Societies: What's in it for me?

Societies - are they really worth the time? Every student upon joining university is introduced to a vast range of societies: your course's society, some niche film or baking society, maybe your culture or country has a society - for me, the Islamic Society is what stood out to me. As a Muslim, I choose to stay away from certain parts of university student life that many people look forward to because my religion forbids it - club nights, pub crawls, you get the idea. A lot of societies will have these kind of events, so I thought it's best if I stick to the Islamic Society: all the fun of university life but without the constant anxiety that you're sinning or in a setting where it is easier for you to sin. As a fresher, I was introduced to some of the committee and instantly found myself at home, even though I had only been a Muslim for just over a year at that point. The community spirit, the welcoming nature at events, and the food all made me instantly fall in love.

Over the year, the Islamic Society (ISOC) runs several campaigns (week-long events which stand out in the calendar year) such as Freshers, Charity Week, Discover Islam Week, and the month-long Ramadan Project. After having a go at volunteering in Charity Week, where the Islamic Society raised £47k for droughts in East Africa through a range of events such as bake sales, football tournaments, and a charity dinner. Being able to approach strangers for a whole week purely for fundraising helped me gain loads of confidence in this new university environment - it was new territory for me and I loved it.

In semester 2, the ISOC's AGM was coming up and I thought I might be able to play a part in this society and benefit both spiritually and academically from being in this kind of setting for a year. This led me to apply to be the Community Engagement Brother, and I got the role through being the only applicant. As I began my time with the ISOC, I had a lot to learn - engaging with staff, how to deal with activism on campus, how to outreach to other societies and organisations. It was tricky, but all worth it. It gave me the skills to help run homeless shelter visits where we'd give out free food every Sunday, to talk to the Guild officers about our role as activists on campus in light of the Palestine genocide and the university's duty surrounding it, and a range of marketing and research skills for how Islamophobia on campus can be addressed. So despite my time at the ISOC being just a year long (so far), I've gained so many skills that I can use for my curricular work, my super-curricular activities and also my interests outside of university.

So if you're thinking of joining a society, my best advice would be to take that step, put yourself out there and give it your all because what you get in return will be worth all the effort.