How getting involved helps your college experience

The first day of college orientation, the college president came to greet us. I’ll never forget the advice he gave: “Get involved in college student activities you enjoy—the rest will fall into place.”

It sounded so simplistic and obvious; something everyone will tell you to do. Well, that’s because it works!

I started searching on the college’s Web site for college student activities, such as the club crew team, the English club, the ski and snowboard club and the psychology club.

I spent the next week sitting in on meetings for each organization and getting a feel for what I liked and disliked. New members joined every semester, and no one gave me a hard time for being new.

To this day, I remain a part of the English and crew clubs, and have recently taken up positions in other activities I hadn’t known existed.

From getting involved on campus, I’ve met some of my best friends at school. Learning to network and to meet new people through a shared interest or talent is a great tool for your future.

I’m not saying that it’s always easy to jump into a new environment and feel completely comfortable. But taking advantage of college student activities allowed me to bond with other new students who were just as nervous as I was.

Things really did fall into place after I stopped focusing on how I could fit in and just concentrated on where I wanted to fit in.

There are so many opportunities to establish yourself at college. Even though it can be intimidating, if you keep an open mind and put yourself out there, you’re bound to succeed.