Mount St. Joseph Academy

In order to both streamline the completion of your college applications and to give your teachers and guidance counselor some further insight as to all that you do and have been involved in during your high school years, I urge you to begin creating your résumé as soon as possible. When you’re making your college applications, you’ll find that most of them require identical information regarding your academic career, athletic participation, extra-curricular activities, community service, employment and the like. By completing a résumé with all of these items identified, we’ll be able to simply include them with your applications, rather than have you endlessly repeat this information by hand. In addition, when you’ve identified the faculty member(s) from whom you wish to request recommendations, you can simply hand them a copy of your résumé along with any required recommendation forms; the same applies to your guidance counselor. Most, if not all schools will require a guidance recommendation and at least one teacher recommendation; many require two. In order to give your teachers the time that they need to write a thoughtful and positive recommendation for you, you should start thinking about which you would like to ask early rather than close to your application deadlines. Remember that your teachers want to support you, but that they are doing you a favor in creating your recommendation; give them the information and time that they need to provide this support.

Résumé Structure
For the most part, résumés follow the same general outline. At the top of the page, begin with your identifying information: Name, School (this is optional, but many applications ask you to identify yourself with this), Social Security Number (this is optional, but many applications ask you to identify yourself with this number), Home or Mailing Address, Phone Number(s), e-mail address*.

*if you set up an e-mail address with one of the free services, e.g., hotmail, yahoo, you will have an account that is exclusively for college application use. You also have the opportunity to establish and provide an e-mail address that is fairly generic – a series of numbers and letters – rather than an address that is cute or too personal.

After you identify yourself with the information above, you will need to identify categories/headings. Most schools are looking for the following: EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, ATHLETICS, VOLUNTEER SERVICE, AWARDS.

EDUCATION: Under this heading, list Mount St. Joseph Academy, Rutland, VT and give your dates of attendance – e.g., August 2001-present. List any other high schools that you attended as well. If you care to, you can list your anticipated graduation date. Many students also include their academic awards – e.g., honor roll status, high honors, honors coursework, AP coursework, any awards based on the quality of their academic work. These could also include Science Fair selections, Math Competition recognition, writing awards and/or honorable mentions, and the like.

EMPLOYMENT: Under this heading, list any employment you have had during your high school career; list your job title, e.g., Sales Associate, Cook, Lifeguard, Playground Supervisor, Laborer, where you worked, e.g., the company name or the person who employed you and address (you do not have to list the street address, just the town/city name and state) and the dates of employment, e.g., June 2003-August 2003, Summer 2003, Part-time, December 2002-present, etc. List the number of hours you worked weekly. Provide a brief description of your duties. This should not be in narrative form, in other words, don’t use first person pronouns, “I”, “me”, “my”, “mine”. Rather than writing this – When I worked at ABC Company, I was required to load and unload delivery trucks, check their invoices and stock shelves. I was also required to talk with customers and truck drivers. Sometimes I would be asked to arrive early and open the loading dock for deliveries. And I was asked to stay late and close down the loading dock

– You should consider writing this:
Loading Dock Worker, ABC Company, City, State (abbreviated) Dates of Employment
Hours worked, e.g., 10 hours / per week during school / 40 hours/week during summer
Responsibilities:

• Loading/unloading company trucks and vehicles
• Checking invoices and inventory control
• Communication with drivers, customer service
• Opening and closing loading dock procedures

These types of abbreviated statements make your résumé a “rapid read” which is always appreciated by Admissions Counselors and/or prospective employers.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: List all extra-curricular activities; these can be school and/or community related. Maintain the same format that you used in the EMPLOYMENT section. Example(s):

Member, Rutland County 4-H, Rutland, VT 1999-present
Involved in:

• Animal raising, showing and breeding
• Carpentry and woodworking
• Horse showing and jumping

Cadet, Vermont Criminal Justice Training Program, Rutland, VT 2003-present
Involved in:

• Training at the Vermont Police Academy
• Ride-alongs with local law enforcement officers
• Coordinating program for new cadets through the American Legion sponsor

Member, MSJ Chorus, 9-12

• District Qualifier, Solo Vocalist, 9-11
• All-State Selection, Solo Vocalist, 12
• Vocal Accompanist (piano), 10-12

ATHLETICS: In this section, list your athletic involvement, particularly those sports you played while in attendance at MSJ; include whether or not you were a JV or Varsity player and the years of your involvement. Many students will list the grades in which they participated rather than the dates. Don’t forget to include AAU involvement, American Legion Baseball, and any athletic activities that are not school-related. If you are rock-climbing team member, list it; if you’re a competitive cross-country skier, make note of it. Many students will list the awards they received in this section; if you received recognition for your play, you can list them here. Example(s):

Member, MSJ Basketball Team, JV 9, 10, Varsity, 11, 12

• Co-Captain, 12
• Voted Most Valuable Player, 12
• Vermont State Basketball Championships, Team Semi-Finalist 11, Team Quarter Finalist 12

Member, Rutland Area AAU Basketball Team, 10, 11, 12, Tournament Team, 11, 12
Member, MSJ Cross Country Running Team, Varsity 9-12,

• Captain 12

VOLUNTEER SERVICE or COMMUNITY SERVICE
Because MSJ has a Community Service requirement, you should be able to include a number of items in this section. Maintain the format that is in place for all other sections and list all volunteer/community service positions here. Examples:

Volunteer, Loretto Home, Rutland, VT 11-12
Duties included:

• Visiting with local elders at a permanent care facility
• Establishing relationships with elders and providing predictable contact throughout the year

Volunteer, Rutland, Head Start, Rutland, VT 9-10
Duties included:

• Taking care of and playing with toddlers-pre-K
• Supporting the educational goals of Head Start

Volunteer, Habitat for Humanity, Boston, MA/Somerville, MA Spring Break 11
Duties included:

• Working with a team of MSJ students and teachers, rehabbing low income housing
• Sanding, painting, framing, basic carpentry

You are welcome to include any other sections that apply, e.g. INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL (if it is appropriate); further, if you want to create an AWARDS section that will list the honors and recognition you have received, please feel free to do so. The things to remember about résumés are these:

1. There is no perfect résumé.
2. Even so, you should maintain the same format throughout your résumé in order that your reader can follow along it easily and rapidly.
3. Always begin with your Identifying information, name, address, phone #, etc., at the top.
4. You decide what categories you want to include and in which order you want to put them.
5. Don’t belabor the point; a résumé rarely runs longer than one page
6. You’ll use this document for every college/university application
7. You’ll hand it to the people who are going to write your recommendations