The Benefits of Being Involved in College
What if I told you that 70% of CEO’s were in a club in college? (“The Value of Extracurricular Activities Infographic” 2014) Would that motivate you to join one? Being involved in college is incredibly important and is directly linked to a student’s success; personally and professionally. Getting involved drastically helped my adjustment to college and helped me connect with likeminded students. This made me wonder, do other students agree that clubs and sports have mass amounts of benefits? There are many studies showing the benefits of being involved, but I wanted to see if students thought that joining clubs was important. I wanted to explore this topic on a deeper level, and see if students and faculty agreed. By looking at numerous interviews, surveys, and studies, I found very intriguing and unexpected results.
When searching for answers on the internet, I found that many universities have pages and studies dedicated to promote student involvement for incoming freshman. Michigan State University has a page discussing the numerous benefits that student involvement brings. They firmly believe that “Getting and staying involved is one of the most important things you can do while in college” and that student involvement helps the transition from high school and increases students’ likeliness of graduation. I also found in a study conducted by University at Albany that, ““students’ participation extends their capacity for mature interpersonal relationships by increasing their tolerance of and acceptance for other people and by raising their self-confidence.” Not only is being involved fun, it actually develops your interpersonal skills, which can drastically help you even after graduation.
Even though these universities think that student involvement is a good thing, I still wanted to see what students thought. I decided to survey students here at Western. I surveyed 57 students, asking them how many clubs they were in, how stressed they were, how happy they were, and if they felt overwhelmed with their schedule. 39 were freshman, seven were sophomores, and 11 were juniors.
Overall I found that most students were involved with 1–2 clubs, showing that they were moderately involved. Most felt happy here at Western. I did find a result that I was not expecting; many of the students were extremely stressed and overwhelmed with their schedule. If students had too busy of a schedule, being involved could have negative effects. If they don’t balance their classes, social life, extracurricular activities, jobs, etc. it can cause the students to feel overwhelmed and stressed, which would make the benefits backfire.
When I first came to Western, I joined a ton of clubs to try to meet people and get involved with subjects that I was passionate about. About half way through my first quarter I was miserable. I was so busy that I had no time to meet people, and my grades were being affected because I was committing to so many things. My plan to get involved had made life a lot harder. The second quarter I dropped many of the clubs I was in and focused on a few that I felt truly connected with. I am now so much happier and feel more connected to my campus community. It is so easy for students to over commit to the excitements of new clubs during the start of school. Instead of joining a bunch of different clubs, it is better to focus on certain ones you feel extremely passionate about. This will prevent student’s from feeling overwhelmed and stressed while in college.
When going to college, students must adjust to a completely new life while also trying to deal with a challenging academic schedule. Extracurricular activities allow students to get involved with their college community. As long as students do not over commit, being involved can be one of the greatest ways to adjust to college life. Whether you are an incoming freshman or a college upperclassman, I encourage you to get involved and discover the connections you can make. Being involved has huge amounts of benefits. So, get out of your comfort zone and go to that club meeting you were on the fence about, I promise it will be worth it.
Sources
Foubert, John D., and Lauren U. Grainger. “Effects of Involvement in Clubs and Organizations on the Psychosocial Development of First-Year and Senior College Students.” NASPA Journal 43.1 (2006): 166–82. University at Albany. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.
http://www.albany.edu/involvement/documents/effects_of_involvement.pdf
“Benefits of Involvement.” Michigan State University Department of Student Life. Michigan State University Board of Trustees, 2010. Web. 13 Feb. 2017.
http://studentlife.msu.edu/student-organizations-activities/benefits-of-involvement
“The Value of Extracurricular Activities Infographic.” E-Learning Infographics. 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 05 Mar. 2017
http://elearninginfographics.com/value-extracurricular-activities-infographic/
Red Square Info Fair. 2016. Western Welcome Week, Bellingham, Washington. WWU New Student Services/Family Outreach. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.
http://www.nssfo.wwu.edu/westernWelcomeWeek/infoFair.shtml
