Why College Students Need Extracurricular Activities: A Deep Dive

I've always been the type who loves to seek out new experiences — even if it means going out of my way to struggle a bit. During my college years, I even took a leave of absence to pursue extracurricular activities, becoming a self-proclaimed (and others-proclaimed) "extracurricular enthusiast." That said, even I didn't start right away as a freshman.

Extracurricular Activities?

Extracurricular activities literally mean activities outside of school. From major corporations to startups, many companies run various programs — competitions, brand ambassadors, volunteer work, and more.

I didn't start doing extracurricular activities in earnest until I was 23, in my third year of college. The reason I started late was simple: I just didn't know about them.

I never really cared about the so-called "specs" (resume-building credentials) that everyone supposedly starts managing the moment they enter university. I was just focused on my department activities and joined clubs to make my college life more fun. That was all I knew about extracurriculars, so I basically had zero concept of what was out there.

The reason I suddenly dove into extracurricular activities wasn't to build my resume or boost my employment prospects. I started simply because I wanted to — and the biggest reason was my bucket list.

Somehow, I'd never been abroad until age 23. I made a plan: my first trip overseas had to be meaningful, and ideally on "someone else's dime." That's how I stepped into the world of extracurricular activities. (Fun fact: extracurriculars are one of the fastest ways to travel abroad on someone else's budget while looking impressive, and I actually managed to go overseas twice that way.)

Types of Extracurricular Activities

Let's first take a closer look at what extracurricular activities actually are. As mentioned above, there are many types. You probably already know about programs from major corporations. Here are some rough examples — you can find even more by searching online:

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• Domestic Activities

  KT&G Sangsang Marketing School, Samsung Dream Class, KT&G Sangsang Volunteer, POSCO Happy Builder, Bacchus Cross-Country March, LG Love Genie, Young Samsung, Hyundai Young Glovis

• Overseas Activities

  Hyundai Motor Happy Move, LS University Student Overseas Volunteer Corps, KEPCO University Student Overseas Volunteer, Kyobo Bookstore Northeast Asia Expedition

• Volunteer Work

• Mentoring Programs

• Brand Ambassadors & Student Reporters

And so on.

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Why Do Extracurricular Activities?

"Why do you do that? Does it help you get a job?"

These were the most common questions people around me asked when I was doing extracurricular activities. Why are you doing this? Does it help with employment?

But as I mentioned, I was an unusual person who had no interest in specs or even employment itself, so that was obviously not my motivation. Beyond the overseas travel goal I mentioned, I had a few other reasons:

One

I wanted to broaden my learning in marketing, a field I was passionate about. My department's curriculum had marketing courses as electives, but they were supplementary, so there were no friends around me who aspired to work in marketing or wanted to enter competitions together. I felt a serious lack of learning opportunities beyond textbook theory, and that's what led me to look into marketing-related extracurricular activities.

Two

Extracurricular activities are one of the best ways to gain experience. Through various activities alongside part-time jobs, I gained an incredible amount of experience. The people I met, the situations I encountered, and the lessons and opportunities within them became assets that would make me choose the exact same path without a moment's hesitation if I could go back. (Honestly, if I could go back, I'd do even more activities than I did.) Beyond resumes and job applications — which are relatively small matters — all those experiences broadened my perspective on the world in truly meaningful ways.

Three

Extracurricular activities give your college years a rich narrative. When you participate, you naturally accumulate many "stories" — from meeting diverse people and having various experiences, to going through every stage from application to selection to completion. I loved that aspect. Needless to say, all these stories became invaluable assets in my life afterward.

Beyond these reasons, most extracurricular programs only require that you be a current university student anywhere in the country. I always thought of them as privileges you can only enjoy while you're a student, which made me want to take advantage of them even more.

Given all of this, my extracurricular activities were things I did purely because I wanted to, without thinking about employment. But in the end, I wholeheartedly recommend them to everyone — especially to younger students — because they've been tremendously helpful not just for career building, but for my life as a whole.

So How Do You Actually Get Started?

When I first started, I felt completely lost. I had no idea where to begin. There weren't really any communities connecting students across campus (or maybe I just didn't know about them), so I could only wonder how everyone else was finding and applying to these programs. Even when I did manage to find a listing and apply, I'd never written a personal statement before, so I kept getting rejected without even making it to the interview stage. But after persistent effort, I finally broke through — and I'd like to share what I learned here.

1. Keep an eye on your school's online and offline bulletin boards.

There's more information on your university's website and physical bulletin boards than you'd expect. Beyond departmental news, you can find competitions, extracurricular activities, and even scholarship information. You need to actively seek out and pursue these opportunities yourself. It's also worth asking your department's teaching assistants.

2. Ask seniors and friends.

Chances are there are people around you who are already active in extracurricular programs. Take an interest in what your friends care about and what activities they're enjoying. Have conversations, find people with shared interests, and team up to tackle various activities together — it's genuinely fun.

3. Spend time exploring relevant apps, communities, and online forums.

(I'm not sure what's available these days, but) in my case, I got a lot of help from a Naver Cafe called Spec Up. As its name suggests, Spec Up is a community where college students interested in resume building, employment, and extracurricular activities — as well as graduates and corporate representatives — come together. It's a sizable community with diverse content and conversations.

Even if you're not interested in "specs," you can find well-organized weekly listings for part-time jobs and extracurricular recruitment. It's great for finding teammates for competitions, study groups, activity listings, or part-time work.

4. Find successful applicants' personal statements, read them, and gradually improve your own.

I remember struggling a lot with personal statements when I was getting started. I had no idea what I was writing or what I should say. During that time, I searched for and read other successful applicants' statements, compared them with mine, and gradually learned the structure and style of statements that work well.

I also made a point of saving every statement I wrote, organizing them into "accepted" and "rejected" folders. It was tedious work, but because of it, my acceptance rate kept climbing, and eventually the time it took to write applications decreased dramatically.

5. Document important moments during activities with writing and photos, and keep your files and materials organized.

Through extracurricular activities, you'll end up with various assignments, deliverables, and outputs. These might seem trivial, but they can become valuable assets later, so I recommend keeping them organized. I saved all of mine and later compiled them into a simple portfolio — it was basic, but it turned out to be excellent material for personal branding.

So there you have it — a broad overview of what extracurricular activities are, why they're worth doing, and how to get started. In the next post, I'll cover how to organize materials from extracurricular activities, department projects, or personal endeavors into a simple portfolio page that's useful for both job hunting and personal branding.