Hey Everyone,
Hope everybody is doing well and being safe during these pandemic times! With the semester soon ending, we can start looking forward to next year for people of all ages, whether you are an incoming freshman or a final-year senior! I wanted to share my experience of being a part of extracurricular activities at NIU. Here are my thoughts ranging from all different clubs’ experiences.
1. Don’t Be Afraid : Make sure, especially as an incoming freshman, to get involved with any of the clubs offered. I strongly encourage you to go to different orientation meetings for all the clubs and societies at the beginning of the year and find what you are most interested and passionate about. The first step is to overcome any fear of not knowing anyone or being the minority of that group. Make new friends, that’s what college is about! Ask as many questions of the leaders and returning members as you want, they love to hear you are intrigued and want to learn more.
2. Be Very Involved: Once you find what specific club or society you are passionate about, participate and be involved in all of the meetings, reach out events, projects, competitions, conferences, etc. Being involved is very important to learning and understanding what each team and society do. Being involved has allowed me to develop various skills from both societies and teams that I will take into future internship and job opportunities.
3. Take Leadership roles: After you have gained enough experience and become comfortable with your peers on your team and society, ask about leadership roles. Becoming a leader is one of the most important learning opportunities I found college has offered me. You should be eager to grab this opportunity any time is presents itself.
4. Being a Leader: I wanted to lastly touch on what being a leader has done. You start to help guide the younger and newer members of your club/society in their experience at NIU. You are now the role model for the future of your team/society. You are now taking big responsibilities of budgeting, planning trips and projects, task accountability, etc. Being this role model is very fulfilling and a future employer seeing what skills you’ve picked up from these extracurricular activities it great and puts you ahead of all the others graduating with the same degree.
I just wanted to give overall advice and experience of my leadership at NIU and what it has done and can do to anyone reading this. It can be stressful at times, balancing your extracurriculars with your schooling, but worth it. You will have experiences you’ll take with you the rest of your life!
-Lauren B
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