Join tech clubs on campus, even if you aren’t a CS major.
This Medium post is part of a series on tech communities.
College is one of those investments that can cannot be strictly quantified in numbers. Unlike purchases like a house or a car, where there are certain expectations of the time-value of money. The amount of return from a educational investment such as a course, or book comes from the amount of effort you put into it. So why not try to get the most from your institution?
Students alike will most likely agree that they would like a group of people to share their interests with, however we find that our fellow engineering and computer science majors have seemingly lower rates of participation on campus. And throughout the data I have been using to write this appeal, I see some trends that shouldn’t be the case. But even if you aren’t inherently in a computer science major, you still should join these groups, you have a chance to meet a group of people that have passionate about tech and allow you to satisfy a possible curiosity on how you connect to a field that you never thought was possible.
First off, this will be for my “non-technical” people out there. Computer science is extending it’s reach in almost every field. However, the industry has done a bad job in promoting how people of different disciplines can help software developers build better products. There is a need for designers and artists to understand human interface and how we interact with applications. Now more than ever, more scrutiny is being performed on language usage to make people react and perform certain actions. More and more developers move into conversational interfaces, natural language generation is a hurdle that will have to be faced. Why not be one of those people than can have your passion of writing along with the innovative world of technology? A technical interest group such as ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) on campus or a hackathon interest group can help you meet people that can help you learn to apply your interest and meet great people.
If you happen to be in a business or marketing related major, joining one of these clubs will expose you to how applications are made. Although solicitations to join your start-up or requests to sign a NDA will be met with some rejection. If you have a passion for business and your idea, you should have enough to learn how to make it. Trust me, as long as you have a interest to learn- they will have open arms especially if you teach them how to pitch. I found that now more than ever, the expanse of information of multiple groups of varying disciplines is too valuable to be ignored in sectarian divide between majors.
When I was attending HackFSU I had the chance to meet to a few engineers and recruitment employees of the companies that attended. They told me a multitude of desires but they ended up having the same theme.
One of the pressing issues that most technology stalwarts and local businesses today have to deal with is searching for an applicant base that understands how software development works. Within that issue, most below top 50 schools for Computer Science usually have a student base that doesn’t have a intricate knowledge of new programming frameworks. Even if they aren’t inherently CS majors. Joining such a club can put you in touch with a student base that actively looks at new frameworks and evangelizes within campus to teach programming. (My good friend Kennet Postigo fulfills the role in promoting ReactJS) Within that community you find that when you have a club to program with, you find that you can generate teams within interest groups that you have. So that huge app idea that you had becomes a little bit easier when you collaborate.
And while some of you may toil in performing your assignments alone and just head to class and back to your home, just reach out to these groups and before you know it you can find students that can give you guidance. Many of those members of those interest groups may have already taken the classes. Many of them will love fostering the love of programming to other students as well. There are statistics out there that prove that people who do join those clubs on campus are more likely to have higher GPA’s and be more likely to graduate. But in terms of personal narrative I hold what I am about to delineate in a much higher regard.
You feel a sense of belonging on campus. It instills a certain pride, I owe my relative success to the fine people of campus that organize those events. And our ACM chapter introduced me to the hackathon. By joining one of these groups, you have a chance to learn and meet some pretty chill people along the way. These clubs will always have a piece missing…you.
If any of the readers just so happen to be at FIU, feel free to drop me a line at asara019@fiu.edu or fill this form http://goo.gl/forms/HY8EFx2mkItr0Vmr1. We can’t wait to see you at ACM and our school’s clubs.