Academic excellence is the target of any college student; they study hard (or pay a lot of money) to attend the college of their desire so that they would graduate with honors and work in a respectable place where they can acknowledged for their academic achievements. Despite the fact that this is every parent’s dream and most students’ goal, this is not the case in real life. On the professional level, as time went by, employers have discovered that academic excellence plays a very small role in determining a person’s professional success. In fact it’s only 20% of what defines you as a distinguished employee in a workplace; the remaining 80% are a mixture of experience, skills and ambition, things you do not gain by solely memorizing your lectures.
As an engineering student, I was mainly focusing on the grades during my first couple of years at university. I attended every lecture and every tutorial, and never thought of joining a student activity, until one day I decided to try ISLC ( the International Student Leadership Conference). My whole life changed completely.
The things I learned, the skills I gained, the friends I made, and many other things made me regret not taking this step earlier. Even after finishing university and starting my career, I realized that ISLC has added to me way more than studying during my university years ever did. Below are some reasons why joining a student activity is way more important than focusing only on your grades:
1. Leadership Skills
Leadership skills are one of the most important skills one should acquire. It’s essential at university for your group projects, at work for managing teamwork as well as at home with your family. Leadership skills teach you how to manage your resources including time and people; a thing that is surely needed in all your life aspects.
2. Engaging with diverse people
If you’re like most people, you probably grew up in one or two places, went to one or two schools before going to university. So along these years you were probably around similar people; there were no huge diversities. Student activities give you the experience of meeting different people from different backgrounds. You get to know them, know their lives, their stories, and they know yours. This gives you an experience you would have never gotten in a million years at university or school.
3. Soft skills and emotional intelligence
Through practice, student activities will teach you soft skills including communication, negotiation, attitude, and many other qualities that you only gain when you constantly deal with different people. It will also enhance you presentation skills to an extent you never thought possible and will give you the emotional intelligence you need to improve your life.
4. Knowing yourself
Student activities give you the chance to know yourself better. Through learning and trying new things, it will give you the opportunity to discover what you really want, experience new aspects, see things from a different perspective, experience other hobbies and interests. It also allows you to test your capabilities and limits; it lets you discover many skills that you never knew existed, that you can present and negotiate and do many other things you thought you couldn’t. This would consequently raise your self-esteem and make you feel better about yourself which would definitely reflect on you in different aspects of life.
5. Expanding Your Network
Joining student activities during school or university will definitely expand your network faster than anything else. It will allow you to meet people from different places and different educational backgrounds which on the long term will help you on both the personal level as friends and on the professional level if you ever needed their help in any aspect of life.
