Activities
The 300+ student organizations on campus all draw their vitality, growth and impact from one source: student interest. Emory students get involved:
- Emory College students spend an average of six to 10 hours a week participating in co-curricular activities on campus, more than double that of their peers, according to the 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement.
- One in three undergraduates participates in Greek life.
- More than one quarter of undergraduates participate in Volunteer Emory, which was founded by two students.
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Distinction
- Emory received the 2008 Presidential Award for General Community Service, the highest federal recognition made to a college or university for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.
- The student newspaper, The Emory Wheel, and its magazine, The Hub, won top honors at the 2008 Southeast Journalism Conference.
- Emory's Alpha Tau Omega chapter received the Award of Distinction from the North American Interfraternity Conference in 2008. The NIC oversees some 5,500 fraternity chapters in the U.S. and Canada, and selects one chapter annually for the award.
- Barkley Forum, the nationally ranked intercollegiate debate team and community outreach program, fielded an all-female team in 2007 that became the first ever to win the National Debate Tournament.
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Engaged Scholars
Volunteer Emory, one of the most popular groups on campus, offers dozens of ways to serve the community, working with varied organizations including the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Trees Atlanta, PAWS Atlanta and Jones Boys and Girls Club.
Special events include campus-wide service days, issue-based awareness campaigns and alternative break trips.
Students provided nearly 150,000 hours of service in 2008, working with more than 200 community partners.
This kind of focus on purposeful contribution is an example of the University's intent for students here to become "engaged scholars," who use their education in service to others. Several offices and initiatives help students integrate this goal into their Emory experience:
- Office of Student Leadership and Service
- Ethics and Servant Leadership program at the Center for Ethics
- Pierce Institute for Leadership and Community Engagement at Oxford College
- Emory Community Building and Social Change Fellows Program
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Variety
The variety of extracurricular activities here reflects the individuality, energy, enthusiasm and collegiality of Emory students. This list grows more varied and inviting as students form new groups every year in interest areas such as:
- Business
- Club Sports and Intramural Teams
- College
- Graduate
- Honor Societies
- Law
- Medical
- Multicultural Programs and Services
- Nursing
- Outdoor Emory
- Outreach
- Public Health
- Sororities and Fraternities
- Student Media
- Theology
Student government provides access to decision-making forums:
- Student Government Association, the university-wide student governing body
- SGA's Student Programming Council, which plans campus-wide entertainment
- College Council, which makes student appointments to college and university-wide academic standing committees
- Graduate Student Council and Graduate Senate
Students do not hesitate to make their voices heard through media outlets including The Emory Wheel newspaper and its magazine, The Hub.
