Why Communities Matter
Posted by Evelyn Wang | June 10, 2009
As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I have come to the conclusion – communities matter.
Before coming to college, I never realized the importance of having a group of friends. Not to say, I didn’t have friends before college, but from elementary to high school, I have been with basically the same people. In high school, my classes were filled with the same 30 students. Nobody in class was a stranger and we were all basically friends, if not acquaintances. Everything was familiar and structured; I knew where I belonged and fit in.
However, everything changed after graduating high school. We all went our separate ways – different colleges and different life paths. From my class, only 3 people went to The University of Texas at Austin, and I was one of the 3. When arrived at UT, things were certainly different. I felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, I definitely was not “in Kansas anymore.” And like most freshman, I had a difficult time adjusting to college. Actually, that might be an understatement. I had a really difficult time adjusting to college. Everything about it – the unfamiliarity, the people, the campus size, all the people in my way, all the idle time I had, and the absolute lack of freedom from not having my car in Austin.
As a freshman, I would have never thought I would have stayed long enough at UT to graduate, let alone miss UT. But here I am, about to start my last semester at UT, and sad that my college career is one semester away from being over and already missing it.
So, how did I manage to succeed at UT?
In hindsight, it was definitely the people I connected myself to through my FIG (not the fruit, it stands for Freshman Interest Group or a small group that meets once a week based on a interest and where we have the 2-3 classes together, so that we have familiar faces in classes that are 300+ students) and an organization I joined on campus – Christians On Campus. Through these 2 main groups, I was able to meet and befriend people who shared my interests, and have a group of people that helped me succeed at UT.
According to a research article by the Office of Institutional Research on student extracurricular activity and academic performance, the graduation rate for students involved in extracurricular activities was almost doubled compared to students who were not involved in extracurricular activities and commuted to school.
I can say with absolute certainty that I would NOT have continued at UT if it weren’t for those groups. With the encouragement from those friends, my sophomore year, I joined a business club, McCombs Diversity Council with a friend from Christians On Campus and was able to expand and become more involved in school. Otherwise, I would probably be in Dallas right now, attending UTA, living at home, never leaving my comfort zone, and not growing as a person.
So, the two student organizations I joined my freshman year, which helped me form a group of friends and be a part of a community, were essential to my development as a student and may have even saved my college career. I met peers that helped me enjoy my college experience, and who have probably influenced and impacted my life in ways I will never know.
Student organizations and communities on campus matter more than most people realize. Connections keep people growing and developing, and I was certainly no exception.
