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On behalf of your student government, the Undergraduate Students Association Council, I invite you to explore all this campus has to offer.

Take it from a senior: The cliche that you learn more from your classmates than from your classes fully applies at UCLA. When I came to this school, I’d never really talked with a Republican, an archery expert or someone who loves blues music, but now these people are my closest friends and greatest teachers.

You are now a member of a community that boasts some of the most intelligent, driven students in the nation, a student body that includes an array of political, cultural and academic diversity.

To make sure you take advantage of this, here’s your first (and most fun) homework assignment: Talk to as many people as you can. Meet your floormates, introduce yourself to the person next to you in class, and visit your professors during their office hours.

Meet people who share your interests or possible interests most of all. I’m talking about the thousands of students involved in our more than 800 student groups. Unless all you want out of UCLA is a GPA that shows off your days spent in the Powell Library basement, explore these organizations.

Spend time in Los Angeles tutoring underprivileged youth as part of the Community Service Commission.

Lobby alongside the Darfur Action Committee, which organized one of this campus’ greatest activist movements, the UC divestment from Sudan to help end the current conflict.

Dance for 26 hours at Dance Marathon, a fundraiser involving thousands of students who stay on their feet for that long and have raised half a million dollars for pediatric AIDS research.

Launch Greek Week as a member of our continually growing fraternity and sorority systems.

Work with the Jewish Student Union and the Muslim Student Association as they join forces to obtain kosher and halal food at our residential restaurants.

These activities – along with the road trips and a few crazy nights with friends – are what you’ll remember when you look back at UCLA. So go ahead, get involved in one, five or 20 of our student organizations (let me know if you want help finding something).

At the end of your years at UCLA, you’ll realize that all this time spent exploring our campus and getting to know others is really time spent getting to know yourself and what you can contribute to the world. And isn’t that what college is for?

Kaisey is the 2006-2007 USAC president. E-mail her at usapres@asucla.ucla.edu.