Welcome to College, a time in your life when you are going to be molded into a person specifically of your own choosing – without the direct help from your ever-loving but way too involved caretakers. So dive in! Take weird classes, join clubs, and remake yourself into whoever you want to be. Use this clean slate as a way to advance from your high school self and into an adult with the characteristics of someone you feel is amazing.

With that being said, the biggest part of making friends and finding your stride in college comes from joining clubs. You’ll hear it all the time in all of your welcome meetings and from all of your professors, “Join clubs!” they’ll say. So you go to the first Student Involvement Fair and stand at the start of the maze of tables with all of the clubs here at UNE.

This is the moment I wanted to talk about. You are faced with the decision to do what is comfortable or to do something new. You could a continue the hobbies you had through high school, such as cheer or game club if you want. But my suggestion to you is to try something new! And not just new, but something totally out of your comfort zone, crazy spontaneous, and super out of the ordinary.

Pair up something you love that you did in high school, such as Photography Club and something totally new, such as Figure Skating Club or Under Pressure (SCUBA Club). Keep in mind that most clubs understand that freshman try out many different ones before they find the clubs that stick. So it’s okay to go to a meeting and decide it’s not for you, especially because UNE makes it super easy to contact club officers.

The Get Involved Portal is the easiest way to see all the clubs at UNE, and to contact them and their officers. You log in with your UNE ID. You can search a specific club, or just peruse through the list to see what sparks your interest. The rest is easy, just send a membership request and you are automatically added to their email list. You can also see the officers and their contact info on the clubs page.
It’s that simple! So join clubs, meet people, and have fun trying all that UNE has to offer.