By Joanne Nguyen, EPPS Freshman
New experiences can be pretty unsettling, and downright
scary. Being a college freshman going into their first ever semester at a huge university and trying to navigate your way through school, while making the
grade, making new friends, and maintaining close family ties can be pretty
frightening for any young adult fresh out of high school. It certainly was for
me upon stepping into my first college classroom for my first-ever lecture,
along with all the other obstacles that came along with the new 'uni life' I
had to get accustomed to.
As someone who graduated from high school with honors
and a pretty solid work ethic, keeping up with my GPA while in college wasn't
as big of a concern with me as fitting in socially somewhere was to be honest.
I knew my grades would be taken care of, but what would happen to my
(nonexistent) social life now that I was here on a campus of about 20,000
students with the challenge and task of finding enriching people to be around?
UT Dallas is a very peaceful campus, the student body is
overall very well behaved and you hardly ever hear anyone causing a scene or
making a ruckus, which I think is wonderful. Coming from an inner city high
school, the new surroundings I'm subjected to are just great. The only
downfall- and after talking to many students who also agree, is that making
friends can sometimes be difficult with how studious and shy the student body
tends to be. With everyone focused in class on the professor and the lecture,
meeting people in your own classes becomes a little difficult as well (unless
you just happen to be a very outgoing person).
For many students, clubs and
organizations are a fun extracurricular activity that fosters their interests
and allows for them to be around peers who also enjoy the same things and share
similar interests. With UT Dallas home to about 200 student clubs and organizations
(and growing) it's safe to say that there is a club out there on campus for
just about everyone and every interest. If anything, it might be difficult just
choosing which clubs to stick with and commit to seeing as there are so many
wonderful ones available.
As for me, my loyalty has gone to UT Dallas' Japanese Student
Association. I initially went to their first general meeting in order to see
what this club had to offer and to connect with my Japanese roots, and found
myself in very good, welcoming company. Not only were the members and officers
of JSA very friendly and warm people overall, they also display wonderful
organizational skills and the entire club has a very 'family' oriented feeling
to it as opposed to some of the larger and more impersonal clubs on campus.
The
Japanese Student Association aims to introduce Japanese culture to UT Dallas and
promote awareness of Japanese heritage, they regularly put on performances,
attend volunteering events, participate in fund raising, and do many fun,
social activities together to foster a bond between its members and much much
more.
They will continue to have me as a loyal member and I plan on sticking
with this organization until I graduate and would highly recommend that other
students pay JSA a visit when they have weekly general meetings. If anything, I
would also highly recommend that any student who is not a part of at least one
school organization should make an effort to be, in order to enrich themselves.
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