In the club

Club jumping is all the rage at OSU.

It's not happening on The Strip, but on campus. Many students are involved with more than a few extracurricular activities.

International studies graduate student Phuong Le has participated in several clubs during her time at OSU.

"I joined my first club in 2006," Le said. "I am an international student originally from Vietnam, so when I came here my English was not very good. I joined the Ad Club to help with my English and to meet and socialize with people that I would not normally have met being new here."

After joining Ad club, Le quickly became the finance chair for the club and was awarded Ad Club's 2006 Member of the Year.

After that, she joined the International Student Organization, Vietnamese Student Association, Vietnamese-American Student Association, Entrepreneur's Club, the Student Union Activities Board and more.

"I joined some clubs to meet and socialize with people from my own culture that were here at OSU," Le said. "I joined other clubs to just go to meetings but not be as involved."

Shawna Becker, a Campus Life administrative assistant, said OSU hopes students can find balance as a student through the clubs and organizations it offers.

"We definitely encourage students to seek out and experience what the clubs and organizations have to offer in an extracurricular sense," Becker said. "But never at the expense of their education. That comes first."

Le maintained the balance and excelled in the process. While she was an undergraduate, she maintained a 3.6 GPA and a 4.0 as a graduate student.

"It wasn't easy for me," Le said. "There were a lot of late nights, but if it hadn't been for the affiliation with the clubs — as busy as I was — I would not have been able to socialize at all."

ISO student adviser Tim Huff said some students take on too many extracurricular activities.

"There are those highly motivated and organized students like Phuong, where the more they have on their plate, the better they are and more motivated to excel," Huff said. "Then there are others who do not fare as well in an environment like that and end up hurting themselves academically in the long run."

Le has reduced her participation in most of the clubs and organizations she belonged to throughout her undergraduate career at OSU.

As a graduate student, she doesn't have the time. She works full time with SUAB as a graduate assistant. She only belongs to one student club now, the Entrepreneur's Club, and attends meetings when she can.

She said she misses some of the closeness of the friendships she made in the clubs but will never forget the great times and long hours spent with those people.

"It was a lot of fun," Le said. "I was exposed to a lot of different people, cultures and experiences that I would not have normally been exposed to and feel I am a more well-rounded person because of it."