Madison Kwiecinski – Editor-in-Chief 

mvk5945@psu.edu 

I graduated highschool in 2020, which made me one of the oh so lucky students who got to begin their college experience in the midst of a global pandemic. Truthfully, this made it very difficult to not only meet people on-campus, but also to start feeling like I was truly a part of the campus. 

Now, after spending going on three years at this school, I love the campus community and all of the people I have had the experience of meeting. However, I very much believe that a lot of the sense of belonging I feel here is due to actively trying to be involved on-campus. 

During my first year at school, I messaged the Behrend Beacon’s account on Instagram to ask how I could get involved, because we were still in an era without in-person meetings. Joining the Beacon was one of the first things I did on campus, and it gave me something to do during the week at a time where there really were not many other options. 

Now, of course me mentioning the Beacon and the belonging it gave me is obviously a shameless plug for the organization, but I also mean it wholeheartedly when I say I am so glad I got involved. I very quickly became the News Editor that year, which then forced me to have to keep a close eye on all of the events happening on campus. 

I started to attend more events, as I needed to be able to write about them. This led to me recognizing even more people on-campus, and really helped with feeling like I had a place on-campus. 

Also, I work a job on-campus, which has led to me interacting with so many people who need to do things for their own clubs. As another example, my sophomore year in the fall, Lion Ambassadors were taking new membership applications. I had consistently seen the same person in Reed each week walking around, and they started to ask me if I had any interest in joining their organization. 

Then, the same person sat down with me and actively had me fill in my application for the club, and again, it was one of the best things I did for myself in college. Lion Ambassadors is a great organization, where you get to participate in so many large campus events. It also created a great sense of belonging as you give tours and host huge campus events. Midnight Bingo is a staple Behrend event, and I am so glad I get to be a part of it each month. 

Again, because of people I met through Lion Ambassadors I was convinced to apply to be a Welcome Week Guide, something I have now done for two years straight. Working Welcome Week, if you have not ever done so, is such a unique and fun opportunity because you get to welcome an entirely new class of students to the school, being their first introduction to Behrend. 

Due to my major, I am also involved with nearly all of the political-based clubs on-campus. I was at a meeting for the Political Society, in which I am the Secretary, when someone mentioned attending a Random Acts of Kindness meeting afterwards, which I of course went to. Once again, I stopped in a club meeting and met another group of great people, who do this same thing every week. 

All of what I have mentioned above are simply the benefits of feeling more involved and like you belong, but that does not even include all the professional benefits to having been an engaged college student. Active engaged students produce good resumes out of college, especially those who worked, organized events, or held E-board positions in organizations. 

Personally, I think a lot of people were very active students in highschool, and when they get to college they are so excited by the freedom to do whatever they want with their day that they forget there are still numerous benefits to being involved. I also totally understand that point of view, it is nice to have that freedom. However, recognize that you can now use your time anyway you would like, and then find the things you like doing. 

Maybe you are a student who is highly into robotics and wants to join that club. Maybe you love serving your community and want to find something more service based. Maybe you want to be a part of a club where each week you get to debate things, or maybe you want to be involved in something as simple and fun as ultimate frisbee club or fencing. 

I guess my overarching point here is that there are so many benefits to being an active member of the campus community, and that for anyone who is even considering getting more involved, take the shot and go for it. Attend that meeting, message the club you have been looking at all year, go to that event you thought looked cool. 

Clubs and campus involvement have so many benefits and can honestly just be a great time. You never know what opportunities might come out of it, if you just take the initiative today.