If you’re the parent of a bright, motivated high schooler, you’ve probably been thinking about their extracurricular activities, which form a crucial component of a serious candidate’s college application. You’re likely aware of the usual suspects as far as after-school options go: athletics; theater, music, drama, or dance; debate; academic teams; robotics or science competitions; community service through school or religious organizations.
You’ve also probably heard the broad, true advice that it’s wise to let your child’s natural interests dictate their choice of extracurricular activities, and that it’s often better for an applicant to demonstrate a deep and passionate interest in a handful of things than to be a shallow participant in a ton of different organizations.
If you feel like you already know some of the basics of the extracurricular profile conversation, and you’re equipped to help your child choose the right clubs and activities for them, you might consider some “advanced” extracurricular tactics, namely working toward a capstone project. In this post, we’ll identify what a capstone project is, talk through developing capstone project ideas, and discuss how to carry out and evaluate a capstone project.
Everything that follows is a way of demystifying the ubiquitous questions that seem to abound in college admissions: What is your passion? What are you passionate about?
Most teenagers don’t know the answer to these questions. (Many adults don’t!) But pursuing a capstone project is a way of testing whether or not an interest runs deep enough to be a passion. If it does, your child might unlock something important about their future. If it doesn’t, your child will still have learned how to own, develop, and execute their ideas.
Questions sometimes arise regarding the difference between these two terms. First, let’s answer the question: what is a passion project?
A passion project is a self-driven and independent project your child undertakes to go deeper into a subject, hobby, or pursuit. It can, and probably should, be carried out with the support of a mentor or advisor, but it might exist outside of school frameworks—beyond the classroom, and beyond clubs. However, a successful passion project will probably draw on existing resources in your child’s academic and extracurricular universe.
Such a pursuit could take place over the course of four or more years, or in a single weekend. We’ll discuss timelines for capstone projects shortly, and identify the ways in which they’re distinct.
So, to recap, a passion project may be:
That third bullet point may be the hardest. In an age when teenagers’ lives are so hyper-scheduled, pursuing something outside the fold can be difficult.
Here’s an example. Perhaps your child began writing science fiction novels in their spare time in middle school. The writing has no real beginning or end. You can help your child nurture that passion by connecting them to mentors in and out of the classroom, sending them to summer camps or programs on that theme, taking them to readings and events at local bookstores or libraries, and encouraging them to write a few times a week.
This post will focus on capstone projects, which you might think of as a type of passion project or as a component of a larger passion project.
As we mentioned above, a passion project can be pursued anytime. It can be something your child begins as a freshman (or even earlier) and it can follow them through college. On the other hand, a capstone project takes place during a defined period of time.
Some schools call capstone projects “senior projects” and expect all soon-to-be graduates to show off the depth of their knowledge or skill in a particular area before they head into the world. In other cases, students pursue capstone projects entirely apart from official school requirements.
Here’s an example of a capstone project that is run through an extracurricular organization but still requires enormous self-motivation: the Eagle Scout Service Project. It takes years to become an Eagle Scout. Your son must earn badges, go on camping trips or summer excursions, become competent in the outdoors and in service, etc. Then, in order to become an Eagle Scout, he’ll need to choose a particular community need and meet it. He might organize a clothing drive or build a community garden.
This is a classic capstone project: it certainly completes the process of becoming an Eagle Scout, but it’s part of a long-term relationship that your son is developing with service.
(Note that the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout is the Gold Award Girl Scout.)
To continue our first example, your sci-fi-savvy child might have any number of possible capstone projects. They could:
Whichever of these capstone projects your child chooses, it would stem from their broader passion project, writing science fiction.
Some students are engaged in extracurricular pursuits that have a natural finale or milestone. A competitive varsity athlete can aim to become state champion. An actress can hope to star in her senior play.
But what if your child’s interests don’t fit neatly into a preexisting club?
That’s where a capstone project can help a high school student go from being a tinkerer to someone accomplished in a particular field or area. By learning how to direct their personal interest into a concrete project with measurable results, your child will grow immensely, and will enter college prepared to tackle more adult challenges from internships to major papers to lab research.
Remember a few things:
Encourage your child to begin reflecting on their major interests in three areas:
For instance, here’s what one example student, Joey, jotted down:
In addition to these major interests, Joey is also on the soccer team and plays the flute.
Joey doesn’t write for the school newspaper—he was never much interested in covering the affairs of his high school—but he does read The Economist and a few other great news outlets regularly. He has some designs on combining the above interests in some form, someday. He’d love to study history or international relations in college, and would ideally pursue some interdisciplinary studies that allow him to get multiple perspectives on global issues. Maybe one day he’ll become a foreign correspondent, a contributor to a foreign policy think tank, a diplomat, or an international lawyer.
We can start in each of the areas to brainstorm. How might Joey push himself in one of these areas?
Now Joey can look through his options—which, remember, came from him asking how he can push himself in areas he’s passionate about—and make a decision. Here’s what he should ask himself as he assesses his brainstorm.
In the end, Joey’s decision is about whether or not he really needs a new project to devote his attention to. Soccer takes up most of his time when he’s in season, and when he’s out of season he likes to stay in shape by working out with friends.
But in the end, he decides he hasn’t quite been challenged enough by his existing intellectual outlets, and he misses the intensity of the summer courses he did at Duke and Yale. In order to resurrect that feeling, he decides to do a version of the last brainstorm bullet point: he launches a web magazine that his classmates from the Duke and Yale programs agree to contribute to, and he asks the AP Civics teacher at his school to serve as an advisor.
Another example student, Alexia, got injured during her sophomore year on the basketball team. Feeling down, she wants a way to stay engaged with athletics but can’t conceive of finishing out her high school years without a state or national championship to shoot for. After discussing things with her school counselor and coach, she decides she’d like to learn more about photography and technology. She takes photographs for the school paper to cover basketball games at first, and then eventually branches out into filming and editing her old teammates’ highlight clips, starting a small but thriving business.
A third example student, Younmee, has been interested in healthcare for a long time. There’s no natural club for her to invest her time in, and she isn’t drawn to lab research—she wants to be around people. So she works with her church and a local nursing home to set up the Buddy Project, which sends teenagers to spend time with older residents whose families can’t visit as often as they’d like.
It might be difficult to imagine getting from the brainstorm phase to the execution of a capstone project. After all, this is probably the first time your child has had to undertake something so large and under their own direction.
Here’s a good process to follow, with a suggested timeline for a project that might begin in junior fall and carry over through senior spring. Of course, your child can also launch into this process earlier.
Junior fall:
Junior spring:
Your child won’t have to do all of the following, but they may need to do some.
Rising senior summer:
Senior fall:
Senior spring: