Students join clubs on campus for various reasons. Some hope to find belongingness, some are avidly interested in the subject or purpose of the club, some join simply to sit beside the friend that did not want to go to the meeting alone, and still others join only for the hope that it will look good on their resumé and help land a job. The University of Dayton has over 200 organizations that one can get involved in. The question I pose is, how does one decide which and how many to join?
There are some friends that I rarely see because they are constantly en route from one organizational meeting to the next. On the other hand, I know some people who wouldn’t get out of bed or away from the TV if I paid them a hundred dollars to join one club.
I am one of those girls who felt the need to be involved in everything freshman year. I joined a service fraternity because a few of the other girls on my floor did. I promised intramural volleyball teams I would be on their roster, even though I didn’t like volleyball. I think I looked up and read up on every club listed on the UD’s website.
Two years later, as a junior, I am no longer attending the meetings for the general service fraternity, and have never participated in an intramural team. I have, however, become the captain of my cross country team, and regularly attend and participate in two other clubs that I truly enjoy being a member of and going to. The number of clubs I can put on my resume has slightly decreased, but my complaints about attending those clubs’ meetings have ceased all together.
Maybe for those friends that run from meeting to meeting it will all be worth it when they land the job of their dreams. Maybe those who do not join anything will never feel as if they missed out. However, I feel that the overwhelming consensus among most students is that by the time one leaves the university, one should get involved in organizations they enjoy, and become fully committed to those.
You can browse potential interests from over 200 UD student organizations at the university’s website, specifically at www.udayton.edu/students.
Ultimately, it is an individual choice; each person gets to decide which club(s) to join. Sometimes you need to try out a few to see what fits best. But, once you find the few that fit, commit!
