How to Show Leadership and Impact in Your Activities List
Leadership and impact aren’t limited to titles like “President” or “Captain.” Sometimes, the most meaningful contributions come from quieter roles that still demonstrate initiative, dedication, and influence. Admissions officers want to see how you make a difference, no matter what your official title is. Let’s explore how Jasmine, a high school senior passionate about social justice, can showcase her leadership and impact.
Table of Contents
Identifying Leadership in Non-Leadership Roles
Leadership often shines through actions, not just titles. Here’s how Jasmine can showcase leadership in non-leadership roles across her activities.
Example 1: Volunteer Tutor for Middle School Students
Before: “Tutored middle school students in English and history”
After: “Designed weekly study guides and ran review sessions, helping middle school students improve their grades by an average of 10%”
How this shows leadership: Although Jasmine isn’t in charge of a tutoring program, she’s taking initiative by designing study guides and creating an organized plan for the students. By highlighting her organizational efforts and the tangible improvement in student grades, Jasmine shows leadership through the responsibility she’s taken on and the positive outcomes.
Example 2: Member of School’s Environmental Club
Before: “Member of the Environmental Club, helped organize recycling drives”
After: “Proposed and implemented a weekly recycling drive for school events, collecting 500+ pounds of recyclables and raising awareness about sustainable practices among students”
How this shows leadership: Jasmine didn’t hold a title, but by suggesting and implementing a new initiative, she displayed proactive leadership. She also quantifies the impact (500 pounds of recyclables) and highlights how she helped spread awareness—both of which show her influence in the club.
If you notice the language, none of it contradicts her non-leadership title. She didn’t “create the environmental club” or claim to “start the volunteering program” from scratch. If you’re worried about whether or not you’re overinflating your accomplishments, check out this article on the common mistakes to avoid when writing your activities list.
Quantifying Impact in Non-Leadership Roles
Quantifying your impact doesn’t always mean having exact numbers. Showing outcomes, whether through measurable data or descriptive comparisons, gives admissions officers a better sense of your contributions.
Example 1: Food Bank Volunteer
Before: “Helped sort donations at the local food bank.”
After: “Organized inventory and improved distribution efficiency at local food bank, helping serve 300+ families per month.”
Quantifying impact: Even though Jasmine’s role was supportive, by mentioning the families served, she highlights the tangible effect of her work. This description shows how her contributions helped the organization achieve its mission on a larger scale.
Example 2: School Newspaper Contributor
Before: “Wrote articles for school newspaper.”
After: “Wrote articles on social justice topics for school newspaper, increasing readership of online articles by 20%.”
Quantifying impact: Jasmine demonstrates the reach of her work by connecting her articles to the increase in readership. If numbers aren’t available, she could also emphasize other ways her articles had an impact, such as influencing conversations at school or leading to a new school policy or awareness initiative.
Creating a “Snapshot” of Your Role: More Ways to Show Leadership and Impact
Creating a “snapshot” involves writing descriptions that convey the essence of your role and its outcomes, even if they’re not quantified.
Example 1: Diversity Club Participant
Before: “Participated in diversity club meetings, attended events.”
After: “Collaborated with diversity club members to organize a panel discussion, leading to school’s first ‘Diversity Awareness Week’ attended by 200 students.”
How this shows leadership and impact: Jasmine shows leadership by organizing an event that had a lasting influence on the school community. Even without a title, her efforts led to an initiative that involved a large number of students and created awareness—a clear impact.
Example 2: Library Assistant
Before: “Helped organize books in school library.”
After: “Created an improved book cataloging system as library assistant, reducing time required to locate books and increasing student access to resources.”
How this shows leadership and impact: Jasmine’s initiative to create a more efficient system shows problem-solving and dedication, even if she wasn’t formally in charge. By mentioning the increased student access, she highlights the positive change she brought to the school library.
Alternative Ways to Highlight Leadership and Impact
In cases where exact metrics aren’t possible, students can still use comparisons, storytelling elements, or outcomes to communicate impact.
Example 1: Social Media Manager for Debate Team
Before: “Managed debate team’s social media.”
After: “Increased debate team’s social media following by creating engaging weekly posts and organizing live Q&A sessions with team captains.”
How this shows leadership and impact: Instead of giving exact growth numbers, Jasmine explains her strategy and highlights a new initiative (live Q&A sessions) she introduced. This shows creativity, leadership in building engagement, and impact through student interaction.
Example 2: Intern at Local Animal Shelter
Before: “Assisted with daily tasks at animal shelter.”
After: “Developed a weekly enrichment schedule for shelter dogs, enhancing adoption rates by improving behavior and interaction during visits.”
How this shows leadership and impact: Jasmine doesn’t need specific adoption rates to show her impact. Instead, she demonstrates leadership through her initiative to create a structured program, showing how her efforts helped improve the experience for both animals and prospective adopters.
Jasmine’s Final Activities List with Leadership and Impact Highlights
By applying these revisions, Jasmine’s activities list now shows her strengths in social justice, community service, and her ability to lead and make an impact.
Volunteer Tutor for Middle School Students: Designed weekly study guides and ran review sessions, helping students improve grades by an average of 10%.
Environmental Club Member: Proposed and implemented weekly recycling drive for school events, collecting over 500 pounds of recyclables and raising awareness about sustainable practices.
Food Bank Volunteer: Organized inventory and improved distribution efficiency, helping serve 300+ families per month.
Diversity Club Organizer: Collaborated with members to organize panel discussion, leading to school’s first ‘Diversity Awareness Week’ attended by 200 students.
School Newspaper Contributor: Wrote social justice articles, increasing online readership by 20%.
Library assistant: Created an improved book cataloging system as library assistant, reducing time required to locate books and increasing student access to resources.
Debate team social media manager: Increased debate team’s social media following by creating engaging weekly posts and organizing live Q&A sessions with team captains.
Intern at local animal shelter: Developed a weekly enrichment schedule for shelter dogs, enhancing adoption rates by improving behavior and interaction during visits.
Leadership and impact can take many forms, whether you’re organizing events, creating systems, or introducing new ideas. By taking a creative approach to how you write strong descriptions for your activities list, you can showcase your leadership and contributions in your college applications and give admissions officers a clearer picture of your potential on their campus.
So, when you’re revising your activity list, ask yourself these three questions, regardless if you were “officially” a leader or not:
Am I demonstrating leadership through proactiveness and responsibility?
Am I showing the impact of what I did?
If I’m not able to provide numbers, what other ways have I shown impact?
But although her descriptions are strong, do you feel that Jasmine’s activities are a bit all over the place? Demonstrating leadership and impact is vital, but deciding which extracurriculars to showcase is just as important. Read our top tips for prioritizing activities on your activities list to learn how to do so.