Student Organisations

During the Student Involvement fair I found the booth for the Japanese Student Organization. Since none of my friends are Japanese (and none of them were particularly interested in coming along), I went alone to the first meeting of JSO in south campus. I met a Japanese friend (named Yuhi) who I became acquainted by chance with during move-in day. During this first welcome meeting, I met the office members of the organization. They seemed to be very friendly, and a number of them happened to be friends of Yuhi as well. During this barbecue, I signed up for being an OA (office assistant), a step below the actual office positions and help with setting up various meetings and events for the general members.

Because I became friends with Yuhi prior to the meeting, I have made many friends during this meeting and some who live in my dorm as well. I feel that it is crucial to make as many connections as I can early in the year so that I have many outlets to talk with if I need advise or help about classes, internships, or just college in general. Upperclassmen have more experience in college and being close to them makes it easier to ask for advise than asking a stranger upperclassman.

This Sunday, I attended the weekly informational meeting for JSO. A few of the OAs and all of the office members attended it. There they planned out how future events will proceed and assigned office members to lead individual parts of said events. Although I and other OAs did not have much say in what would occur, we were allowed to give a few ideas that could be implemented for these events (e.g. what to do for icebreakers in the upcoming general body meeting).

I believe that it is important for me to join and be an active member of JSO. I should keep in touch with my Japanese origins so that I can meet other Japanese members at Ohio State and to maintain my level of Japanese. This club is important for building a good social network for me and I feel that it will meet my interests. While the club itself has many members (there were at least 50 students who joined for the welcome party), the club president informed of me that only around 20 students are active members in the club.

I feel at home in this club because I am Japanese. I could not have met people outside my classes or my dorm had it not been for JSO. I met a friend named Natalie who happens to live in Houston House. I think that I am very lucky and fortunate to have known a person who is in STEM Scholars and is part of JSO. And although it is a bit unrelated, my brother is also in JSO. He goes to Purdue and has told me to go to the MJSA conference (a conference where many JSOs from many universities attend to meet other members in different colleges) which is held in Purdue this year. I plan to attend the conference to meet my brother and I could not have had this opportunity had I not joined JSO.

JSO OAs after the Sunday meeting

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *