Often, when we think about our high school extracurricular activities, we see them as a means to an end—to be used for our college applications and to fill our free time with something we enjoy. However, we’re here to show you that just because high school may feel far away from your future accounting career, that doesn’t mean you can’t use extracurricular activities to develop important accounting skills and enter college with a head start.

Sports Team

Basketball, soccer, or track—whatever sports team you’ve chosen to join can play a pivotal role in your accounting career preparation. Accounting has a lot in common with team sports: you plan in advance by watching previous game footage—analyzing where you can improve and identifying the other team’s weaknesses. Even more importantly, both accounting and team sports require you to work together in a coordinated effort to achieve a positive outcome, rely on each other, and recognize that everyone has their own role to play according to their strengths. These are experiences that make you dynamic on the field, and unstoppable in professional settings—because you know what it takes to win. (Sidebar: did you know that sports teams need accountants too?)

Key Club

Does your school have a Key Club chapter? If not, you probably have a similar community service program or volunteer with an outside organization, so our message will still apply! As Joseph and Mohamed tell us, volunteering actually makes you a better accountant. Working with people in your community helps you build human skills—like empathy, consideration, communication—which are transferable to the workplace. Like Mohamed says: accounting is more than just being good with numbers; you’re working with people who have feelings. Learning how to support others (even when not asked) and being open to different perspectives is how you can prepare to build successful relationships with clients, coworkers, and managers. As you do community work, also consider whether you want to turn this passion into a career path with accounting.

School Newspaper

Do you find yourself investigating rumors around budgets, new construction projects, or changes in admin policy while writing for your school paper? Rest assured, your Nancy Drew skills are positioning you to be a great accountant, especially in a specialty like forensic accounting, which investigates financial misconduct. The critical thinking and analytical skills you’re learning now—by interviewing key experts and drafting opinion editorials— will give you an upper hand as you enter the accounting field and figure out what the numbers are (and aren’t) telling you. Plus, having the experience of adhering to editing milestones and deadlines is building your project management skills, which are crucial to climbing the leadership ladder.

Model UN

Trust us, the time you spend researching, understanding, and negotiating complex international issues will not be in vain. Comprehending and anticipating cause-and-effect scenarios using real-world examples is a skill that will come in handy for a career in accounting, since they have to foresee the implications of financial decisions. Like reviewing global conflicts, as an accountant you must understand previous financials in order to understand the current numbers and make educated predictions about the future. Learning what it takes to negotiate between two countries will make mergers and acquisition negotiations seem like a piece of cake.

We hope these examples open your eyes to the fact that you don’t have to give up your passions and interests to pursue accounting. While you should definitely consider joining an accounting or business club if it's available to you, that’s not the only option to prepare for an accounting future. There can be value in any club or hobby and it all starts with understanding what accounting REALLY is (not what misconceptions say it is). Accounting+ is the perfect place to start to defy those myths and get the real talk. Start exploring today!