By Megan O'Connell,
University of Wisconsin – Platteville

When I first started college, I was all about socializing, making friends and going to parties.

What I didn’t know then was that my time would have been much better spent socializing and making friends within campus groups. I had a lot of friends, and I had a lot of fun. It wasn’t until my junior year, though, that I started getting involved on campus. I started writing for the student newspaper, went to a few alliance meetings and just started caring about what was going on around my campus.

Getting active on campus is a great way to make amazing friends with similar interests and priorities as you. Also, campus involvement looks great on a resume! After two years of partying and getting by in classes, I started placing my time and motivation into activities that I knew would make me a better person. Looking back now, I realize just how much I could have accomplished if I had gotten involved on campus right away my freshman year.

A lot of campuses have student centers where you can learn about different campus groups and activities. Ask your academic adviser or anyone in your department to point you in the right direction. Don’t have a center? Ask around! Your adviser would be more than happy to give you some recommendations of something great to get involved in!

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