Content Brainstorm

The first thing we’re going to do is an exercise that you’re going to use for both your CV and the motivation letter. What we’re going to do is make a list of all of your activities and accomplishments throughout high school.

Slide 1: Content Brainstorm

The first thing we're going to do is an exercise that you're going to use for both your CV and the motivation letter. What we're going to do is make a list of all of your activities and accomplishments throughout high school. But really think of it as a brainstorm, list, putting on everything that you can think of, whether it's structured, organized, non-structured, something you do in your free time. Because it's a brainstorm list, you're not going to use everything on the CV or the motivation letter. But it's good to have this as we get started. 

Slide 2: Activity Brainstorm List

  • Paid Jobs: Cashier at Harris Teeter
  • Volunteer Work: Teen Court, Farmer’s Market
  • Summer Activities: GRP, Concordia, CIEE
  • School Activities/Awards: French Award, TA
  • Outside Activities/Interests: Arabic, Tyson, Current Events/International Affairs, Video Games, Travel

So I'm going to use one of our members as an example for this. He didn't join any clubs in school, but we can still come up with a good size list of relevant activities by thinking of it as a brainstorm list. So first you're going to think about paid jobs, and you'll list any paid jobs you had. If you didn't have any, that's fine. Then I'll go to volunteer work where he did Teen Court, and he also volunteered at the Farmer’s Market. He had to have a certain number of community service hours as a graduation requirement. And then we  think about summers, where he did Green River Preserve. That's what I put for GRP where there were these hiking and rafting where they rafted and canoed. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Outdoors sort of experiences. Concordia Language Villages to learn Arabic. And then, he did CIEE where he went to Morocco for a summer. Then you're going to list any awards or school activities. So like I said, he didn't have any clubs, but we can still do French Award. And he did some work as a TA for one of his teachers. And then, outside activities and interests. So he taught himself Arabic. So he wasn't in any sports, but he worked out with a trainer, Tyson. And we're talking about free time stuff here too. So video games count. You know, reading up on current events and international affairs, put that sort of stuff too. Whatever it is you do in your free time, put that down here. And travel with the family. 

So now we have this list. And we want to look at it in terms of which activities speak to his interest in studying outside of his home country. And also, which of these interests relate in any way to the program that he is applying to. 

Slide 3: Which are relevant?

  • Paid Jobs: Cashier at Harris Teeter
  • Volunteer Work: Teen Court, Farmer’s Market
  • Summer Activities: GRP, Concordia, CIEE
  • School Activities/Awards: French Award, TA
  • Outside Activities/Interests: Arabic, Tyson, Current Events/International Affairs, Video Games, Travel

This student applied  for the International Studies program at Leiden University, which looks at politics, economics, language, culture, and then students choose a specific region to focus on in these areas. So Teen Court has some relevance. You know, it’s somewhat law related or whatever, so he will keep that on the list. But the Farmer's Market does not. Concordia Language Village and CIEE are both relevant, but the outdoor expeditions don't really have relevance. Neither does working out with Tyson. But that said, these three things speak to a quality we might want to note in the motivation letter. You know, something about pushing himself physically. So we're going to keep this on the list for now. Same with current events and travel. It's not right for a CV, but it is something we're going to want to touch on in the motivation letter. Video games actually would be relevant if you were applying to a game design class or something with computer science or graphic design type stuff, other tech programs, but not this one. Arabic self-study is very important. But we have to figure out if there's a place to put it on the CV, or if we should wait until the motivation letter. Now paid jobs will always be on your CV, no matter if it's relevant to your study program or not. 

So this is just the first stage. You know, again, brainstorming, crossing off anything that's just completely irrelevant. And then what we're going to do in the next video is we're going to start plugging this in to the CV. And then the lesson after that, we'll start plugging the relevant information into the motivation letter. 

So start on this exercise, and then start with the next video, which is the CV.