Extra-curricular Extras: Which pastimes look best on your profile?

给力吧！课外活动：什么课外活动会为你的个人履历锦上添花？

“We want well-rounded students, not just students with strong test scores.”

 “我们想要发展的学神，而不是只会考试的书呆子。”

This phrase or at least a close variation on it has been the staple of the interview process at most reputable universities and colleges across the English-speaking world for several years now.
But, what exactly does it mean?

近几年，这句话基本上定下了英语世界中大学的入学面试的基调。但是，它究竟是什么意思呢？

Well, in short it means that just getting straight A grades on all your exams and coursework isn’t the “free pass” into an Ivy League school that it used to be. There was the well-documented case of such a “straight-As” student in Hong Kong a few years ago. He had recorded some of the highest scores ever in the HKDSE exams and then gone on to study in one of the city’s most prestigious university courses. However, upon graduation, he spent the next year or so attending literally hundreds of job interviews and failing every single one. His problem, as one rather less than diplomatic observer put it, was that he was “brain-bound”.

简单来说，这意味着尽管你在所有的考试和功课中拿到了A，也不一定能像以往那样得到常春藤联盟的学校的“自由通行证”了。几年前，香港曾有一件广受关注的全A学霸的经历值得我们警惕。他在好几科香港中学文凭的考试中获得破纪录的数，然后进了香港竞争激烈的大学学习。然而，在毕业后的一年里，他参加了数百次的求职面试，但是每一次都失败了。他的问题就在于情商不足。

He has dedicated so long to studying and acquiring the very best academic test scores that he had completed neglected his need for personal, social development.

他自始至终致力于学习和获得优异的学业考试成绩，而忽略了他对个人、社交发展的需要。

As a result, he had difficulty engaging in the most basic of “small talk” conversations with friends, colleagues and, at interviews, potential bosses and coworkers.

因此，他连与朋友和同事之间东拉西扯的基本能力都缺乏，更惶论是在面试时与未来老板和同事的对答。

So today, when the top US and UK universities and other academic institutions say “We want well-rounded students.” This is exactly the kind of scenario they are trying to avoid.

所以，如今美国和英国好的大学和其他学术机构都说，“我们希望发展的学生。”其实正是为了避免以上的情况出现。

Unfortunately, this creates something of a dilemma for today’s students. Even as recently as 20 years ago, when I was entering high school, I remember having it hammered into me from day one that the only way I was going to progress beyond the unemployable malaise, that had gripped much of my hometown of Glasgow at the time, was to get really good grades at school, so I could go on to university, something very few students from my school would typically achieve.

不幸的是，这为今天的学生创造了一个两难的局面。考试一直以来都是家长老师对孩子灌输的老生常谈。话说20年前，当时失业的阴霾正笼罩着我的家乡格拉斯哥，从我进入高中的第一天起，“学校的成绩好才能进大学，并解决失业问题”的信条便被刻在我的脑子里。我后来也不负众望的成为了学校中少数能进大学的高中生。

Now however, to coin an old Scottish phrase: “The goalposts have been shifted.” Today, students need more.

然而处于这个日新月异的时代，今天的学生需要具备更多的实力。

With this in mind, how can students demonstrate to those conducting the entrance interviews that they are more than just highly trained academic drones? What can they do to set themselves aside from the crowd?

考虑到这一方面，学生们如何才能展示给入学面试官看，他们不是训练有素的考试机器？他们能做什么让自己脱颖而出？

This is where extra-curriculars come in.

这就是要为课外活动“给力”的原因。

To give a brief explanation, extra-curricular activities are organized activities that students engage in outside of school time and which help them to acquire the kind of intangible “soft skills” that your school days can’t really teach you. Attributes such as social skills, leadership abilities, compassion and a solid work ethic; these are just some of the things you can demonstrate through a well-developed set of extra-curricular activities.

简单的说，课外活动是有组织的活动，学生在课外时间进行，这有助于他们获得无形的“软技能”，这些在学校教不了学生的。通过一些有组织的课外活动，学生能学到的“软技能”如社交能力，领导能力，同情心和靠谱的职业道德。

So, what kind of activities make good additions to a student’s profile?

那么，什么样的活动可以使学生的个人履历加分？

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular ones.

让我们来看看一些比较流行的活动吧。

1) The Duke of Edinburgh Awards, and other “outward bound” schemes

1）爱丁堡公爵奖和其他“拓展”计划

The Duke of Edinburgh Awards, named after the English monarch Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip, the scheme involves students engaging in various outdoor pursuits, such as hiking, orienteering or perhaps even building their own storm shelter. Those who achieve these awards are often said to acquire great leadership skills and demonstrate high levels of independence and autonomy. These are all the very same kind of intangible attributes that today’s entrance examiners value so highly amongst potential candidates. The awards also promote physical health, emotional well-being and the importance of communicating well with others and working as a team. If you put “excellent communicative and interpersonal skills” on your resume, then having a Duke of Edinburgh Award, or an equivalent, to your name is a good way of backing that claim up.

爱丁堡公爵奖，以英国女王伊丽莎白二世的丈夫菲利普亲王的爵位命名，该计划让学生进行各种户外活动，如远足、定向，甚至建立自己的暴风雨避难所。人们常赞道，获得这些奖项的学生 具有很好的领导能力，并表现出高水平的独立性和自主性。这种无形的品质正是入学面试官重视的申请学生的品质。该奖项还有利于学生的身心健康，以及在一个团队中与他人的交流和合作能力。如果在你的个人履历写上“的沟通和人际交往能力”，再加上一个爱丁堡公爵奖，这将会为你的申请文书大大的加分。

2) Charity Work and Volunteering

2）慈善工作和志愿服务

Of course, all the great academic institutions look favourably on those who are willing to donate their time and resources to help the less fortunate, but having some charity or voluntary work on your resume is about more than just saying “I’m a nice guy, look at all these starving orphans I’ve helped!”

所有的好的学术机构都喜欢那些愿意奉献自己的时间和资源来帮助不幸的人。如果在你的简历上有一些慈善或志愿工作的经历的话，会好过仅仅是口头上说：“我是一个很好的人，看看所有这些饥饿的孤儿和我帮助过的人”

Charity work again serves as an important key performance indicator for your social and interpersonal skills as well as your ability to problem solve, work together with others, often from vastly different backgrounds and also your ability to deal with tragedy, upheaval and other mentally and emotionally taxing situations.

慈善工作其实是作为一个重要的关键表现指标，表现你各方面的能力，包括人际交往与解决问题的能力，怎样与不同背景的人一起工作，怎样处理一些在精神和情绪上都让人费力的突发状况。

I’d like to add however, an important footnote for your consideration.

然而我想补充一个重要的脚注，供你考虑。

It is often said by many people the world over, that: “charity begins at home”.

世界上许多人常说：“慈善始于眼前”。

This is more than just a simplistic metaphor for mankind’s innate ability to sometimes fail to see the problems on his doorstep as he looks towards the lofty horizons, in the case of building a strong student profile it also has another meaning: You don’t have to go gallivanting halfway around the planet to show your charity work credentials.

这是一个简单的比喻，指出人类的天生的倾向——有时因为他心中想着远大的目标，所以看不到眼前的问题。在建设一个强大的个人履历时，这个比喻也有另一个意义：你不必去地球的另一端以收集自己的慈善工作的凭据。

Wholehearted charity work will be given the recognition it deserves whether it’s working with an African village, or helping out down at the local homeless shelter or old people’s home. Ultimately, it will have the same impact and if anything universities may look more favourably on someone who has engaged in local work as this suggests that one has undertaken the work out of a selfless desire to give something back to their local community rather than as a self-enhancing cultural or foreign travel experience.

无论是在非洲的一个村庄服务，或是在当地的流浪者收容所和老人中心做义工，真心的慈善工作都会得到它应得的认可。最终，这两种服务都将有同样的效果。有些大学可能更加倾向于，从事当地的工作的。这表明，学生的义务工作是无私的想给当地社区做贡献，而不是作为一个自我提升的文化或外国旅游经验。

3) Attending conferences and seminars

3）参加会议和研讨会

I was always interested in politics as a teenager and I was very proud to be invited along with a small delegation from my school to take part in a mock European Parliament with delegates from schools all across Central Scotland taking on the roles of different countries around the continent.

我读高中时一直对政治感兴趣。当时，我很自豪能够被学校邀请作为一个小代表团去参加一个模拟欧洲议会，与来自苏格兰中部地区的学校代表从不同的角度一起讨论世界大事。

I didn’t think much of it at the time, but when I was preparing my university applications a couple of years later, my social studies teacher recommended I add it to my experiences. Lo and behold, the topic came up at my interview and it helped me get an offer, as, given that my course was journalism, the university was especially interested in welcoming students with a political awareness.

我参加模拟会议后並没有太多的想法。但几年后，当我在准备大学申请时，我的社会研究老师建议我把这活动加进我的个人履历。瞧，入学面试官在我面试时提起这个活动，它帮助我获得了一个入学通知。由于我的报的是新闻系，他们特别欢迎有政治意识的学生。

So, if you’ve ever been invited to an event, seminar or other such thing, put it on your profile, because you never know the impact it may have.

所以，如果你曾经被邀请参加一个活动，研讨会或其他类似的活动，把它放进你的个人履历，因为你永远不知道它可能有什么影响。

Hopefully my ramblings will have been of some use to you today. Remember that it is important, above all else, to be as open and honest as possible when doing university interviews. Don’t be afraid to tell them everything you have accomplished outside of school. You would be surprised at how sometimes even the smallest detail can make a huge difference.

希望我今天的闲谈对你有一定的用处。请记住，其中重要的是，在进行大学面试时尽可能坦然和诚实。不要害怕告诉他们你在学校外面所做的一切。你会很惊讶的发现，有时甚至是很小的细节也可以造成一个巨大改变。