As we celebrate our homecoming spirit in this week of festivities, one can’t help but notice how many messages reach out to grab — and keep — our attention.

I’m talking, of course, about receiving a dozen new e-mails every time you check, reading hordes of multicolored flyers pinned up on every corner and looking down to see the sidewalk adorned with the latest club-sponsored events. Not to mention the new shout-out that magically appears on the upper right corner of the whiteboard every time you go to lecture, and the number of guest speakers coming to seminars from different departments.

Indeed, all of that is normal to the average college student. The American system of education encourages — almost requires — involvement outside of the lecture hall in the form of jobs, internships, seminar classes, workshops, supplemental instruction, community service, research, clubs and activities, physical recreation services and social events. Everything — from free workshops to free films — vie for our attention and force us to be more “well-rounded.”

“There are opportunities — and we encourage this — for students to come to a campus like Iowa State and learn things that they’ve only read about, or always wanted to be a part of,” said Tom Hill, Vice President for Student Affairs.

“It’s consistent with the institution’s motto, which is ‘Science for Practice.’”

Apart from the more popular services offered to students, such as group fitness classes, CyRide, supplemental instruction, studying abroad and the hundreds of clubs and organizations to choose from, a lot of students either don’t know about or choose not to take part in other ways to learn.

Both the City of Ames and Iowa State offer many options, and it becomes difficult to choose between all the items on the buffet, so to speak. It may be that a student wants to visit the Ames Public Library, become CPR-certified, take a mock-interviewing or dining etiquette workshop or go to a lecture in the Memorial Union, but different priorities, such as jobs or grades, may get in the way.

As a residence hall Community Advisor, Ashley Rosener, sophomore in English, noticed that not many students took advantage of the many resources offered on campus. For Rosener, who transferred from Luther College, one of the main differences for her was how many more opportunities there are to be involved here.

From Rosener’s experience, transitioning from a small, private college to a large, public university, Rosener thought students, for the most part, didn’t use the special programs the different departments put on to their full advantage because of time constraints, schedule restrictions and lack of effectiveness.

“I’m sure some of the programs have a lot of availability for people to come in than [how much] people actually use them. Some of them are definitely helpful for students, but then again, the time is really hard for some students,” Rosener said. “You have so many classes, and you’re trying to focus on those. Sometimes it is good to have this background knowledge that will help you deal with those classes, but at the same time, you’re split in a lot of different ways in college.”

To offer a solution to this problem, Rosener would like to see more skills classes offered as actual courses.

In a sense, however, extracurricular opportunities provide students a chance to learn just for the sake of learning and to broaden their minds — a goal higher education is supposed to fulfill.

— Akshali Gandhi is a freshman in art and design from Naperville, Ill.