When it comes to academics and extracurriculars, I firmly believe that a balance between the two is ultimately what fosters a successful experience in your education, whether that be high school, undergraduate, or graduate school. I have, in the past, mostly focused on the academic aspect of my schooling, deeming good grades and high GPA to be the most important factor for my future — for both future education or for my career. Good grades are indeed important, but I’ve since learned that good grades don’t mean all that much, in my opinion, if they are not balanced by activities outside of the classroom that demonstrate personal qualities or build upon passions that cannot be developed in the classroom.

For example, during my time in undergraduate at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, I majored in chemistry, and thus focused heavily on the classes I would need in order to complete my degree. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I began to discover clubs and other extracurriculars that interested me, and I realized that activities I did outside the classroom weren’t as “useless” to my career or future education as I once naively believed. I joined the Regis Sustainability Club as a sophomore, realizing then that I had a true passion for sustainability and environmental issues. I had always been an outdoor-enthusiast, nature-lover, and climate change worrier, but I never really linked these passions with my major or my intended career path until joining this club. I became the Secretary my junior year, and by my senior year, I was the President of the Club. It brought my irreplaceable experiences that I wouldn’t have been able to have anywhere else. If it weren’t for this club, I might not have come to realize my dream of climate research, and I may not have decided to go to graduate school to earn my Master’s in Ecology and Environmental Management. Being a part of Sustainability Club expanded on skills and passions that may not have been present in the classroom; and while good grades are important, it’s the extracurriculars that uncovered my true passions more than any class had.

So while I believe that it’s very important to earn a high GPA, I think it is almost more important to balance those good grades with extracurriculars that will cultivate my passions and demonstrate the experiences that set me apart from other students. Every chemistry major takes the same classes, but not every chemistry major participates in the same clubs and extracurriculars. It is this balance, and the extracurriculars that complimented my major, that set me apart from the rest, which is why I believe that it is imperative to balance both grades and extracurriculars rather than focusing on a single one, and I will continue this balance as I enter graduate school.