Create Your Résumé


In the video, Kyla (a 2014 participant in our Turner Chapel AME Church Cohort) shares her experience in completing the ‘Developing an Academic Résumé’ activity and explains how her résumé assister her in being awarded in tens of thousands of dollars in additional scholarship money resulting in a free undergraduate education at Xavier University of Louisiana.

The photograph below shows Kyla graduating on-time, and debt free, as she receives her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana. Kyla’s debt free pathway continued as she was awarded a full tuition fellowship, together with a $25,000 per year research stipend, to graduate school at the Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles where she has received her Masters Degree in Public Health (MPH) and is in the process of applying to medical school.

You must develop an Academic Résumé in our format. If you currently have a résumé, you must transfer the information onto the format provided. Our one-page academic résumé format is what we use to present students to colleges and reflects a format that has proven effective with college admissions officers and scholarship providers.

The following video provides guidance in using the sample résumé template to create your résumé. Remember that you cannot edit the document that we provide, but must make a copy of the document and then replace the information with your information. 

If you are not logged into your Google Account, Click here to log into an existing Google Account.

Click here to create a copy of the ‘Résumé’ document. 

  • Select the ‘File’ menu on the top left of the document.
  • Select ‘Make a copy’ from the File Menu.
  • Replace ‘Copy of Your Name’ in the name of the document with your first and last name (properly capitalized).
  • Select ‘SHARE’ to share your newly created document to cpc@collegeplanningcohort.com, or with your parents or cohort facilitator.

Step 1: Edit the document: Gather, or reflect on the information, by category (i.e., education, school- and community-based activities, work experience, and awards) in which you have been involved throughout middle school and high school. If you replace the information reflected on the sample résumé with your information by category, you should be able to keep the currently formatting. Also, if you use a tab instead of spaces when adding dates to each area, your dates should align to the right as they are on the sample:

Note: Most of the information required to complete our résumé should be listed on your ‘My Profile’ form.

  • Education: Change the information on the form to reflect your school, city, state, and beginning/graduation years:
    • GPA (enter a GPA based on the following scale: 90 – 100 ‘4.0’; 80 – 99 ‘3.0’; 79 or less ‘2.0’)
    • Weighted and unweighted GPA
    • SAT and/or ACT Scores
    • Class Rank
  • Community Service/Employment: Change the information on the form to reflect your work experiences or community service. Add leadership roles to the beginning of each area, e.g., Volunteer: Red Cross Blood Drive.
    • School-related
    • Faith- or community-related
    • Translation services
    • Tutoring, baby sitting, etc.
  • Extracurricular Activities: Change the information on the form to reflect your work experiences or community service. Add leadership roles to the beginning of each area, e.g., President: National Honor Society, Captain: Varsity Football.
    • College Planning Cohort
    • School-based activities, e.g., sports, clubs, student organizations
    • Faith- and community-based activities, e.g., church involvement, community programs, parks and recreation
    • Summer and after school programs, e.g., camps, pre-college programs, leadership
  • Honors and Awards: Change the information on the form to reflect all honors and awards received throughout high school, e.g., Varsity Letter for Basketball, Induction into the National Honor Society, Principal’s List.
    • Academic
    • Sports
    • Creative arts
    • Leadership, such as Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts or Junior Achievement
    • Perfect Attendance

Within each of the areas, indicate the year(s) of involvement, leadership roles, and include a brief description of the activity.

Note: Years of involvement should be listed in the following formats: 

  • List a single year for involvement that does not go beyond one year (e.g., 2017, 2018, etc.)
  • List a year range for involvement that extends beyond one year (e.g., 2014 – 2015, 2015 – 2018, etc.)
  • List the beginning year and the word ‘present’ for involvement that is continuous (e.g., 2014 – present, 2018 – present, etc.).
  • All dates that end in ‘present’ are listed first, followed by most current, e.g., ( 2016 – present, 2017 – present, 2018, 2016, 2014 – 2015, etc.)

Once our staff reviews your résumé, we will correct any formatting errors. If you have any questions, you may contact someone on our staff at:  cpc@collegeplanningcohort.com.