Getting Involved Later in Your College Career
After wading around the involvement fair in the fall semester, clubs and extracurricular activities can seem daunting and completely out of reach for some. With that overwhelming feeling comes pushing activities to the side to a later date. Come spring semester, your schedule seems a little barren; you start to wonder: is it too late to get involved?
The simple answer to this is that no, it is never too late to get involved. It could be the end of your college career and it still wouldn’t be too late to get involved. Whether you want to join an intramural sport, Greek life, or a club on campus, organizations are always happy to welcome you with open arms.
From personal experience, waiting around to find my spot within the community was difficult and usually excused as “I’m just too busy,” or left to the unwillingness to make the commute back to campus. Come junior year, I can be found spending most of my time at Monmouth in The Outlook office, running to classes, and getting more involved every day with personal training and even a handful of other clubs.
If getting involved doesn’t seem like it would be your ‘thing,’ another alternative is to buddy up with a friend who is involved in different activities around campus. Being taken to events might make you more interested in getting more involved in them as well.
Buddying up with a friend to events and meetings makes the challenge of getting involved a little less intimidating in our eyes. Jumping into something new is overwhelming, but to be doing it alone makes it that much more stressful; try dipping your toe in the water with a friend by your side!
Whether you are into foreign languages, TV/radio, history/anthropology, or even gaming, Monmouth has an array of different clubs for you to get involved in. From Spanish club, to psychology club, to HawkTV and so many more, you can submerge yourself in all of it.
If all of that still seems a little daunting, jobs on campus are always open too. Getting involved on campus does not always have to be limited to sports, Greek life, and clubs; getting a job on campus is a perfect way to immerse yourself in the Monmouth community, and be able to make money as well- all on your own time.
You can be a cashier at the bookstore, a front desk attendant, or even work in a department on campus. Nearly every place on campus is looking for helpers, and the next one might just be you.
I won’t lie, getting involved can be terrifying. You might be scared if you don’t know anyone already. You might be scared that you are spreading yourself too thin. All of it is new and challenging, but still so rewarding and genuinely fun. Clubs, sports, Greek life, and on campus jobs make college life what it looks like in the movies.
It may be scary to get involved at first, but grabbing a friend to take the journey with you can make the challenge a little easier and in turn, that fear will soon go away. So, whether you are a freshman just starting here, or a senior ready to leave, it is never too late to get involved with something on campus—it could be just what you are looking for.
IMAGE TAKEN by Amanda Drennan
