Student Extracurriculars

Student clubs and organizations are very important to the lives of students at Oberlin. Our roles
within the clubs and organizations can be very different, and for most students, it is very
possible for their involvement to change throughout their time here. I'm Olivia. I'm Ebun. I'm
Owen. And we are finding out how student’s extracurriculars have changed while being here at
Oberlin.
Please state your name and what year you are
It’s Oscar and I'm a second year.
I'm John, I'm a second year.
Uh, my name's Otto, I'm a third year.
Christopher Limegruber and I'm a fourth year.
Una Shane, fourth year.

How has your extracurricular involvement changed since being on campus?
Last year I really only did Jiu Jitsu club. But now, at the club fair I signed up for a bunch of clubs
that I'm not sure exactly how much time I'm gonna spend at each one.
And how do you feel about that?
Good. It's good to be involved, it's a good way to make connections and do things, spend time in
a way that's enjoyable and feels productive.

How has your extracurricular involvement changed in your past two years at, [00:01:00] or your
past year at Oberlin?
Well my first, my first year I didn't really get that involved because I had a lot on my plate, like
I'm double degree so I had a lot of class load and not even that, the time spent like practicing
and stuff you have to account for,, I didn't really, I didn't like feel like I would have enough time to
participate well, but This semester, I'm taking fewer classes, and I tried to at least like go to all
the fairs, And like figure out if there were stuff that interests me, and I did sign up for a few, so,
Yeah, in that, in that sense it changed me.
So how do you feel about how your involvement has changed?
I think I feel pretty good about it. Like, it's definitely something that's worth like getting into. like
Oberlin is definitely a place where there's a lot of possibility for engagement with like the most

random type of things. And I think it was kind of a blunder, honestly, that I didn't do much, my
first year. So I'm trying to, I'm trying to get back on the horse and, do more in my, my upcoming
semesters. There's like so many spaces and like things happening like at every like just at all
times and like If you don't get involved like you really have no idea So I think it's a really good
way to just like meet people learn more about the school Learn more about things that are
happening and find other things that you might be interested in.

How's your extracurricular involvement changed since your first year being on campus?
hmm. I feel like it's kind of the same, um, extracurricular.
What have you been involved in?
Uh, lots of like board game and game related stuff, and music stuff, but I don't know if that
counts as extracurricular for con students.
How do you feel about what has changed?
I'm definitely more busy than I was as a first year, so I probably have less time, but I think it's
probably pretty similar.
A lot of our students don't do much initially, but they tend to get more involved the longer they've
been here. Most do, but not all of them.

How would you say that your extracurricular involvement has changed since you've been on
campus?
I would say that it has not.
How so?
I've never done them.
Could you elaborate as to why?
I guess I'm, I'm busy doing curricular stuff as opposed to extracurricular.
Okay. How do you feel about that?
Would like to do more, I suppose, but, just haven't.
Would you say that it's difficult to get involved on campus?

Honestly, yes, a little bit. I think being in the conservatory, I have, friends in the conservatory,
which is awesome, but also it's like when I try and go to, like, extracurricular events that aren't
related to music, I know, like, no one, which is my fault, but, like, also a little intimidating.
Would you say that there is a divide between the conservatory and the college in that sense?
Yeah, I think so.
Interesting, do you have any other commitments on campus that you wouldn't consider?
Extracurriculars, like a job, or co-op, or whatnot?
I'm like an ambassador for the, , I guess college, but it just means like I have to like house
incoming or prospective students. It's not really a, like, a real thing. They just like live in my
room. It's like literally fake. It's a fake job
Okay, what do you think is the general campus trend for involvement on campus? Like, as first
years and then getting older?
I think, honestly, good. I feel like, I feel like people do a lot of things and have like a very, like,
wide array of hobbies and, yeah, extracurriculars. I think there's a lot of options, but I do think
sometimes it could end up just being cliques of students doing, like, The same ones like every
year, which is like fine, but yeah, if you're looking to like try stuff, I feel like, uh, it's often the
same groups and it's hard to like break in.

The idea that Oberlin clubs may be clicky and hard to get involved in is a valid observation, but
other Oberlin students would say the opposite.

So how has your extracurricular involvement changed since your time on campus?
So I'm really involved in WOBC, our like college and community radio station, but I, freshman
year I only had a show and I wasn't very involved and now I'm on the board.
All right, cool. , and how do you feel about how your involvement has changed?
I feel like I wasn't sure about Oberlin my entire freshman year and I like felt very out of place
and once I got involved in the community is when I like actually felt like it was like my home and
that I belonged at Oberlin. And now I'm like very involved. I also work at the bowling alley and
we run a lot of like community extracurricular stuff there. So once I like got my job there I also
felt a more connected.

Is there anything else that you are involved in that like you wouldn't really count as an
extracurricular, but it's just something that takes a bit of time.
Pickleball, the like intramural sport. And then because of that, my friend and I had an exco,
Pickleball exco last year, and now we're doing Pickleball Club, which I guess counts as an
extracurricular, but then I'm also a consent trainer, so I'm involved with PRISM and I'm also a
PAL, so I'm that.
How do you think, for like the average Oberlin student, how do you think their extracurriculars or
what they're involved in changes over the time period of being at the school?
I feel like there's like the stereotype that Oberlin students are very involved on campus, and I
think that that's very true. , and when I was abroad, I would like talk to people and be like, what
do you do at school? And they'd be like, oh yeah, I like go to class and hang out with my friends.
And I feel like that's very different than the classic Oberlin student, because they're involved in
like multiple activities, and I feel like that usually just like builds as you continue, I don't know,
into your other years. I think like freshman year, people aren't that involved on campus because
they're just like trying to make friends. And then like sophomore year, you start like realizing
what you might want to be interested in. And then I feel like third and fourth years are usually
like have been involved in their organization for a while. And they're like trying to move up the
ranks in their specific organizations.
I think it really depends on course load. I think, it wouldn't be like necessarily a straight trajectory
of more involvement or less involvement, but probably if you have a semester where your
course load is more manageable, you have more time to get, have, deeper involvement in
extracurriculars versus, if you're like slammed and like doing like hours of work every day, you
might not have time to like be going to clubs as well
I would hope that they would do more. I feel like my first year especially, like, also just because,
like, you're a new student, it's kind of hard to know everything that's going on. Yeah. And like, as
soon as you've, like, gone here for a year even, you kind of know, like, there are, like, much
more things that are clear to you of, like, opportunities you can do, uh, which I think, like, gives
you the option to, and it, like, gives any person the option to, it's, like, just more time to find
things that they are interested in, um, so I have a feeling most people increase their involvement
over time, or, , Like what Oscar was saying, , how like the course load really impacts the, like
amount of engagement there is. That was definitely clear for me last year. So, yeah.
Even people who don't do a lot of extracurriculars can acknowledge the importance of them on
this campus. The longer that people are here, the more that they want to be a part of student
clubs and organizations. Although everyone has different levels of involvement and
commitment, every Oberlin student has hobbies and the desire to do something outside of their
schoolwork.

If there was any club that you would start on campus, or if there's any club that like exists that
you're not a part of, like what would you be a part of or what club would you create?
Cooking club. I want to learn to Cook more dishes
I just really want to play bocce. You know, those like the old, the old dudes, like in Italy, they
always play bocce. It's like with the, there's like one small ball and they all try to like roll the big
ones to get it closest to that one. And like, I don't know why, but I just am really interested in it. I
also think like, OCircus is pretty awesome. I haven't really ever even thought about joining it, but
it just seems really cool. Like maybe I'll think about it.
I'm sure like if I name something, there probably is a club and I just like haven't like found it yet.
Probably like, oh, you know what? They should do ultra marathons. I, actually, I'm researching
that right now. I, I, on a whim, ran a half marathon yesterday, and I was like, this I feel like they
should just be like, there's like running clubs, but those kids are like actual runners. Like, I can't,
I run so slow. So if I did that, I'd be like way behind. So there should be like a really slow ultra
runner, ultra marathon running club here.
Someone came over to me the other day and asked me about how to get involved. She thought
that, Will BC like could give her info on live DJing, but obviously like our club, The way that we
do radio, like you can live mix on air, but it's mostly like playing music. And she wanted to like
have some sort of information or like beginning point for how to live DJ. So yeah, I guess that
was something that I was thinking about. Why do we not have a club for, um, just like on a basis
level of like getting involved in DJing.
I guess a mandolin club. Sure. Yeah, why not?