Birds Of A Feather Flock Together: College Experience

College is a very important stage for everyone. And college students receive much attention from the society. College life is very colorful, there are many student clubs. But some people think that college students should not join the clubs. In my opinion, it is necessary to join some clubs that students are interested in.

Someone thinks join a student club requires much time and effort to accomplish the necessary activities, it wastes a lot of time to study. However, everything takes time, but if it's meaningful, it's not a waste of time. Student club activities are a good form of self-education for students and mutual education among students. This form is conducive to mobilizing the initiative and enthusiasm of students, cultivating their independent spirit and independent character, so that they can be comprehensively tested and exercised in the activities. Abrahamowicz (1988) stated, “student organizations and related activities provided educational and developmental benefits generally unattainable in the classroom” (p. 235). “Student clubs can play an important role in creating a sense of identity and community among students” (Carruthers et al., 2010, p. 36). Thus, though join a club need time, it is worth to do.

There is another argument thinks that clubs involve money since not all project and activities are for free. There is no such thing as a free lunch, we need to consider the cost-benefit. If the cost is greater than the benefit, it is not worth it. But, as we know, join a club has many benefits. “Student clubs widen students’ engagement with the target community of practice” (Block & French, 1991) and “help they learn by trying things out and making mistakes” (Grinder et al., 1999). And Burggraaf (1997) stated, “clubs enabled students to develop new skills, such as, oral, written, management and enterprise skills”. Thus, the benefit of joining a club is much bigger than the cost.

Other people say joins a club will limit your friends, because you meet the same people and do same activities. I’m strongly disagreed this opinion, the purpose that joins a club is finding some people who have the same interest and same value with you. You can communicate with them and exchange your ideas, help each other and grow up. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Therefore, join a club can help you find some real friends.

Everyone has different perspective on the same thing. As should college students join a club or not, someone think it is not good for your study, but I think it was worth doing; because it has lots of benefits and can improve you in many aspects. Although there may be some doubts, I have to admit that joining a club can help you grow.