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#WhyILoveUNC: Why Getting Involved On Campus Has Made My Time At UNC So Memorable

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Chapel Hill chapter.

There are plenty of reasons why I love UNC — the beautiful campus, the sports and the never-ending food options on Franklin — just to name a few. Those aren’t the only things that have made my time here at Chapel Hill so memorable. A big part of why I love it here is the people, and some of the best friendships I’ve made have been through campus organizations. Getting involved on campus has allowed me to make the most of my time here and help others in ways that I would have never imagined before.

Campus organizations and activities have allowed me to branch out and meet all sorts of people that I probably would have never met otherwise. At the same time, campus organizations have given me the opportunity to work with these people to further causes that we are all passionate about, and that’s powerful.

On that note, getting involved on campus has allowed me to pursue things that I have a passion for — things that I love wholeheartedly. I’ve been able to move my way up from committee member to executive member in one organization that I am a part of and use that to progress the fight against cancer, a cause that I truly believe we can all support. I feel like the work I am doing in this campus organization has allowed me to make a difference within a cause, and it has truly brought joy in my life to do so. It’s also become a pretty large part of my life, but given that I love this campus so much, I’ve enjoyed it even more.

Getting involved on campus has also helped me figure out what I want to do with my life, the age-old question that I’m sure we all consider from time to time. The summer after my first year here, I began writing for an online writing platform, and this reignited a long-lost spark of interest in writing and English. In turn, I changed my major, spent more time in the writing field and, for the first time in my life, felt like I knew where my future was headed. After becoming the EIC of UNC’s branch of this platform, I felt like I understood my future even more.

Getting involved in HerCampus has had the same effect. Just being on this campus and being surround by people and passions that you enjoy can make all the difference in the world when it comes to college experiences, and that’s exactly what getting involved in these campus organizations has done for me.

There’s a lot to do on this campus outside of class. There are coffee shops to try (one of my favorite things), people to meet up with and sit with on the quad, lunches to be had at the Bottom of Lenior and late night study sessions to be held in Davis Library. The list goes on, it really does. Getting involved and spending time on this beautiful campus has changed my life, and changed it for the better — and that is why I love UNC.

Ashley Oldham

Chapel Hill '20

Ashley Oldham is a senior English and Comparative Literature and Sociology double major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her free time she enjoys drinking way too much coffee, attempting to write the next great American novel, and going on spontaneous road trips, all in the name of procrastinating on whatever schoolwork she currently has to do. To see what she's doing next (and get bombarded with cat pictures) follow her on Instagram @ashleyyerinno.