Emily Hoeven | Beginners welcome (but not really)

Growing Pains | How the catch-22 of extracurriculars limit our exploration

By Emily Hoeven 08/25/15 10:56pm

It seems to me that these days, high school is viewed less as an experience to be valued in itself and more as a mere stepping stone to college. Now that there are handbooks, websites and corporations that claim to know all the variables in the complicated formula of college acceptances, high school seems like nothing but a series of boxes that you need to check off in order to arrive at the desired endpoint.

College is sold to high school students as the light at the end of the tunnel: If you follow the basic pattern of success now, you’ll be able to branch out and try new things later. Students are afraid to explore, afraid to fail in high school because they’re afraid one unchecked box — or the substitution of one box for another — on their checklist will keep them from getting into the college of their dreams. During New Student Orientation, almost every freshman that I met talked about how they wanted to try something different, to do something they hadn’t done before. They all wanted to diversify their Penn experience from their high school experience — to join new clubs, explore new classes, play new sports, meet new people.

I felt the same way. The very first week of school my planner was chock-full of prospective club meetings, tryout dates and application deadlines. One Saturday night, I planned to audition for the improv team and several plays. I had acted throughout elementary and middle school, but other activities had taken precedence in high school. I had vowed to myself that when I got to college I would return to the stage that I had missed so much and refine my rusty acting skills. I had never done improv, but I thought it would be a fun way to relieve stress and sharpen my wit. I wanted to be able to make an audience get cramps from laughing the way that I had while watching the improv team during the Freshman Performing Arts night.

I went to the auditions thinking I’d be alongside other eager beginners. Instead, I tried out for improv after someone who had acted professionally throughout high school. While I was waiting for my audition slot for two different plays, I sat amongst a star-studded cast of seasoned actors and listened to them talk about all the shows they had been in. I started feeling very out of place. The auditions had been advertised as open to people of all skill levels, but I was surrounded by people who had been performing their whole lives. How could I compete?

Needless to say, I didn’t make the second round of auditions for any of the groups I tried out for. Instead, I ran for and was elected as a freshman representative to the Undergraduate Assembly, a branch of Penn’s student government. I was elated. I love the work I do on the UA. But then again, I’ve been involved in student government every year since fourth grade.

One of Penn’s greatest achievements and one of its greatest downfalls is its competitiveness. People are pushed to be the best they can be here. But they’re most often pushed to be the best they can be in what they are already good at. That is where Penn sells itself short. We work hard and excel in what we know we excel at in order to get into Penn, and once we’re here and try to broaden our non-academic horizons we end up falling into the same beaten track we grazed in high school. Penn extracurriculars epitomize the catch-22 of the workforce — you need experience to get your first job, but you can’t gain experience without having your first job. Many of Penn’s clubs are unforgiving ones for rookies. In keeping admittance rates low and prestige high, they don’t give us the chance to begin — or to begin again. We come to college hoping to discover new aspects of ourselves, our passions, our abilities. College is all about exploring the unknown. But who knew the unknown was so damn exclusive?

EMILY HOEVEN is a College sophomore from Fremont, Calif., studying English.  Her email address is ehoeven@sas.upenn.edu. 

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