Blog

The University of Michigan is a large school, and it’s important to find your community here if you really want to maximize your college experience. But… what if you could create your community yourself?

For me, that community was Michigan Sabermetrics (M-SABR). Now, I didn’t start M-SABR alone; I helped found it. My friend Billy started the group and I came in – as an incoming freshman, no less – and started the group’s website and, within a school year, took over the club with my good friend Max. After two years of running the club, we stepped down; the photo above is from our last meeting last winter.

I’ve since started more groups on campus, including the Michigan Football Analytics Society and the Michigan Basketball Analytics Association (I’m assuming you see a pattern here). And straight up, I want to speak to you from experience: starting these student organizations has been the most fulfilling part of my college experience. Here’s three reasons why, and a little advice to help you start your own should you take the initiative.

#1: The Community

I have met so many friends through M-SABR and M-FANS. My best friend and roommate has been in M-SABR with me since he showed up on campus as a freshman. My co-president and I run multiple fantasy sports teams together and talk practically daily about sports. And every Wednesday night, you can catch six to eight M-SABR boys dominating Buffalo Wild Wings trivia (until the final question, at least; they always make the final question ridiculously obscure). So, yeah. Coming in and helping to co-found this group has shaped my social experience here.

#2: Leadership/Public Speaking Experience

I had plenty of leadership and public speaking experience in high school, but running a student organization at Michigan is a whole new ballgame. Every week, I would speak in front of anywhere from 20-75 students for up to a full hour (my junior year, I did this twice per week running both M-SABR and M-FANS). Outside of meetings, I was constantly helping members develop their sports writing and explore how they could get involved in these clubs. If that isn’t good practice for my future aspirations as a musician and an English professor, I don’t know what is.

#3: Exploring Your Passions

I started these student organizations because I have a passion for sports. I love football and baseball, but I never played either in middle school or high school as I pursued music. However, that didn’t stop me from running these clubs and entertaining the possibility of a career in sports.

I still haven’t ruled out trying to work in Major League Baseball in the future, and have spent hundreds of hours considering a career in baseball. That was all thanks to me building M-SABR into the group it is today.

So, how do you get started?

If you want to start a student organization it’s as simple as this:

1. Create a unique idea for an organization. (Tip: Only start a group for something you’re passionate about!)
2. Follow the steps to register a new student organization from Campus Involvement.
3. Get some friends to help you kick things off and get going! (Oh, and one more tip: it’s best to start a new group at the beginning of a semester. Fall is preferable to winter, but plenty of great student organizations have started in the winter, including the parent group for M-SABR/M-FANS: the Michigan Sports Analytics Society.)