Why get involved?

           Get used to the abbreviation “EC”, especially if you are applying to law school or another similar professional program. EC’s, or Extra-Curricular Activities, go a long way. Almost every admissions committee and potential employer takes extra-curricular involvement into consideration when making a decision. And the fact that many candidates are aware of the focus on EC’s results in a tendency for students to sign up for a wide-range of student groups/clubs/volunteer organizations/etc. This is where the reliance on ECs becomes problematic. Like I suggested in my previous blog post, some - not all but definitely a noticeable portion - of those who get involved are only doing it to boost their applications and resumes.

After four hard-working years of involvement in all types of EC’s at the University of Toronto, I can confidently say that the number of students who get involved because they have a true desire or passion to make a difference is much smaller than the number who do it to better their chances at getting a job or going to grad school. Now don’t get me wrong, I too hope that the network that I’ve built throughout my extra-curricular involvement at U of T will benefit me in my career. If it wasn’t for this involvement, I may not have even realized what type of career I wanted and might STILL be trying to complete a Science degree that I never wanted. But the underlying motivations for my involvement were to interact with my fellow undergraduates at U of T, to enhance my University experience, and to challenge myself.

 The University of Toronto is notorious for being a commuter-school. Walking down St. George and seeing students’ marching to/from class and to/from the subway makes this abundantly clear. At first glance, it seems impossible to get involved and make a difference on this campus. However, the fact that most undergrads are split into colleges (mine being St. Michael’s) makes it a little easier to get involved. Example:
           
            U of T # of Undergraduate Students – 65,612
            U of T # of Undergraduate Students (Downtown Campus) – 42, 650
            St. Michaels College (SMC) Undergraduates – 5,500 (unofficial estimate)

After having the opportunity to DJ at a few events towards the end of my first year, I knew that getting involved at SMC would not be too difficult considering how easy going everybody was. When we received an email from the Registrar’s office in early 2009 requesting volunteer “Frosh Leaders” for SMC Orientation Week 2009, I pounced on the opportunity. Again, like any EC, some people sign up as Frosh Leaders just to be able to mention it as an accomplishment. However, one thing is for sure about SMC Frosh Leaders, almost all of us signed up because we wanted to introduce the new first years to University in a way that would make them excited about studying at U of T and to debunk their preconceptions that U of T lacks any social environment.
           
SMC Frosh Week is an experience of its own. It consists of nearly 1,000 students and leaders yelling, chanting and occupying campus for a week. There are academic orientations for students to find mentors in their respective programs. There are also tons of social events and an annual charity fundraiser. All in all, it is a great prelude to University. After Frosh Week, I had finally felt some sort of allegiance to SMC. I began to connect with other frosh leaders and ‘froshies’. I also noticed that a lot of the outgoing and noticeable individuals all had one thing in common – they were members of the St. Michael’s College Students Union (SMCSU).

For somebody like me, who has always felt the desire to be a leader but never actually taken the lead in large settings, being elected onto SMCSU seemed like a challenge I wanted to confront. After Frosh Week, I set my sights on getting elected onto the student union. Luckily for me, the fact that I look Iranian led to a quick and awkward conversation with an intimidating 4^th year student by the name of James Finlay. James (who is half-Iranian himself) gravitated towards me for some reason or another (most likely the Iranian thing) and took me under his wing. Given what we went through and how James voluntarily took me on board, we’ve remained very close, and he is the Older (half-Iranian) Brother that I’ve never had.
           
          

Our campaign poster from October, 2009.

  
James was running for election on SMCSU as well and, given that he had previous experience on SMCSU, he had the expertise that would benefit me in campaigning. So the two of us teamed up with Fran Turco (another friend met through Orientation Week – more on her in another post) and Kavinda (the only person I knew at U of T before actually starting school) and combined to try and get elected onto the council as “general councillors”. After a nerve-racking election period, the four of us were elected. Safe to say, the four of us are still great friends      
            

What is SMCSU?
It is a student-run organization that operates off of student levy. Each SMC student pays 28$ a year to fund SMCSU. In return SMCSU holds tons of events including BBQ’s, Holiday Events with Free Food, Social Events, Sports Tournaments, Intramurals, Leadership Symposiums, Career Networking Events and Academic Workshops and also, SMCSU funds the dozens of clubs at SMC. There are different “Commissions” on SMCSU with a Commissioner and Officer in charge. These Commissions include Education & Government, Double Blue, Athletics, Religious and Community Affairs, Commuter Life, etc.  In addition, SMCSU executive members are normally involved in inter-college relationships at U of T which help coordinate events with the other college student unions. SMCSU members essentially become a big family, working together to enhance student life at SMC.

Deryn and I - 2010??

As a General Councillor, my position was to help out when needed at the various events which included working shifts, set-up, etc. Safe to say, responsibilities were at a minimum with this position because all of the event planning had been done over the summer and in early fall. However, we were able to identify a commission on the council where we had interest and we could shadow the Commissioner and Officer. Given that I was DJing across campus, I wanted to learn more about the social events commission, nicknamed “Double Blue”.   The Commissioner (Deryn Robson) allowed me to sit in on meetings with him, help him book venues and learn about the financial side of things. Deryn was hugely popular at SMC and very successful on SMCSU, so to have him help me out was very beneficial. ** I just attended his wedding last week, safe to say we’re great friends still – do you notice a theme?!**
          
Additionally, in my position as General Councillor I was able to network across campus with hundreds of other students and many student leaders. By the end of my second year of University (and my first year on SMCSU), I was confident that I wanted to take on a leadership role. I ran for re-election on SMCSU in the Spring of 2009 and ultimately became the Double Blue Officer for the upcoming academic year. My Commissioner was Haleigh King, the previous year’s Officer. Haleigh had a crazy amount of experience organizing the best Year-End Formal in St. Mike’s History at the Liberty Grand in the previous year. Naturally, I was excited to learn from her. In addition, she is almost insanely organized. I’ll never be on her level but I definitely had to sharpen my organization skills if I didn’t want to feel like I was dragging the commission down.

Me and Haleigh at Dave Bolland's Stanley Cup Party (Sept 3 2010)

Working with Haleigh for the 2009-2010 School Year was awesome because I never actually felt like she was my “Commissioner” but rather, that we were working as a team. We actually met awkwardly on one of those Accepted Facebook groups in the summer before starting University. Having never actually met me in person, she randomly decided to join me at a Coke Zero sponsored tailgate party before the Toronto Maple Leafs first Pre-Season. We both intended on going down to the Air Canada Centre and maybe getting some autographs with the faint hope that we would win tickets to the game. After I competed in a Coke-Zero drinking competition, where I chugged three in a minute, we won tickets to the game. Safe to say we’ve been friends ever since.

Haleigh and I split responsibilities and had a great time, all the while breaking attendance records and revenue records at our events. More revenue led to more money for SMCSU to spend on other events. It was at this point that I decided to take the reins and run for re-election in my third year – this time as Double Blue Commissioner.

I only became involved with SMCSU because I had a passion to get involved. I wanted to meet people, I wanted to make an impact – and I think I did. But, what my first two years on SMCSU taught me was that, the doors that open to you by getting involved are more useful than the doors that will open for you by getting an A on a Political Theory Essay.  Again, marks are very important, but do not discredit the impact that getting involved will have on you. Some of my best friendships were made through my involvement at SMC. And each and every one of these people that I have mentioned is destined to be very successful in their lives because they developed crucial skills by getting involved.

Many people do it differently. For me it was student government. For you it might be volunteering abroad or doing research for a professor, or being a don. The possibilities are endless. But get involved because you WANT to – not because you HAVE to.

NEXT UP: My next blog post will talk about that time which was one of the most crucial years of my life – my fourth year when I was Double Blue Commissioner.