If there is one thing I have learned during my past 3 1/2 years at Eastern it is that getting involved will pay off tremendously in the long run.

Students can study for hours on end for tests and compose the most polished term papers, but what really earns them a job is immersing themselves in organizations revolving around their field and in turn building the concrete skills crucial to the field they plan to enter.

As a journalism major, getting heavily involved in two student publications while I’ve been at Eastern has garnered me two internship thus far and undoubtedly will secure me a job in the field by the time graduation hits. Still, I can’t help but ask myself, what if I hadn’t done much of anything with the resources at my fingertips here at the university?

It can be assumed I would be scrambling merely to nab an internship come May because I would inevitably be squashed by the competition in the job market.

But the scary thing is many people sit back on the fact they are earning a degree. In reality, it only gets a students’ foot in the door. Employers, as I’ve discovered after enduring countless interviews, won’t ask you about your grades. They want to know what sets you apart from the status quo, what kind of relevant skills you’ve accumulated over the college years and/or what makes you so qualified over the next person.

Many times what barricades people from allowing themselves to get involved in such things as RSOs, clubs or Greek life is the intimidation factor. For instance, last year while toiling away in The Daily Eastern News office, a woman telephoned concerning her freshman daughter and how she would be interested in taking photographs for the staff, but insisted she needed us to call the girl to persuade her to join the staff because she was much too scared to walk in the door herself.

Linda Moore, acting director for career services, said many students enter college with the wrong mind-set regarding involvement.

“I think they carry ideas from high schools,” Moore says. “A lot of times in high school the same people ran everything and it was kind of just something to keep them busy.”

But in college, the vast number of opportunities provided by organizations require extensive responsibilities and considerable planning, Moore said.

Since there are such an array of options and resources, joining a RSO or club can be overwhelming. Moore used the analogy of running track to illustrate the process of slowly getting involved.

“You are stiff at first. (Then) you walk, jog and then work up the ability to run fast,” she said. “It doesn’t happen overnight. If they start early, … by sophomore or junior year they can take on a leadership role in the club. It is a step, by step by step.”

Often times it is difficult not to get too hasty. It is human nature to want fast results, but come to grips and accept the idea that improving and networking with others and learning and applying those skills requires a painstaking amount of time. And remember partying and joining an organization are not mutually exclusive. Keeping yourself busy forces you to manage your time well, and therefore, most students won’t have trouble finding time for both.

Ultimately, if you take advantage of extracurricular activities particularly pertinent to your field, you will be much more comfortable come senior year. If you are a freshman or sophomore still hesitant about at least taking taking a stab at getting involved, reflect on Moore’s assurance that “If you start getting involved freshmen year, and then job search your senior year, it’s a piece of cake.”

Whenever I would get discouraged or downright sick of devoting too many hours working under The glaring fluorescent lights of the DEN newsroom during the past few years, I would catch a glimpse of a cartoon that used to be adhered to one of the beams in the room. It depicted a man drowning in paper work and stated, “a lot of work now will mean a lot less work later.”

Now that is a statement that can resonate with every college student if you just discipline yourself and put in the extra effort.