extra-curricular activities during COVID-19

I'm getting this question a lot, so I want to memorialize my answer


https://www.quora.com/What-activities-can-students-do-that-will-look-good-on-their-college-applications-during-COVID-19/answer/Annalisse-Mayer?prompt_topic_bio=1

Question answered: What activities can students do that will look good on their college applications during COVID-19?

People seem to discount the idea of solitary creative activity: art, creative writing, music, or even solo dance. Maybe you can even submit such things to contests on line or for publication. It would be really cool to get a poem or short story published. People are so focused on “leadership.” Well, everyone can’t be a leader.

Can you perhaps do something for elderly or sick neighbors, while maintaining proper social distance, e.g. shopping or yard work? I have this fantasy that people will organize delivery of care packages for sick people who are quarantined. I’ve been trying to think of what they would need: non-perishable food, gatorade powder, thermometer, blood oxygen testing device, vitamins?

Can you organize a club online, e.g. book club, acting club or debate club? Can you make some creative videos online, possibly with the help of friends? If you could develop some audio or video manipulation skills and make really creative videos, that might be interesting.

How about designing a creative app for smartphone? Or some interesting lenses for Snapchat? My cousin created a lens that ended up being used by over 20 million people!!! If you could get something to go viral, that would look good.

Can you perhaps think of a science project that could be done while maintaining social distance? Or work on a knotty math problem? Maybe you could learn some non-standard math skill like spherical trigonometry or how to manipulate quaternions or octonions. I’ve always thought it would be super cool if someone could create an animation of a Klein bottle or a hyper cube that would really help the viewer to understand it. Or maybe you could create some fractal art. That’s both mathematical and beautiful.

Another thing that a lot of students need to work on is basic writing e.g.: spelling, grammar, proper word usage, and punctuation. I’m seeing a lot of Quora questions on here from HS students that are deficient in these respects.  

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Here's an article about a music teacher and his students who made face shields for health care providers, which is just exactly the sort of thing colleges would love to see

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/11/869948638/music-teachers-weekend-project-turns-into-almost-40-000-face-shields?fbclid=IwAR1fb-ieqYpmdDb7uz7QCi-xMLJxk5lNACc6dmZQ1uQGiHMdMi30i5Jj-qs