Column: Get involved on campus!
Central Michgan University students walk through the entrance of the Student Activity Center to attend MainStage, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (CM-Life | Alivia Cranick)
This time of the year is so exciting, but also exhausting. You have to move into a completely new environment, with roommates that are basically strangers and then head off to classes with even more strangers. Whether this is your current experience or not, the freshness of everything can be overwhelming and you may want to curl up in your dorm and hide.
Even if you feel that way, I can’t stress enough how important it is to get out, make friends, join different Registered Student Organizations and just have fun.
Two years ago, I started at Central Michigan University as a transfer student from the University of Michigan-Flint. At the beginning, I knew some people at CMU, but most of the time, I felt completely alone. There were so many new faces, so many new clubs and everyone felt like they were already part of something. It felt terrifying jumping into something new because it wasn’t familiar.
Even though it all felt overwhelming, walking through MainStage and forcing myself to find the clubs and organizations I knew I wanted to be part of lead me to the places I now call home: Central Michigan Life and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). What I didn’t know at the time was that I was meeting people I now consider family and building skills to something I now consider my whole life.
College life will be fun, stressful, frustrating and, at times, feel completely isolating. You will grow as a person and watch the people you walked into college with grow as well. This is the place to find what your interests are and who your people are. Take advantage of that.
At CMU, we offer hundreds of clubs and organizations to join. If there isn’t something that interests you, look again. We offer silly groups like Squirrel Watching Club (our very own reporter Ava Harmon is the president) and Crochet Central to more career focused groups like Business Honors Society and the Student Government Association.
These places are here not only for you to relax from classes, but also to grow your experiences before you even graduate. There are many different organizations that exist to help you get a taste of what your career will be like in the field.
While I have learned so much about what it means to be a journalist in my classes, I wouldn’t have gotten all the experience and knowledge I’ve built up without CM Life or SPJ. Without these two organizations, I wouldn’t have bcome close with those in the real field or my colleagues who I know may one day be working alongside me in the real world.
If no other club or organization looks interesting, CMU has so many other opportunities to get involved. An example of this is our Alternative Breaks program through the Volunteer Center where you have the opportunity to go out to different places around the country and do community service. You can find more information on what that is through the CMU website.
Overall, my main piece of advice is, go to MainStage at the beginning of the year and see what catches your eye. If you can’t make it, scroll through Engage Central, a website that lists all the different activities hosted by clubs or the university, and get your feet wet. Otherwise, keep an eye out for flyers and chalk on the sidewalks.
Have fun, and don’t be shy. You’ll never know what you’ll end up liking if you don’t try.
