Joining student government is a great resume booster, but it can do so much more for your college experience! There are so many benefits to being involved on campus so here are 10 reasons you need to join student government.
Because you spend so much time with the people on student government, it’s the ultimate opportunity to make new friends. The main large meetings tend to be serious and professional, but often times there is plenty of room for socialization before and after. In addition to that, being assigned to a committee can introduce you to a new crew and if your student government does retreats, that’s also a great time to bond with people.
If there’s something that bothers you on campus, joining student government can give you the power and resources to make a difference. I was dissatisfied with my school’s Title IX resource availability for upperclassmen so I made it my goal to change that. Being on student government put me in a position where administrators would respond to my emails, meet with me, and help implement the solutions I had suggested. If you want to make a difference in students’ lives, student government is the place for you to get involved!
I was the person who did the most in college. I overloaded in courses every semester, worked up to twenty hours a week, and did student government, so I had to quickly learn how to time manage and prioritize effectively. Being involved in a time-consuming commitment forces you to really learn how to properly time manage, which is a skill you will need for the rest of your life. Also, on student government, you’re responsible for carrying out certain responsibilities, which teaches you how to be accountable.
Finances and budgets are a huge part of student government and joining gives you an opportunity to learn more about student activity budgets and club budgets. At times it can get really technical, but learning how to manage a large scale budget will help you in the future with any job and your future personal finances too. It’s also nice to know where your student activity fees are going!
Student government is all teamwork, everything you do involves coordinating with other people in leadership positions. Being able to work effectively in a team is a hugely desired skill in the working world and getting lots of experience in college will prepare you for your future career. Also, the kind of teamwork you experience in student government is totally different from working on a group project. Hopefully, everyone in your student government organization has a similar level of passion to you, so working with like-minded people makes teamwork so much better.
Most student governments have committees that you may be assigned to, and this is an opportunity to learn a new set of skills. I was assigned to the programming committee and our responsibility was to execute high budget events for the whole university. I had never been responsible for anything like this before, so while it was hard adjusting at first, I developed some amazing event planning skills. Being able to plan successful and awesome events with budgets of over ten thousand dollars was a big confidence boost for me and when I started working on a political campaign, I was able to utilize these skills for that job.
When you’re on student government, you have to coordinate with a lot of the administration in the university. It’s so important to cultivate these relationships and reach out to administrators who could really help you out with future jobs or classes you’re currently in. This ties into the resume boost because these people could write you letters of recommendation, but really it’s about finding mentors. I developed some close relationships with the faculty in student and campus life and those people gave me super valuable advice for handling career stress and rejection after I graduated.
Whether you’re a natural born leader or someone looking to get into leadership, student government is the perfect opportunity for you! There are so many times that you have to step up and be a leader, delegate tasks to others, or take point on a project. You also learn how to lead within a group of leaders, which is one of the most challenging things to do. The more you tap into your leadership skills, the more confident you’ll become, which is so important for everyone.
Because you work in a group that has their finger on the pulse of campus life, you’ll never miss a lit event again. So many people on student government are involved in multiple clubs so you can hear about events through them but also, you have access to all the events that student government is planning. Even better, you can have a say in how big campus events are going to be carried out!
In order to have a legislative position in student government, you have to run a campaign to get elected. When you campaign, you have to define your platform and public image. This is a great thing to develop as early as possible because you’ll need this for sure in your future career. Figuring out how to promote yourself during your campaign teaches you so many valuable skills about public presentation, social media, and graphic design. All of these skills will make you a better candidate for any job you have after college.
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