Years ago, the editor at my student newspaper handed me one of the green flyers that had been plastered on bulletin boards and car windshields all over campus.
“Research papers for sale,” read the headline. “All subjects.”
“This looks like a story,” the editor said, as near as I can remember.
The assignment that followed — which included an undercover visit to the office where the research was sold — was one of those small steps that helped launch my career in journalism. What’s more, the whole experience took place outside the bounds of any formal course work and illustrates the value of extracurricular activities.
Class work, of course, is the core of the university experience. But involvement in extracurricular activities will usually put students in situations that more closely resemble the kinds of things they will encounter in their careers beyond college.
Benefits
Some extracurricular activities, like serving in student government or putting out a campus publication, tend to be more formal and structured than others. But even involvement in more casual campus organizations such as social clubs can bring big benefits.
Most jobs involve teamwork at some level, and campus organizations offer students a chance to learn how to work together on shared goals.
In my experience, the people who hire at companies also tend to look favorably on young people with extracurricular activities. Perhaps it’s because they know that being part of a group endeavor — even if it’s putting on a fundraising carwash — gives them a leg up in knowing how to organize events and to work with people. And perhaps it also shows that they can juggle multiple things at once, something employers are increasingly demanding.
Talk about it now
It may seem a bit late in the school year to be singing the praises of extracurricular activities, but there are several reasons why it’s worth mentioning now.
First, the end of the spring quarter is a good time to take stock of the past year with your student — to talk about what worked and what didn’t work during the year, to discuss whether he or she is still excited about his or her major, and in general to find out how things are going.
If you sense your student is a bit adrift, either academically or socially, then you might suggest involvement in campus extracurricular activities as one way of recharging, and you can steer your child to a searchable database of student organizations maintained by the campus’ Student Programs and Activities Center.
Secondly, if your student is taking courses this summer or staying in the Davis area, it might be a good time for him or her to get involved in one of the clubs or other organizations when the academic load is at least a bit lighter. Not all groups go on hiatus over the summer, and it can be a good time to explore some of these opportunities.
Finally, if you have another child who will enter UC Davis this fall, it’s not too early to have the discussion about extracurricular opportunities. For one thing, the beginning of the fall quarter tends to be a blur because students have so many things heaped on their plates all at once. So it can’t hurt to talk about extracurricular activities now — you may not have much of a chance later.
For the resumé
It’s probably too much to expect that your student’s participation in extracurricular activities will help lead to a career path, as it did with me, but you never know how those little extras on the resume will play out.
One of the other extracurricular activities I pursued in college was flying, and to help make up for my lack of career experience, I wrote “licensed private pilot” on my first resumé.
A couple weeks after interviewing with the news director at a TV station, I got a call back with a job offer. The news director made a point of mentioning the pilot thing; his boss, the station’s managing editor, had seen the resumé and was an avid pilot too.
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