When I started college as an excited freshman oh-so-long ago, I wanted to quickly find a place for myself on campus. It's something that any new college student can relate to: you've just moved to a completely new setting with a completely new group of people, and you want to take advantage of all the new opportunities. In my first few days, I attended various club fairs and orientations that helped point me in the direction of several groups. The first one that caught my eye was a nationwide college food blog dedicated to the ins-and-outs of food. I'd never seen anything like it; it was almost like a Buzzfeed for the college food experience. I looked more into it, read our writer Carly's article on "why you should join Spoon OU," and eagerly joined - here I am now, writing this article for OU's chapter of Spoon University as the Editorial Director.
I never viewed Spoon as an "extracurricular activity" or "campus involvement;" it's always been like a community to me. It's a group of people who are passionate about food, just like me. I made some of my best friends and experienced some of my most inspirational moments through Spoon, and I fully credit that to how wonderful our university's chapter is. What makes our chapter so special, you ask?
1. It's All About You
At Spoon OU, we care about what you have to say and what you have to contribute. We try to nurture ideas that help you express yourself and write about things you're passionate about. Your exec members and fellow writers will be a great source of advice and guidance, but we let you be the one to decide what kind of content you create and how you want to go about doing it. We put the emphasis on the "U" in Spoon OU.
2. It's A Great Way To Learn About Norman and OU
Many of the articles that our writers write are about places in Norman - like "Norman's Top Three Most Study-Worthy Coffee Shops" and "The 5 Best Places For Queso In Norman." This gives you a great excuse (if you even need one!) to go check out all the wonderful food places around Norman and learn about the place that you now call home. If you check out the Spoon OU page , you'll see that many of the articles are actually about food on campus itself, as well. You could learn more about "The Caf," Campus Corner, and all the other great food hubs on campus through things that you or your fellow writers explore.
3. It's A Great Way To Become A Better Writer
The focus of Spoon OU is writing articles. Writing is an important skill not only for college, but for practically every profession afterward. Although college classes are geared toward making you a better writer, the pressure situation of a classroom is often burdensome. Why not improve your writing skills in an no-pressure, fun environment - writing about delicious desserts or must-try restaurants, at that? You'll thank yourself in both your classwork and your career later.
4. We Support Flexing Your Food Knowledge
Have a special recipe of Grandma's that you'd like to share? Have advice on what the best cure to a hangover is? Think you take the best food pictures possible? Don't be shy; here, at Spoon OU, we WANT to see what you have to share. We aren't a "no-flex zone;" we want to see you flex and want to support your expertise on food. Supporting and helping each other grow as foodies is important to us.
5. We Help You Meet New People & Make New Friends
For a new college student (myself included), this is often the hardest thing to do. You've just moved away from your home town, where you may have gone to school with the same people for many years. How do you go from that to meeting brand new people and making new friends? The driving force of the Spoon OU community is friendship. We're all about working with each other and making friends. We like to go out and grab coffee with each other - and later write about our favorite coffee places. Think about it this way: if you're part of Spoon OU, you already have something in common with everyone else here - you're passionate about food! Beyond that, we host several meetings and events over the course of the semester that help you make important connections with professors and faculty across the campus. Regardless, it's a conversation starter - who won't be impressed when you say you write about food in your free time?
It would be an understatement for me to say that Spoon OU has been a wonderful experience for me. If you're passionate about food (and lets be real, who isn't?!) and want to meet new people, join our group today! Trust me, you'll be proud to find out why we're the best Spoon chapter around.