Week 2: Building Your College Resume
Senior College Prep: How to Build a Strong High School Resume
A strong student resume can support college applications, scholarships, recommendation requests, internships, jobs, and other opportunities. Learn how seniors can turn their high school experiences into a clear, professional resume.
This week, seniors are building a college resume that highlights their academics, activities, leadership, service, work experience, awards, and skills.
For seniors, this document is especially important because it can become a useful resource throughout the college application and scholarship process. Students may also use it when requesting recommendation letters, applying for internships or jobs, completing scholarship applications, or pursuing other opportunities after high school.
One of the most common concerns students have is:
“I don’t have enough experience for a resume.”
For most high school students, that simply means they are thinking only about paid employment.
A high school resume can include much more.
Start by Recognizing What Counts as Experience
Students may have valuable experience through school clubs, athletics, church involvement, community service, internships, summer programs, student government, tutoring, family businesses, entrepreneurship, part-time jobs, academic projects, leadership positions, or other activities.
The goal is not to make the resume look longer than it really is.
The goal is to recognize experiences that show responsibility, involvement, leadership, skills, and impact.
A student who has never had a traditional job may still have plenty to talk about.
Instead of asking only:
“Where have I worked?”
students should also ask:
“What have I done, contributed to, created, helped, led, or learned?”
Download the LCS Student Resume Template
Seniors do not have to start their resume from a blank page. I have provided a professional resume template adapted for Lanham Christian School students to help students organize their education, activities, leadership, service, work experience, awards, skills, and interests.
Use the template as a starting point, then personalize it with your own experiences and accomplishments.
CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE LCS STUDENT RESUME TEMPLATE
Make Your Own Copy
The resume template is a master copy, so please do not request editing access.
To create your own version:
Open the resume template.
Click File in the top menu.
Select Make a copy.
Rename the file using your first and last name.
Example:
Jordan Smith – College Resume
Save the copy to your Google Drive.
Replace the sample information with your own education, activities, leadership, service, work experience, awards, skills, and interests.
Continue updating your resume as you gain new experiences.
Important: Make sure you are editing your own copy, not the original template.
Before You Start
After downloading the template:
Save your own copy and rename it with your first and last name.
Replace all sample information with your own information.
Do not worry if every section is not full.
Focus on accurate information and meaningful experiences.
Use the guidance in this article to strengthen your bullet points.
Save the resume somewhere you can easily update it throughout senior year.
Suggested file name:First Name Last Name – Highschool Senior Resume
Keep this document. You may continue using and updating it for college applications, scholarships, recommendation requests, internships, jobs, and other opportunities.
Begin With Education
For most high school students, education should appear near the top of the resume.
Students can include their school name, anticipated graduation year, and a strong GPA when appropriate.
They may also include relevant coursework.
There is no need to list every class taken during high school.
Instead, students can highlight courses that connect to their interests or future goals.
For example, a student interested in engineering might emphasize advanced math or science courses. A student interested in business might include entrepreneurship, economics, accounting, or other related classes.
The purpose is to give the reader a quick picture of the student’s academic preparation.
Organize Experiences Clearly
Students may separate their experiences into categories such as:
Leadership & Extracurricular Activities
Work & Volunteer Experience
or they may use one broader section called:
Experience
There is no single perfect format.
What matters most is that the resume is organized, consistent, and easy to understand.
Students with limited paid employment should not feel pressured to create a large “Work Experience” section. Leadership, service, school involvement, and other meaningful experiences can be equally important parts of a high school resume.
Start Resume Bullets With Action
One of the easiest ways to improve a resume is to strengthen the first word of each bullet point.
Rather than writing:
“Responsible for helping with school events.”
a student could write:
“Coordinated registration and setup for school events.”
Strong action verbs might include:
Led, organized, created, managed, coordinated, designed, developed, tutored, assisted, researched, presented, trained, supported, collected, produced, and volunteered.
Starting with action immediately tells the reader what the student actually did.
Add Numbers Whenever Possible
Numbers help the reader understand the size, frequency, or impact of an experience.
Compare:
“Tutored younger students.”
with:
“Tutored three elementary students in mathematics for one hour each week.”
Or:
“Helped with a community food drive.”
with:
“Collected and sorted food donations supporting approximately 75 local families.”
Students can look for opportunities to include:
number of people helped
number of events completed
hours volunteered
frequency of participation
money raised
students tutored
customers served
people attending an event
length of participation
Students should never invent numbers.
If an exact number is not known, honest descriptions such as approximately, about, or more than can still provide useful context.
Think: Action + Responsibility + Impact
A helpful formula is:
Action Verb + What You Did + Result or Impact
For example:
Organized a school supply drive that collected more than 200 items for local families.
Tutored three middle school students in mathematics for two hours each week.
Created weekly social media content to promote student organization meetings and events.
This approach helps the resume move beyond simply naming an activity.
It begins to show what the student actually contributed.
Keep It Concise
Students do not need a long paragraph under every activity.
A useful rule of thumb is to focus on approximately two or three strong bullet points for each major experience.
Each bullet should communicate something meaningful.
If a bullet becomes several lines long, students should ask:
What is the most important thing I want the reader to know?
A resume should be easy to scan.
Clarity matters more than trying to include every detail.
Include Skills, Awards, Languages, and Interests
The bottom portion of the resume can help show additional strengths and personality.
Skills
Students should be specific.
Instead of writing:
Computer Skills
consider identifying actual tools or abilities such as:
Google Workspace, Microsoft Excel, Canva, video editing, coding, graphic design, social media management, or photography.
Students should only list skills they genuinely possess.
Honors and Awards
Academic, athletic, leadership, scholarship, and community recognition may all be appropriate.
Students sometimes leave accomplishments off because they assume they are not important enough.
If an achievement helped distinguish the student, it may belong on the resume.
Languages
Students who speak more than one language can include that information and describe their level of proficiency accurately.
Interests
A short interests section can also add personality.
Chess, coding, photography, investing, music production, sports, baking, robotics, reading, gardening, fashion design, or another genuine interest can sometimes become a conversation starter during an interview.
Clarity Is King
Students do not need an elaborate or highly designed resume.
A clean, professional document that is easy to read is often more effective.
Someone reviewing the resume should quickly be able to understand:
Who is this student?
What has this student done?
What skills does this student have?
What impact has this student made?
Writing the first draft is only the beginning.
Students should revise, ask for feedback, and continue improving the document.
The Brag Sheet and Resume Work Together
This is one reason students worked on the Brag Sheet before building the resume.
The Brag Sheet helps students gather their accomplishments, activities, leadership, service, awards, goals, and experiences.
The resume takes the strongest parts of that information and organizes them into a concise professional document.
Together, these tools can help students prepare for college applications, scholarships, recommendation requests, internships, interviews, employment opportunities, and other future opportunities.
A Final Reminder for Seniors
Your resume does not need to make you look like someone who already has ten years of professional experience.
It should accurately represent what you have accomplished during high school.
The experience is often already there.
The next step is learning how to communicate it clearly.
Download the LCS Student Resume Template
Seniors do not have to start their resume from a blank page. I have provided a professional resume template adapted for Lanham Christian School students to help students organize their education, activities, leadership, service, work experience, awards, skills, and interests.
Use the template as a starting point, then personalize it with your own experiences and accomplishments.
Open the LCS Student Resume Template
Use the LCS Student Resume Template as your starting point.
CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE LCS STUDENT RESUME TEMPLATE]
Make Your Own Copy
The resume template is a master copy, so please do not request editing access.
To create your own version:
Open the resume template.
Click File in the top menu.
Select Make a copy.
Rename the file using your first and last name.
Example:
Jordan Smith – College Resume
Save the copy to your Google Drive.
Replace the sample information with your own education, activities, leadership, service, work experience, awards, skills, and interests.
Continue updating your resume as you gain new experiences.
Important: Make sure you are editing your own copy, not the original template.
Coming in Week 3: Not Every Good College Is the Right College for You
Students will begin building a college list based on more than popularity or what they’ve heard from friends. We’ll explore majors, cost, location, campus environment, admissions requirements, scholarships, and what really makes a college a good fit.
