Joining a society

April 17, 2019, by brzlds

I’m Sarvi and this blog is about why you should join a society and the benefits you can gain from joining societies during your studies at the University of Nottingham.

I study pharmacy and during the 4 years that I’ve been at Nottingham I’ve participated in numerous societies here. These include, IMPACT magazine, dodgeball, being the President of PharmSoc, volunteering with a student run project ‘Working in Tandem’, being a welcome mentor, and running with rec run… it’s fair to say I’ve been ‘involved’.

: My first 5K with athletics couch to 5K programme

: One of my printed articles in IMPACT magazine

Sure, managing my time between studying and dedicating my time to out of course responsibilities has been hard, especially when you sprinkle in some personal problems. But the skills, friendships and memories I’ve gained alongside my studies have been astonishing. The fast pace of being a pharmacy student has made it difficult for me to sit down and reflect on what I’ve gained in these 4 years and sometimes I think I require just a whole year to sit down and reflect on everything. BUT I’m going to try and keep it as succinct and interesting as possible so that you can judge things for yourself.

I think the best way to describe the benefits of joining a society can be explained using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Stage one

So, you’re a first year and you begin at the bottom, you must focus on reaching homeostasis, that is you need to learn to survive at university first. Some of us take longer than others and that’s ok.

Stage two

Once you have your food, water and sleep sorted at university, you’re going to reach safety. Here you say hello to your flat mates, your course friends and are semi able to survive on your student loan.

Stage three

You are now READY to move onto stage 3. You’re starting to feel more settled in and you are ready for joining a society. At this point you’re ready to give back to the student community and ready to absorb the amazing experiences which the student union has to offer. It’s basically a level up and from here you can reach your dream self or at least get there more easily.

This is the moment you’re ready to join a society and gain the most from it. You are ready to belong to a student group and you are ready to form amazing new friendships here on out. Joining a society before this might put you off and maybe too much to handle. Through belonging to a society, you begin to grow as an individual in ways you never thought possible.

You will:

Meet new people and discover new perspectives on life
Make lifelong friendships and support networks
Almost always work with a diverse team to achieve goals whether its an article, a dodgeball competition or organizing the PharmSoc ball (these are obviously personal examples)
Future career? The skills you learn participating in any activity outside of your studies can one day become your career or help shape your career, if not, they will be skills you will be able to offer in any work place
Find out more about the student union and how it’s run, maybe one day you may decide you want to run for a paid officer position and running an election campaign
Realise what matters to you when you’re at university

And finally, you make memories which you will never forget. It’s been an amazing journey taking part in lots of different student union activities and I could not be more grateful for all the opportunities and experiences I’ve gained along the way. I hope once you feel settled in to your uni life, you do the same thing also.