Getting Involved at McMaster Part One: Clubs and Athletics

"Getting Involved at McMaster Part One: Clubs and Athletics" July 11 2007.

At some point or another, you probably thought about being involved at school. Maybe this didn’t happen for you in high school, but there are plenty of reasons why you should get involved in university, as well as a variety of different ways to do so.

Becoming involved serves two purposes: the first being it gives something to do outside of academics, and the second being it can look better on your resume. For example, when applying for a summer job, many companies will look at the kind of involvement a prospective employee had. This will show them that you are able to balance academics and other priorities. The same is true for post-graduate studies as well; if you are able to maintain equilibrium with schoolwork and extra-curricular activities you will be looked at with higher favor than someone who only focused on school work.

At McMaster, there is a large assortment of clubs (around 200!) one can become connected with. They are divided into five categories: Academic Clubs, Athletic and Recreational Clubs, Cultural Clubs, Religious Clubs and Social Issues Clubs. Examples of clubs at MAC are: Family Guy at MAC, the Art and History Society, Campus for Christ, the Chinese Engineering Society, MAC Trampoline, McMaster Psychology Society, Unicef MAC, the Canadian Club, and many, many more. If you become an executive member of a club, this will only increase your employability. For more information check out http://www-msu.mcmaster.ca/clubs/.

Aside from being active in clubs, there are various levels of athletics available at McMaster, from the varsity level to intramural sports. The website that features information on both is http://www.athrec.mcmaster.ca/. For the 2006-2007 school year there were over 5000 participants and staff involved in intramurals. Intramurals vary from competitive level (high to fun) and by gender (single-sex or co-ed), and include both popular and somewhat unknown sports.

This seems far too long. I’m concerned. Mostly because I haven’t touched on student services, media at mac, part-time work, volunteering in the community…

(to be continued )