Words of wisdom from an outgoing senior: Get involved

Looking back on my experience at UCCS the past four years and coming up with advice for those coming in brings one word to mind: Involvement.

I was a quiet, slightly awkward 18-year old when I first set foot on UCCS. I had no clue what I wanted to study (though I eventually saw the light and honed in on economics), I knew only the few people I had gone to high school with who also chose UCCS, and I was involved in nothing but classes and a four hour a week College of Business job. Add that to the fact that I didn't live on campus, and I was, bluntly, bored as hell.

The reason for that boredom was my lack of involvement on campus. Once I got involved, from student employment to College Republicans to the student paper, things turned around swiftly: I changed a lot, I learned a lot about myself, and I met some awesome people along the way.

I first got involved on campus working for the Financial Aid Office's Student Employment department. Though I viewed the position as just another job, I soon found out that student jobs are much more than that: They introduce you to all sorts of campus figures, they absolutely endow you with invaluable skills that transfer into the real world, and, yes, they mostly allow you a little time to get homework done. Get a student job if you can.

Once I settled into my Student Employment job, I decided to join College Republicans, mostly because I wanted to meet people. And I did. I met the kid who got Sarah Palin's Vice Presidency off the ground (whatever you think of Palin, that's still an accomplishment for said kid), I met a guy who will likely be one of Colorado's top political hacks in the next few decades, and I gained a roommate and good friend. From my experience, I have found that campus clubs are generally run by a few dedicated individuals who can teach you a lot about work, life, and fighting for things you believe in.

About the same time I joined CRs, I started writing unabashedly right-wing columns for The Scribe. I have since climbed my way up to Managing Editor (and, yes, my political views have changed a bit, thanks mostly to Dr. Larry Eubanks), and, to put it simply, I can't say enough about this paper. You get a tough skin working for a student paper. Get involved with the paper, even if it is only to hate on us: We love that feedback.

Looking back, I can see that I've done a lot on this campus, and I have a lot to show for it. I can give you the rundown on club processes, I can help you find a job, I can tell you which departments are good to work for, which are horrible, and which are the most helpful for which reasons. I've taken a variety of classes, so I can mostly tell you which teachers in certain department are good and which are horrible (by the way, the economics department, Dr.'s DeBoer, Brock, Eubanks and Ballantyne, in particular, will most certainly rock your hitherto economically uneducated world, if you wisely choose to take an econ class).

How do you get to that point at a small, still sort-of commuter campus like UCCS? Basically, my advice to you is this: Do what I did.

Join some club, time permitting or not. Try your best to get a campus job, if only for a few hours a week. Write a letter to the editor, login to uccsscribe.com to comment on articles that piss you off, or, better yet, join The Scribe staff. Student Government can also be a good way to get involved, and the Office of Student Activities always welcomes dedicated volunteers for its events.

So that's it. That's really all you have to do to have a good time while at UCCS. Make time for campus involvement, and UCCS will become an excellent place to be.

You may hear people whining about the lack of student life here, but don't pay attention. There will always be whiners, and they tend to be the most vocal people, both at UCCS and, well, everywhere else. Don't be a whiner. There's plenty to do here for the enterprising individual, and plenty of awesome people to do it with. You just have to take a look around.

I have a good friend who always says in response to the whiners that you get out of UCCS what you put into it. After a semester of boredom, I took that advice to heart. My suggestion to you, as an incoming or current student, is to do the same. You'll learn new things, you'll have a good time, and you'll meet new people, including, if you're lucky, an entirely new and improved you. And that's what college is all about.

(Also, President Barack Obama is, like most every other American politician, a giant douche. Write that down.)