How Campus Involvement Has Impacted Me

David Pepin, Editor-In-Chief

I’m not really what you would call a stereotypical leader type of person. I’m quiet and introverted, I don’t really like speaking in front of people, and I tend to just go with the flow rather than have any sort of plan.

I will never be the person who gets excited to go have the spotlight on them as they go and speak in front of hundreds … or dozens … or even just a few other people. I have never been that type of person.

So how am I now the president of two clubs on campus? How could I, the person who has to hype himself up and rehearse his lines just to order pizza by phone call, be the same person that is in charge of not one, but two clubs?

Last spring, I accepted the role of Editor-in-chief with Le Provocateur. I did this without knowing what I was getting in to, or really if I even could do this job. However, just like always, I figured I would go with the flow and figure it all out as I go.

My other leadership position is as the captain of the Club Ultimate Frisbee Team. That role I have held since February of my freshman year. Looking back, it’s crazy to me how a person like me could be a leader that early in their college career.

Being a leader is scary. It means stepping way outside of the box you live in, and into a place you do not know. It can be a little scary, no matter how big or small the step may be.

However, it is good to be scared every once in a while. Fear is one of the basic emotions of all humans, and it’s only natural to experience it. Getting out of your comfort zone is scary, but it will make you a stronger person; I didn’t believe that until I experienced it first-hand.

It is almost indescribable how much campus involvement has impacted me in my four years at Assumption. My classes taught me valuable lessons, but campus involvement taught me who I really am.

Through campus involvement and becoming a leader, I have learned a few things about myself that don’t need a grade for me to see how valuable they are. I learned how to have confidence in myself and how to turn that into true passion. I learned how to accept being uncomfortable. I learned that fear isn’t necessarily a bad feeling, and that it can be manipulated to work in your advantage. There are so many lessons that being a leader within campus involvement has taught me.

It has also led me to the great friends I always hoped I would find when I came to college. I often wonder how many of my friends I would still know if I had never been involved in clubs and activities with them. All of my roommates are on the frisbee team with me, what if I didn’t get involved with the team and our relationship ended up different?

I credit campus involvement with a large part in helping me start a professional career as well. In the past year I accepted and completed two internships: a summer internship as a graphic design and video content intern with the Lowell Spinners baseball team, and a fall internship as a sports reporter with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Both of these jobs required me to use

skills that I had learned in my campus involvement. Skills like Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, as well as how to run social media pages and use AP writing style were skills that I learned about in class, but needed my clubs to give me a space to practice them enough to actually use them.

I honestly don’t think I would have been able to do either job if I hadn’t practiced those skills in my clubs.

Campus involvement is largely responsible for maturing me as a person these past four years. I know I am a better student and person thanks to it because of how much my work ethic and attitude toward problems has changed.

The beautiful thing about campus involvement is that all of this stuff happens subconsciously. I didn’t join clubs and activities because I was seeking to mature as a person and get out of my comfort zone. I joined because I wanted something fun to do, but as I became more and more invested, I became aware of how my personality was being changed.

Despite all of this, I am still the quiet and introverted person I have always been. I don’t think anything will be able to change that.

It’s different now though.

My nature may not have changed, but my personality and attitude definitely have. Through the trials that come with being the leader of anything, I have become armed with an incredible set of intangibles that I am confident will help me every day of my life.

Maybe I’ll never fill that stereotypical leader image of someone who can just go in front of a crowd and command attention. That’s ok though, because the most important lesson I learned through campus involvement and being a leader is that there are several routes to accomplish a goal, and while some may be scary, fortune tends to favor the bold who put themselves outside of their comfort zone. There are different types of leaders; the stereotype is not always true. It took me getting uncomfortable and becoming a leader to realize that