10th grader have? If they’ve never had a job, what should be included? So this is really for all the people who need experience to get experience, how do they get started?

Katie: That’s so fair. Um. It can be even things like, I mean, again, like if you’ve ever had a job again, like babysitting counts, right? But also like outside of a job, like are you part of any clubs at school? Are there any clubs that you might join? You can start there, see what your friends are doing. I always think like doing activities with your friends is always like a good call.

’cause then you get to hang out and also like add something to your resume. Um, if none of that, like start with volunteering. Volunteering. Like anyone will take a volunteer. Um, I know something that I did was like, I did something called School on Wheels where we would go to different shelters and we would.

Offer tutoring services and often it was like a second grader in teaching them how to do math, which all of you in high school definitely can do, right? So starting, starting small and then working your way up, but even starting small, right? You’re really indicating your interest. So I, I did this tutoring thing because I’m interested in teaching.

Someone else similar to me who’s like really interested in like environmental policy and efforts might start out with like doing beach cleanups or like river cleanups in la and then from there might graduate to something bigger and more, I dunno, I don’t know, into environmental, like something cooler in the environmental realm of things.

Um, so starting out small and starting with volunteering is always a good call for a lot of these things. Like oftentimes it’s just if you’re at least an appropriate age, um, they’re looking for bodies to help out.

Stephanie: Definitely. And, and we also know that sometimes if you’re looking at research or internships, you have to be 16 or older or 18 in some cases.

So, you know, freshman, sophomore year, it sounds like volunteering, school clubs are great ways to get some foundational experience. Junior and senior year, you’re getting deeper into your activities and kind of going outside of the school and into the world. Um, you know, you mentioned a couple d you know, we mentioned a couple different types of extracurricular activities here, research clubs, internships.

What are some other categories that you think a student needs?

Katie: Ah, that’s a good question. Um, I would say like needs, I guess I would say like. Volunteering is usually a big part of it. And, and I think when, when, when you think about volunteering, everyone, if I could offer like a tip is to try to think about like an area or an impact that you would like to have on your community.

It could be a particular problem that your community has. So maybe it’s something like food insecurity or, um, I know for a lot of my old students when I was working like a lot more closely with students, like this was directly post pandemic, so, um, a lot of them were working on like different vaccination efforts or like how to explain vaccinations to people.

Um, some people were really dedicated to like street homelessness. Again, I’m from LA so it makes sense. Um, but defining different kind of like things that are important to your community that are local to you and, and kinda making an impact there. I think that is something that I look for in every, um, every application.

I try to look for that.

Stephanie: Absolutely. Um, and, you know, would what about a hobby, would that be counted as an extracurricular activity? Like playing, learning to play an instrument on your own?

Katie: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I should have said that. Um, one of my extracurriculars that I listed, for example, was that I took voice lessons and I was like, not part of a choir.

I didn’t do anything maybe like extracurricular worthy with it. It was just something that I purely, fully enjoyed. And hobbies absolutely amount to more that you can talk about, but also something that like people enjoy talking to you about and pick up on. Um, I remember I had an application that was really cool about someone who was really interested in.

Aquarium rocks. Um, like some, I don’t know, like something about aquarium rocks, they’re like an expert in, or maybe like it’s ones like really interested in like collecting coins or like really interested in like antique shopping. Those are all really cool. And also offer so much extra flavor to your application where someone undoubtedly will ask you about it.

Um, so not all your extracurriculars have to be academic or serious or work-based. Um, that can absolutely be a way also for kind of your interest to shine through, right? So even if it’s something like, I don’t know, like you really enjoy v video gaming, but particularly like, I don’t some specific kind of video games because you wanna potentially go into like storytelling and like, or maybe you started like you are really interested in podcasts because that’s, I don’t know, like that’s something a form of, of storytelling and information processing that you really enjoy.

Um, those are all things that can make it to your hobbies. Section part of your extracurricular, or rather just like your hobbies listed as part of your extracurriculars.

Stephanie: I, and I totally agree, I love niche activities because, you know, um, nothing against like, say a key club or HOSA or something, right? But many students are part of some of these bigger national orgs, which have a lot of pool and prestige.

Um, but you know, if you are say like you’ve mentioned, you know, volunteer at a suicide hotline or, um, just something that’s more niche, more local, like, you know, you’re one in a million in that sense. Um, but you know, even with that, you know, this will, I’ll make this my last question. Do you have any final recommendations as far as specific summer programs that students might wanna look out for?

Katie: Yeah, um, I, and I already talked a lot about money, but if you see a program and the program is free, or if the program is mostly free, but maybe they charge for. Dorm because, or like, you know, if you’re, if you’re not a commuter, the commuter, then they charge you money. Keep an eye out for those programs.

’cause those programs tend to be not only prestigious, but also tend to have some sort of weight to them. Um, because typically these are like run, run by someone who has the money clearly to put, to put time and effort into, into a program like this. Um, and usually they’re pretty well organized and they have like pretty good mentorship, um, worked in throughout them.

So look out for some programs like this. Um, as someone from California, um, I participated in a free program at UCLA, but also there’s like other programs that are similar like Cosmos and I know a lot of other public universities run very similar programs having done research, um, on them with my students in the past.

And, um, also that’s something that CollegeAdvisor, both the website, but also like having someone who is your advisor, that’s something that, that’s something that they can help you with. Um, I frequently do that with my students too, is like, how do I find activities aligned with my students’ interests?

Stephanie: Awesome. Thank you so much Katie for sharing, um, your expertise with us and thank you everyone for coming out tonight and joining us. Um, so this is the end of the webinar. We are out of time, but I had a really great time talking to you, Katie, about summer plans. Um, thanks everyone for joining us and have a good night.

Katie: Bye everyone.