Several nights ago, I managed to catch Dean of Students Allen Groves between meetings. The University is a community of competitive, high-achieving students. So I asked him: “Do you have any advice for those trying to stand out?”
“You have to redefine your rubric of success,” Groves answered enthusiastically. “Not everyone can be a U-Guide or Honor representative.”
He went on: “What counts is making a difference — even if you do so quietly.”
Groves makes a point that should be self-evident but is not. For students looking to distinguish themselves and make a lasting contribution to the University, a better approach may be to work with the raw materials of a lesser-known CIO than to occupy a well-established leadership role, however coveted.
As my second year at the University enters its final month, I cannot help but take inventory of my experiences. My extracurriculars come to mind quicker than my studies. As a first year freed from my high school obligations, I made the common practice of trying out for all those coveted and highly visible positions – UJC, Honor and Student Council, to name a few. Some accepted me, others rejected me, and standing hardly ankle-deep in several of the University’s most prominent organizations, I felt successful. Next came the realization that it was not so simple. Many other students had the same idea, and suddenly I felt a little less special. Exacerbating the effect was the onset of rules, duties and hierarchies that come along with most established groups. While many students thrive in such organizations, I felt I could be doing more elsewhere.
What I came to understand — and what Dean Groves wisely suggested — is that when you stop measuring success as membership of the most popular organizations, you see the potential to do unprecedented work in lesser-known groups. For example, Active Minds, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of student mental health issues, was started by two fourth-years in 2011. Though membership began with a handful of students, the organization has grown, funding mental health initiatives and planning such high-impact demonstrations as Send Silence Packing – and membership grows exponentially between semesters. These students identified a problem in the community and instead of relying on existing mechanisms to fix it, they developed new solutions.
It is this kind of initiative, dedication and creative problem solving that makes students stand distinct from their peers. Joseph Riley, a fourth year who recently won a Rhodes scholarship, attracted the committee’s attention by starting such initiatives as Operation Flag the Lawn, which raised money for the Wounded Warrior Fund, and the Alexander Hamilton Society, which fosters foreign policy debates on college campuses.
But you do not need to found an organization in order to effect change. Rather, you must look beyond the titles of the University’s most publicized extracurriculars. Though students do a lot of good for the community through the school’s more high-profile groups, the majority of student talent and energy should go to the other hundreds of CIOs at the University. Here lie opportunities for leadership and creative problem-solving. Smaller, younger CIOs are, by nature, more flexible when it comes to the ideas and leadership styles of newcomers. To get started, browse atuva.net, which gives descriptions of the school’s many CIOs. Whether you have been accepted or rejected by some of the school’s leading student organizations, consider the benefits of focusing your intelligence and energy on a smaller organization.
George Knaysi is a Viewpoint writer for The Cavalier Daily.
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