[ORIENTATION]: Student groups provide chance for involvement, fulfillment

On behalf of your student government, the Undergraduate Students
Association Council, I invite you to explore all this campus has to
offer.

Take it from a senior: The cliche that you learn more from your
classmates than from your classes fully applies at UCLA. When I
came to this school, I’d never really talked with a
Republican, an archery expert or someone who loves blues music, but
now these people are my closest friends and greatest teachers.

You are now a member of a community that boasts some of the most
intelligent, driven students in the nation, a student body that
includes an array of political, cultural and academic
diversity.

To make sure you take advantage of this, here’s your first
(and most fun) homework assignment: Talk to as many people as you
can. Meet your floormates, introduce yourself to the person next to
you in class, and visit your professors during their office
hours.

Meet people who share your interests or possible interests most
of all. I’m talking about the thousands of students involved
in our more than 800 student groups. Unless all you want out of
UCLA is a GPA that shows off your days spent in the Powell Library
basement, explore these organizations.

Spend time in Los Angeles tutoring underprivileged youth as part
of the Community Service Commission.

Lobby alongside the Darfur Action Committee, which organized one
of this campus’ greatest activist movements, the UC
divestment from Sudan to help end the current conflict.

Dance for 26 hours at Dance Marathon, a fundraiser involving
thousands of students who stay on their feet for that long and have
raised half a million dollars for pediatric AIDS research.

Launch Greek Week as a member of our continually growing
fraternity and sorority systems.

Work with the Jewish Student Union and the Muslim Student
Association as they join forces to obtain kosher and halal food at
our residential restaurants.

These activities ““ along with the road trips and a few
crazy nights with friends ““ are what you’ll remember
when you look back at UCLA. So go ahead, get involved in one, five
or 20 of our student organizations (let me know if you want help
finding something).

At the end of your years at UCLA, you’ll realize that all
this time spent exploring our campus and getting to know others is
really time spent getting to know yourself and what you can
contribute to the world. And isn’t that what college is
for?

Kaisey is the 2006-2007 USAC president. E-mail her at
[email protected].