What's interesting is that I don't think I've ever updated my profile for this society and I haven't been involved in anything. What is this "you have been nominated" thing? All I did was try to submit some short written poem this summer for their supposed summer newsletter of chosen submitted work. Whatever. They never sent out this newsletter and I probably sent my poem to some dead email. I'm starting to think that this society isn't anything. At least the membership fee was only once.
I understand that people are willing to try almost anything sometimes to succeed, but sometimes doing so may harm others. Even something (hopefully) as benign as this pretty much breaks the trust I put into joining this society. At first, I thought "this is cool. I get to be more involved!" and when my roommate didn't trust it and told me she wasn't joining, I thought, "nyeah. I don't want to miss this opportunity." Who thought that the emails I've been getting about the updates in the society and the great opportunities out there for me weren't really much. I mean, if I wanted to try for something, I'd work at getting all the paperwork and stuff in, but being nominated for something I know for sure I don't have enough of, that diminishes what trust I had. Sometimes, people just try too hard (a PhD's signature and name was provided to prove legitimacy..?) that it becomes clearly fake. I know what I have been up to, and though I do wish I had more leadership and service experience, it's just fact that I don't quite have enough to be recognized (even nominated).
When what I know just don't match up with what is given, I can't help lean toward doubt. I can't just always blindly believe anymore, even if sometimes I should keep my faith in something or someone without knowing all that's going on.
But what I do strongly believe right now, against all odds, is that the G unit babies will revive and be strong again. They wilted over the break (no water for only 2 days.. I guess that was too long?) and only one sprang back.
Yeah, a lot of societies out there are pretty scam-like... like recently in the mail I got this huge fancy envelope for some sort of study abroad program for Medicine. I google searched it and people are like... I guess it'd be an okay experience, if you're a rich kid with money to burn.
ReplyDeleteI think the trick is to first look up these societies on Google before paying fees, to see if first of all, they're legit, and second, if there's any prestige being connected to that society (is paying the membership fee worth it? do they have strict who can join who can't join criteria, like only the top 10% of the class can join, etc.). NSCS is an actual honors society, but I didn't join cuz I didn't see any benefits in joining.
It makes me sad that Berkeley doesn't have chapters for many prestigious honors societies. I need to bulk up my resume, haha.
tahaha, i went to their website today and it's for first-year and second-year college students? or are those the only years you're invited to join it? whatever. Did you get something from Golden Key International? I saw someone with a credit card that had their logo on it and I was like "whoaa... what?" :P I joined that one too mainly cuz i'm hoping for an opportunity to go overseas~ :)
ReplyDeletehaha, I went back to look through my inbox and look:
ReplyDelete"Congratulations! You have been nominated to attend the International Scholar
Laureate Program (ISLP) Delegation on Medicine next summer in your choice of
Australia or China. You have been specially selected for this honour because of
the exemplary academic performance and leadership skills you have displayed as a
member of Golden Key International Honour Society. "
haha, pretty much the same message as yours except mine is from Golden Key. Yeah, I wonder if everyone in these societies gets the same messages? Cuz I assume everyone in them should have top grades? Dunno how they'd know if people have "leadership skills" though.
And yeah, I did join Golden Key cuz they do say that only people in the top 15% get invited. Dunno about going overseas though. I think I'd prefer studying abroad with Berkeley to get units than paying fees to attend overseas conferences with Golden Key.
that is too weird, having basically the same message from two different honor societies...
ReplyDelete