High school students are a very busy age group, with school, homework, extracurriculars, jobs, and their social lives. In the United States, 83% of high school students participate in at least one extracurricular activity, including clubs, sports, and musical groups. But how do students prioritize their education with the hours they spend in their extracurricular activities?

Sophomore Carter Prahm said he’s currently in a band.

“Depending on the band, it’s only like a couple hours [of practice] every week. I teach drum lessons and guitar lessons, so I spend three hours a week teaching those,” he said.

Junior Hannah Huang said she’s in several leadership programs and student councils.

“So I try to get homework done at school, or then I just try to do it at night,” she said.

High school students value their time at school to finish their work in order to minimize the amount of work they have to do at home. Even then, students still spend hours on school work once they get home while squeezing in time for their friends and family after hours without seeing them.

“Sometimes, it’s like, ‘if I go to this, I’ll just have to stay up really late doing homework,’” Hannah said. “But then it just ends up that way anyways. So I try to finish my work at school.”

Senior Maia Fassbind has a job, plays basketball, and is in leadership. She said she usually works four to five hours after school.

“I don’t work every single day. It’s, like, three days a week and usually one day on the weekend,” she said.

Students reward themselves with things that make them happy to get the stress off their shoulders. While they’re working hard, they keep in mind what makes them motivated to finish their schoolwork.

“I’m starting college and I have some trips planned this summer that I’m paying for, so it’s hard to turn down money sometimes,” Maia said. “But ultimately, you have to do what’s best for you and school comes first before everything else.”

Carter said he tries to keep his grades up.

“And if my grades are good, I can do stuff. I just want to have some sort of choice in colleges later on,” he said.

Hannah said she tries to stay motivated.

“I count the days until the next holiday when I have a day off. I would say just make sure you have some fun, even when you’re busy. Schedule something relaxing or something with your friends, just so that it’s not all school and work,” she said.