The University of Rhode Island Student Event Advising Office has released the Rhody Match form, a resource for students to connect with organizations on campus.
Created by the URI SEA office, the form collects information on students’ interests, majors and hobbies to match them with student organizations they might be interested in. Students can receive their results through email or in person with an SEA advisor.
The program, a product of pandemic isolation, was made to reacquaint students with on-campus life after periods of quarantine, according to Julia Al-Amir, the SEA graduate assistant.
“Since people were coming back and didn’t know what to join, it was an easy way to understand what people’s interests were,”Al-Amir said.
The form is sent out every semester, garnering 50 to 100 responses each time, most from first-year students. There is no cutoff date for submissions, so if a student chooses to get involved later in the semester, a SEA advisor will still meet with them.
Personalized guidance from a SEA advisor can simplify the process of sorting through clubs for students.
“There’s so much that URI offers, so often students don’t know where to start,” Al-Amir said.
The Rhody Match form isn’t only helpful for students, but also the clubs advised by the SEA office, according to Al-Amir.
Some clubs have trouble recruiting members at large events like Rhodython, according to Al-Amir. The form is a strategy to recruit students at a smaller, personalized scale.
Besides assisting students and clubs, the SEA office facilitates events on campus throughout the year, usually once or twice a week. They are even behind the popular Stuff a Ram event.
The goal of these on campus events is to help get students out on campus and connected with other students, according to Al-Amir..
“Sometimes students just focus on their academics, which is awesome, but they get stuck in their rooms and they find themselves not meeting new friends or connecting,” Al-Amir said.
SEA Advisor Mia Ramirez is involved with multiple campus organizations herself, including Greek life, and recommends other students do the same.
“I would encourage students to fill out the Rhody Match form because it helps students get involved on campus and find their own sense of community and home,” Ramirez said.
Approximately half of URI students live out of state, according to the URI admissions website . Building connections on campus is a way to make URI a student’s home away from home.
“Even if students don’t think they’ll have a community, they can find a home here,” Ramirez said.
Finding a home on campus is key to students’ mental health, according to researchers at the Center for Mental Health Research.
A research study published in the National Library of Medicine found that students involved in campus life tend to have a stronger sense of group or shared identity. That group identity, researchers said, is key to a sense of belonging.
“These shared identities and feelings of belonging have been shown to improve a range of psychological and behavioral outcomes, such as elevated self-esteem, social competence, resilience and reduced loneliness,” the study said.
Students looking to get involved on campus can find the SEA Rhody Match form on their Instagram, @uri.officeofsi, or visit the SEA office in Room 204 of the Memorial Union.