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A student resume is a short, selective record of real experience. Whether you send one with a college or scholarship application depends on that program’s instructions, and a resume for a technology internship or program should be rebuilt around the skills and projects a reviewer will check. The steps below cover both uses: how to inventory what you have done, choose what to keep, lay out a one-page document, and write accurate bullets that stand up to questions.
Check whether the school or scholarship wants one
Start here, because the answer decides how much work the document needs. College Board’s BigFuture guidance on high school resumes states, “It depends on the school and scholarship programs you’re looking to apply to.” Some colleges and scholarship programs request a resume, some accept one as optional supplemental material, and others do not ask for one at all. The Princeton Review’s guidance takes the same position from the other direction: do not submit one unless it is requested or recommended.
Read each application’s instructions and each scholarship’s portal before uploading anything. If the application already captures the same information, a resume adds clutter rather than context, so only send one when it tells the reviewer something new.
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Write down everything first. ACT’s college application guidance recommends listing all your activities and then cutting to the strongest roles and accomplishments, so the inventory should be broader than the final document. Include:
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- School and community activities, clubs, teams, and student government roles
- Courses or programs beyond the transcript, such as summer programs, online courses, or competitions
- Paid work, internships, and unpaid work
- Volunteer service and caregiving responsibilities where they are relevant to share
- Awards, honors, and personal or group projects
- Technical skills, languages you speak, and certifications
For each entry, record the dates, approximate hours or frequency, your specific responsibilities, who you worked with, and what changed as a result. Keep this file for yourself. The submitted resume is a selection from it, and the inventory is what lets you answer follow-up questions in an interview or on a form.
Select for commitment, responsibility, and results
Depth beats volume. College Board recommends highlighting leadership, how long you participated, and one or two achievements from your most meaningful activity. The Princeton Review makes a similar point: a few activities described with real detail are more persuasive than a bare list of memberships. A club you joined for one meeting and a club where you ran the fundraising for two years should not look the same on the page.
Use this filter on each candidate entry:
- Duration: Did you stay involved over a season, a school year, or longer?
- Responsibility: Did you own a task, lead people, or make decisions?
- Outcome: Can you describe a result you can verify, such as a finished product, an event you ran, or a skill you built?
- Fit: Does this entry say something about your interests that the application does not already say?
Entries that fail most of these tests can stay in the inventory and out of the document.
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Lay out a one-page high school resume
For a high school student, one page is the standard. ACT describes one page as the general rule and two pages as an upper limit, and College Board describes the high school resume as a single page. Do not stretch a thin record to fill the page, and do not add a second page just to include every activity. Use this order:
- Contact details. Full name and a professional email address. Add a phone number or address only where the destination’s instructions call for it.
- Education. School name, location if useful, expected graduation date, and any academic information that is relevant and not already on the transcript.
- Experience. Paid work, internships, service, leadership, activities, and projects, each under a clear heading with the most important entries first.
- Additional sections. Awards, relevant programs or coursework, technical skills, languages, or certifications, only where they add evidence.
Use one consistent heading style, readable type, and short bullets. Follow any format the receiving organization requests; when its instructions conflict with this layout, its instructions win.
Write bullets that show what you did
A useful pattern is action, plus your responsibility or method, plus the outcome or scope. ACT recommends starting each bullet with an action verb and keeping bullets concise. Use numbers only when they are accurate and meaningful to the reader.
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The following is an illustrative template, not a real student record. Replace every detail with facts you can verify, and drop the number if you cannot measure it:
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Notice what the bullet does not do. It does not claim the workshop changed anyone’s career, and it does not inflate the attendance. If a reviewer asks how you prepared the exercises, you should be able to answer in detail.
If you have no paid work
A student with no job can still have a complete resume. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ We Think Twice teen resume infographic says students can describe unpaid work and gives examples of responsibilities, activities, skills, and certifications. Common entries that count include volunteer service, family responsibilities that required regular time and judgment, school projects you carried beyond an assignment, sports or arts commitments, and self-directed learning.
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The test is the same as for paid work: did you have a real responsibility, and can you describe what you did and what came of it? A resume that accurately lists two years of volunteer shifts with a clear role is stronger than one that stretches a single paid job into a larger job.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Adapt the same record for a technology opportunity
The inventory does not change for a tech internship, summer program, or entry-level technology role, but the selection and emphasis do. Boston College Career Center’s résumé guidance recommends putting programming languages, tools, and analytical software where a reader can find them quickly, and adding a projects section with relevant achievements.
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Create a short technical skills line near the top of the page. List languages, tools, and platforms you have actually used, and be ready to explain how you used each one. A skill that appears only as a word on the page, with no class, project, or team behind it, is the first thing an interviewer will test.
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- Customizable Spine Title: You can label and identify your watercolors, sketches, scrapbook, art pieces, sheet music, certificates, and other projects by customizing the reversible spine insert.
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Add a projects section with real contributions
For each project, state its purpose, your specific contribution, the tools you used, and a verifiable outcome. Use the same bullet pattern as your activities. Illustrative example, to be replaced with your own facts:
- Built a sales-tracking script in Python for a school club’s fundraiser; wrote the data-cleaning functions and the summary chart, and the club used the output to plan its next sale.
Group work is fine to include, but say which parts were yours. A reviewer who asks about the project should hear the same account you put on the page.
Match the posting without keyword stuffing
Boston College advises using relevant keywords from a job description. Use that as a checklist for skills you already have, not a list to copy. If a posting asks for a language you have never used, leave it out or say you are learning it in a dated, accurate way. A resume that claims every listed skill reads as a list of keywords, and it breaks down in the first technical question.
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Most students need two versions of the same record, built from one inventory. The table below compares them by purpose and audience.
| Axis | College or scholarship version | Technology opportunity version |
|---|---|---|
| Main reader | Admissions or scholarship reviewers | Recruiter, hiring manager, or program reviewer |
| Main aim | Add context and examples the application does not already show | Show fit for the stated technical opportunity |
| Content emphasis | Sustained activities, leadership, service, achievements, relevant academic enrichment | Relevant languages and tools, technical coursework, project work, contributions and outcomes |
| Length and format | One page is the high school default; follow application directions | Concise and tailored; follow the upload and employer instructions |
| Best test | Does each item add meaningful information about you? | Does each skill or project connect honestly to the role? |
Review, proofread, and get feedback
Before you submit, work through this checklist:
- Confirm the school or scholarship asked for a resume, or that its instructions allow one.
- Check that the document fits the length rule for your use and the format the portal requests.
- Verify every date, title, and number against your inventory.
- Confirm that each skill and project can be explained in a conversation.
- Proofread for spelling and consistent headings, then read it aloud once.
- Ask a counselor, teacher, mentor, or parent to review it. ACT recommends feedback from a counselor, teacher, friend, or parent, and HHS advises review by a parent, guardian, or mentor.
Requirements change from year to year and differ by school and program, so confirm them with each institution before you upload. Boston College’s Career Center offers a free editable worksheet and Word template, so you do not need to buy a template to build a complete resume.
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