Getting Involved Outside of Classes

As I mentioned last time, college life means that there’s a lot more freedom in how I want to spent my time and find “my people.” Coming from a tiny high school where I know every single person and every single event that’s going on, I have to adjust to the life at this “small” college that has countless student organizations, events, resources and opportunities. College is all about exploring and rediscovering ourselves through engaging in all kinds of activities, so make sure you take advantage of that!

Getting involved can start before you physically arrive on campus! When registering for all the amazing courses at Carleton, you can register for numerous P.E. classes or music ensembles, such as the Carleton Choir that I am a part of. I think those are great starts to your Carleton life, as you will join a community of people that share your interest in those groups, and many of them will be upperclassman that will be more than happy to help you transition into college life.

Once you arrive on campus, the Activity Fair at the end of the first week is one of the best chances to get involved at Carleton. Among the 200+ student organizations present at the fair are a variety of sport clubs, a cappella groups, culture clubs, dance groups, academic clubs, interest groups and many many more. You will basically find anything that you are interested in, and even if you don’t, you can find 5 friends and start your own club, like my friend Tate just did.

And to me, the best part about the fair is that, you are mostly just adding yourself to their mailing list and not declaring your commitment to the club. I “joined” a lot of clubs by signing up and joining their mailing list, but I have only been to some of the events and meetings and it’s totally fine (trust me, I asked around, almost everyone does this). I basically singed up for a bunch of stuff that I may be remotely interested in, and now my mailbox is bombarded with a bunch of information that I often find interesting and helpful.

Also, I highly recommend to always keep an eye on the poster walls around campus.

I know it seems like that there are an overwhelming amount of posters, but reading them just might inform you about something interesting.

Believe it or not, I didn’t know about the fall term Intramural soccer until I saw a poster about it the day before the registration deadline. I soon got onto a team and we are having so much fun playing soccer and becoming great friends.

Of course, you can always find friends that share your interests among classmates and floor-mates (shout out to Goodhue 1!), but it’s always a great idea to go beyond just that and build yourself a wonderful college experience. That’s all I’ve got for this week’s blog. I think I will change things up a bit in the near future since I’ve basically been talking about very similar stuff. Anyway, I hope you liked it and have a wonderful week!

Ethan is a a first-year international student from Beijing, China, and is exited to embrace the environment and winter in Minnesota. Ethan is a huge soccer fan as he watches and plays it as often as he listens to music, especially a cappella music by Pentatonix and other artists. Although his passions in Environmental Studies and Chemistry flow through his veins, Ethan is thrilled to explore other areas like Music and Computer Science in his time at Carleton. Meet the Other Bloggers!