Thinking back on my own days in college (yes I know it was 100 years ago and things have changed quite a bit…), most of my memories are not academic in nature.  That’s not to say I didn’t do well, because I made pretty good grades.  And it’s not to say I didn’t learn a lot of useful stuff through my degree program, because I did.  Today, probably once a week or more, I recognize something I know or do that is traceable directly to my Bachelor’s Degree.

But the most meaningful and vivid memories from my college experience are of people I knew and experiences I had during that time.  Some of the people that meant a lot to me were professors, mostly from my major.  But what I’m writing about here is the people I knew and things I experienced outside the classroom!  Because of my own experience, I want to encourage you to get out, meet people, get involved, and actually enjoy college (though not at the expense of school).

The activities you get involved in while you are in school can help you build lifelong friendships, develop leadership skills, learn to work with others, come to understand different viewpoints, learn about yourself and the world around you, and contribute to the greater community – not to mention building your resume and establishing habits and involvements that will last a lifetime.  Each of these makes you more attractive to employers.

Even the smallest of colleges will have dozens of ways for you to get involved – clubs and organizations, intramural sports, events, committees, student government, philanthropies, and community service activities.  Sometimes student employment can be kind of a hybrid between a student activity and a job – like the students who guide campus tours at some schools, those who help guide new students through summer enrollment programs, or even those who call high school students to remind them to apply for scholarships, or alumni to ask for donations.

My advice to you is this:  Kick it up a notch!  Whatever your level of involvement is now, get MORE involved!  Because most organizations have multiple layers of involvement, it should be easy to tell what your next step is.  If you’re not involved in anything, join a club.  Only a member, but not very involved?  Volunteer for a committee or project.  Already on committees?  Volunteer to head things up next time around. Served as a committee head? Run for office, and so on.  For those of you who have already held leadership positions, maybe it’s time to add involvement in a group with a larger scope.  Maybe raise funds for a national charity instead of just the small local one.  Get involved at a state or national level with your sorority or professional organization, instead of just the one on your campus.

So long as it doesn’t negatively affect school, the more and the bigger, the better.

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