There are so many ways to get involved with the school community through clubs, sports teams, and other organizations. Extracurriculars are great opportunities to meet new people, find new interests, or get some exercise amidst all of your studying.
When I was in first year, I wanted to pace myself and not commit to too many things in case I started to get overwhelmed with school. So I focused my attention on just one club, WiSE, after I got the position of High School Outreach Volunteer. Due to COVID, all of our events were online, but it was a great experience to have. We had our meetings and our Zoom presentations, and I was glad to be working with some great people. I enjoyed it a lot so I have continued on with WiSE, again as a High School Outreach Volunteer.
This year, I wanted to add on a little bit to my schedule, specifically physical activity. Growing up, I was a dancer and I missed the regular exercise in first year (largely because I am pretty lost in the gym environment). In first semester, I joined two dance classes with Queen’s Dance Club (QDC): ‘pre-advanced lyrical’ and the ‘stretch, strength and sculpt’ workout class. It was good to have the scheduled time to go be active and not have to plan a workout or anything. Unfortunately, this semester the classes I wanted to take were full by the time I went to register. However, my roommate and I have started taking the Monday night Swing dancing class offered by the Queen’s Swing Dance Club (QSDC). That has been fun because I have never done that style of dance before, and it has way more improvisation than I am used to.
I also joined the casual classes offered by the Queen’s ASL Club to learn some basics of American Sign Language. It has been a goal of mine to learn sign language for years, and I originally thought about registering for their Level 1 certification class. It didn’t end up working with my schedule but it has been great to be able to learn some with more flexibility.
If you’re wondering “but where would I find these things? I don’t know where to start!”, I can give you a few pointers. At the beginning of the year, Queen’s has a club fair where you can look around at different booths to see if anything interests you (I attended the online version in my first year, which was held on Zoom). There is also a big list of clubs on the Alma Mater Society’s (AMS) website: https://www.myams.org/clubs/club-directory/. If you’d like to join a fitness/exercise club like QDC, you need to register online with QRec (which opens at the beginning of each semester, I believe) before signing up. You can also do some Instagram searching to find any more information on clubs, if they have an account. I’m not the person to ask about team sports, but I’m sure there are plenty of people who can help you with that.
All this to say, extracurriculars can be so beneficial to your experience at university. And I can almost guarantee that whatever your interests, you can find a club for it. If it doesn't already exist, you can also start it yourself!
There are also student support organizations that often hold events for people to get involved and meet others: such as Yellow House (for QTBIPoC students), Four Directions (for Indigenous students), and QUIC (for international students).
You got this!
If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me through my email. I can try my best to answer your question or direct you to someone else :)
Written by Sarah Arnold (she/they)