Being involved in lots of extramural activities shows you have enough money to a) pay for extramural activities and b) you can afford to not get a part time job after school or in the holidays and therefore have time for said activities, which leads to c) you have enough money to pay their fees.
Or, as in the more egregious examples I've witnessed, that you have sufficiently flexible ethics to, er-- obfuscate and rationalize why nominal participation, being present merely for roll call and photo-ops (or signing up rather than 'showing up') is fine and dandy as long as the "right" people are convinced of its authenticity, and to be convincing, sometimes being brazen about it is a good solution.
"Oh, John couldn't be here this week-- he's doing Very Important Public Appearances in the midwest today." (John will also be conspicuously absent for ad-hoc committee meetings, and about 50% of the OTHER regular meetings, too, and won't actually
do anything but show up for meetings anyway.)
"Oh, Suzy can't attend on Wednesday evening sessions because she has Another Important Commitment at the same time." (Oh, sure... we knew about that when she volunteered. But we figured that once you actually got to know Princess Susan, you wouldn't mind rescheduling her hours. Or, you know-- just letting it slide these few times. Well, yes, all but the occasional Tu time slot, actually, but it's the thought that counts, right? Suzy really is devoted to helping out at the shelter.)
"Oh, Tim will have to leave early. That won't be a problem, though, right? It's Very Important that he be able to go and do Another Very Important Thing on time. Well, late-- but he didn't want to miss this Very Important Thing, either." (Of course, someone else will have to cover for Timmy in BOTH activities, and both agencies/organizations/events will have to shuffle everyone ELSE to accommodate Timmy, but that's fine. Right? The Important Thing is that Timmy can write both of them down on his resume.)
