By Konni Lorenz

As someone who has been involved in everything from sports, to student council executive board, to even burrito club, I understand the value of being involved in organizations. However, I also understand how easy it can be to go through life feeling far too busy to add anything else to your plate.

In high school, I was involved in more organizations than can be counted on one hand, as well as three different sports teams throughout the four years. You could say I was a little busy.

My first year of college at The Ohio State University flew by. I was taking 18 credit hours and feeling pretty crammed with my class load and honestly, just enjoyed having some time to spend with new friends.

At the beginning of my sophomore year, I realized that a year had gone by and I hadn’t made an effort to get involved in a single one of the 1,300 student organizations at Ohio State. As I mentioned, I had been crazy involved up until this point in my life, so I was pretty disappointed in myself for wasting the past year. So, I got to work. I searched for an organization that I felt would be beneficial to my degree and my career aspirations. That’s when I found Ohio State’s chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).

I wish I could say that I immediately fell in love, but it was definitely intimidating at first, and luckily I was able to convince a friend in my major to attend most of the meetings with me so I wouldn’t have to show up alone. I persevered, not only because of the free food often given out at the meetings, but because I knew then how important it would be to employers to see involvement on my resume.

Little did I know that PRSSA would offer me far more than a resume boost. Now getting ready to start my senior year at Ohio State as president of our chapter, I am so thankful to say that I have made countless memories, friends, professional connections and mentors, and landed three of my four internships because of this organization (including this one at Shift•ology!).

Long story short, it is so important that you find yourself a PRSSA. It is the best way to meet people in a new city or just people in general who share your interests, make connections that could lead to new opportunities, possibly take on a leadership role and therefore become more marketable in your industry – this list goes on and on. I fully understand how much easier, maybe even less stressful, it is to not be involved, but I also know how much can be gained from it.

And I don’t know about you, but I’d like to continue to learn and improve myself and make myself more marketable to employers every day. Whether it’s for personal or professional reasons, or both, make a stride toward bettering yourself and try joining a new organization – who knows, it could change your life.