Name: Aisyah Restu Damayanti

Student Number: 03020321042

Class: Argumentative Writing A
Words Count: 2349

College Students should Join at Least One Extracurricular in

Their Campus
Introduction Paragraph

In order to enhance students’ prosperity or well-being, most universities are providing

their students with various kinds of learning methods, they are including outside learning and
inside-classroom learning. Outside learning is a learning method when students study outside
the classroom and it is hold more flexible than the formal learning. While inside-classroom
learning is part of formal learning and conducted under the lecturer. One of activity that being
part of outside learning is extracurricular. Extracurricular is an activity outside the formal
learning hold by the school or university to transmit students’ talent and interest. Bartkus et
al. (2012) described that “extracurricular activities are defined as academic or non-academic
activities that are conducted under the auspices of the school but occur outside of normal
classroom time and are not part of the curriculum.” Nowadays, there are some students that
underestimate the existence of extracurriculars on their campus for some specific reason.
They argue that academic achievement is way more important for them and extracurriculars
is not part of a formal education so it is definitely cannot enhance their academic
achievement. The other argument is that extracurriculars divert their concentration or focus in
rising grades. That thought-provoking eventually makes students will not join any
extracurricular in their campus and end up become an ordinary student with less experience.
Otherwise, extracurriculars offer kinds of benefits for college students in many aspects
including preventing students from mental issue because extracurriculars can be a source of
happiness for college students. Extracurriculars also developed students’ personal skills and
help students achieve their goals. With all of the advantages that are given by joining
extracurriculars, this essay proposed that college students should join at least one
Body Paragraph

College students’ well-being is part of positive behaviours that feel by students. Well-
being can be an experience of good physical health and mental health. It also can be a high
life satisfaction that leads to a high motivation in doing something. Kovich and Simpson
(2019) explained that “well-being is a universal concept that is relevant to individuals,
communities, populations, and countries.” Therefore, students’ well-being is critical for
improve the ability of learning and skills of the students. It also important in manifesting a
positive learning environment for students. Well-being will affect how students pass the
semester and graduated on time. A way to enhance students’ well-being is by creating an
extracurricular activity that related to students’ hobby and interest. As an activity that hold
outside or exclude the formal learning in the classroom, extracurricular believed able to
enhance college students’ skills, networking, and happiness. Besides that, extracurricular
believed could make students better in understanding themselves. Díaz-Iso et al. (2019) stated
that when students communicating with others, they show reflective process that help them
better at knowing their selves. Just the same as universities in Indonesia, in some other
countries’ university such as Romania and Germany, extracurricular also conducted in the
university. Nevertheless, a study found that the students in Romania and Germany show
different satisfaction relating extracurricular activity hold by their university. Muscalu and
Dumitrascu (2014) demonstrate “Romanian students seem to have higher expectations from
extracurricular activities than the German ones, they are convinced in a larger number that
their implication in extracurricular activities […] helps to increase the responsibility of each
individual […].” They also found that the low of students’ satisfaction of extracurricular
caused by lack information and the low of extracurricular’s attractiveness. (Muscalu &
Dumitrascu, 2014) also define that the various and more interesting extracurriculars offered
by university, and a better publicity can affect students’ engagement. Therefore,
extracurriculars must be aware with the students’ interest and leisure,

Extracurriculars in university are hold outside the normal time of formal learning
conducted under the students and lecturers. Extracurriculars took about at least five to seven
hours in a week, but there are also some extracurriculars that hold the activity more than the
usual because the different time of agenda. Same as the other organizations, in
extracurriculars, there is also an organizational structure that loads several people with
specific positions to manage the run of extracurriculars’ activities. Those position will be
filled by the leader, co-leader, secretary, and the representative of each sector. Just same as in
the formal learning, in extracurriculars, students who are able to join the meeting or activity
should fulfil the attendance list so that it shows that they are present. “Higher education
institutions are increasingly being asked to track student attendance, based on the notion that
improved attendance leads to higher retention rates, better grades, and a more fulfilling
educational experience” (Rose et al., 2022). There are various kinds of activities hold in the
extracurriculars. The purpose of the extracurriculars’ activities is to build intimation with
each other, fulfil the extracurriculars’ agenda, evaluate the participants’ progress, and others.
In extracurriculars, there is an activity hold every week and become a routine activity. The
management team of the extracurriculars also have their own function that is to evaluate and
create the agendas that will hold in the end of the months. “In order to improve the quality of
extracurricular activities and satisfying students’ needs, it is recommended that satisfaction
studies in regards to extracurricular activities should be carried out periodically (every six
months)” (Muscalu & Dumitrascu, 2014). In the last year of the events, the participants of the
extracurriculars requested to join a competition or major events. After being the participant
of a major event, extracurriculars and all of the team will reflect their activity and agenda
after a year of running. Besides reflecting and evaluating their agenda, creating new
management team also being an activity in the last year. A journal from Spain has classified
extracurriculars into six different terms. “These activities are classified into sporting, cultural,
solidarity, spiritual and artistic activities, and student clubs” (Díaz-Iso et al., 2019). In
general, extracurricular is an activity that has more advantages than its disadvantages. As
stated before, extracurricular is one of activity that include in outside learning method and
will give impact to students’ well-being. College students should join at least one
extracurricular because they will experience improvement in soft skill, hard skill, and other
four beneficial things in self-improvement.

First, mental health issue is a critical thing that can be related to college students’
well-being. Problems that occurred in students’ life will make them stressed because they get
a lot of pressure. Janetius (2019) demonstrate that “72% of the students feel that their parents
and other related people compare them with others and belittle them […] (74 %) felt a lack of
self-worth when parental interference in personal decision making curtails their freedom and
independence.” The data above shows that the number of students who experienced mental
issues is still high which is more than half of a percent. Saleem and Mahmood (2019) also
define that “College students struggle with developmental issue and some are struggling with
more multifaceted and chronic problems.” Thereby, beside doing formal learning in the
classroom, students need a refreshing activity to boost their mood and interest. One of a
refreshing and beneficial activity that provide for students in the campus is extracurricular.
Extracurricular is fun and can be a source of happiness. The various activity conducted in the
extracurricular will help students temporary forget their stressfulness that caused by many
things either their personal problem or assignment that give them more pressured. Kapur
(n.d.) argue that “Individuals who develop positive viewpoints regarding all kinds of
extracurricular activities that they are engaged in are more likely to enjoy them and they
prove to be fun activities rather than being dull and boring.” Students who joined
extracurriculars will meet a lot of friends, sharing story, and doing their hobby together.
“Through participation in these activities, factors such as anger, frustration, loneliness,
avoiding studies, laziness gets reduced and students are more likely to become hardworking,
attentive, conscientious and diligent” (Kapur, n.d.; Brown, n.d.). Furthermore, those
occurrences actually could be a way to prevent students from mental issue.
Second, extracurriculars can be a tool to enhance and develop students’ personal skills
and proficiency. Personal skills are ability in doing something naturally and it can be learned
by practicing, unlike and different to a formal study. When joining extracurriculars, students
will learn various things and get more experiences by doing team work, stating ideas,
communication, and other beneficial skills. Team work is an activity where two or more
people combine their action in order to achieve a reciprocal goal. in joining extracurriculars,
students are required to organize an event and combine their action with another participant.
Besides that, students who joined extracurriculars are expected to state their ideas freely
without scare to be underestimated. A new ides is one of a critical thing in extracurricular
activity because it can help the committee created other attractive events and activity. So that
students and all of the participant of the extracurriculars will never get bored. Last but not
least, communication and leadership skill are also improved when students joined an
extracurriculars because students must be learned to make a decision and keep in
communication with the other members. Ahmad and Rahman (2019) stated that “Students
often learned skills such as teamwork and leadership from college club activities while
decreasing the likelihood of different problem behaviours.” Students’ personal skills are very
important because it will be useful and profitable after they graduated from university and
hire a job. Students’ personal skills also related to behaviour and did not teach in the formal
or inside-classroom learning.
 The third important thing for college students is connections or networking.
Connections or networking is something related to a person or people that we familiar to.
Connections or networking could be a person or a thing. Connections and networking are
important for college students’, especially after they graduated from university. “Research
has shown that networking is valuable skill enhancing careers and in improving
entrepreneurial success” (Friar, 2007). In extracurriculars, students required to communicate
and build relationship with the other member or participant, this will help students improving
their social skill and build health relationship. Besides that, the member or participant in the
extracurriculars come from various place and different backgrounds. Thus, students will get
many information and something that they never find or knew before. After graduating from
university, college students are expected to collect many information as much as they can so
that students can easily achieve and complete their life target.

The last reason why college students should join at least one extracurriculars in the
university is that extracurriculars assist students in achieving their goals. When choosing an
extracurricular, students will prefer to an extracurricular that refers to their hobby so that they
can improve it and manifest their dreams. In extracurriculars, students can discuss anything
about something they are interested in and meet people with the same hobby. Thus, students
will have more motivation in pursuing their interest. “Through these activities students
become more practiced, competent and skilful; sometimes if they are good at making a
painting, they may choose a career as an artist or if they are good at a dance performance,
they may become a professional dancer” (Kapur, n.d.; Brown, n.d).
With all of the benefits and advantages that given by extracurriculars for college
students. There are still many of students who underestimated the existence of
extracurriculars. Some of them are disagree with the argument that college students should
join at least one extracurriculars in the university. The first argument from those who
underestimated extracurriculars is that extracurriculars activity could distract students’ focus
in achieving or gaining academic score. “Extracurricular activities have a downside mainly in
case of two aspects; when they become overwhelming and when they divert the student’s
academic focus” (Kapur, n.d.). Nevertheless, the research or a study about extracurriculars
divert students’ focus in achieving academic scores is still not be found. Otherwise, when
students having ability struggle to gain academic scores and joining extracurriculars, it will
boost their multitasking skill. Multitasking is a capability to process two or more problems in
a same period. The benefits of multitasking are to improves students’ performance and giving
motivation in their daily activity. “We conjecture that because multitasking activities are
naturally perceived as challenging, merely framing the task as multitasking may increase
individuals’ motivation” (Srna et al., 2018).

The other argument who disagrees that college students should join at least one
extracurricular is that extracurriculars is not part of formal education and they do not get
academic score even though they joined the extracurriculars. “In general, extracurricular
activities are not included as part of the formal curriculum and so colleges do not count them
toward academic performance. Therefore students who participate in ECA do not receive
grades or credit for it” (Han & Kwon, 2018). This statement is true but cannot be a reason for
college students’ not joining extracurriculars considering extracurriculars more give
advantages in their soft skill rather than the hard skill. Otherwise, a study found that
extracurriculars have positive effect to students’ academic achievement and performance.
“Students tend to perform better in their studies and score good grades, as their mindset gets
stimulated by the participation in activities; their exam results, educational attainment gets
improved” (Kapur, n.d.; Brown, n.d.). Other counter argument is that “Several studies have
linked student engagement in extracurricular activities with positive academic performance
while others suggest that low academic performance does not result from extracurricular
activities” (Correa et al., 2015). There are some extracurriculars that give more influence to
students’ academic performance such as debate activity, reading club, and others. “Mehus
(1934) suggests that students who engage in oratory and debate activities, publication and
departmental clubs tend to perform better academically than those involved in athletics,
music and drama” (Correa et al., 2015).
Conclusion and Suggestions
To sum up, extracurriculars activity have more positive impact than its negative
impact. Students who joined extracurriculars will have better experience and skill-
improvement rather than if they do not join the extracurricular. The benefits that given by
extracurricular are prevent from mental issue, enhance personal’s skills, gain more
connections or networking, and help to achieve goals.
Students are suggested to choose extracurriculars based on what they are interested in
so that they can enjoy and maximize their effort while participating in the extracurricular’s
activity. To gain more students’ interest and involvement, extracurriculars are suggested to
have better publicity and attractive activities.
 References
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