You might think that I’d be one of the last people who’d feel fear and apprehension about joining new groups since I make my living as a speaker. My whole career for the past 10 years has centered around traveling to new places and meeting new people and talking to new groups.

It seems absurd that I would still be nervous about joining a new group. Even as I write this, I think how ridiculous that is. But the fact is that it’s true. So if it’s true for me, it’s not too big a leap to believe that students, student leaders, and even professional staff often have a fear of joining new groups (and maybe even you reading this article ).

So what can we do about this? Since I’m forced to confront this often, I’ve come up with a couple tips for students and student leaders that have been very helpful when reaching out to a new group.

Recently I started playing pickup ice hockey and I applied the tips to help me overcome my fear of joining this new group. These are two of my tips (see the video).

What are your ideas? How do you as an orientation leader get over the fear of working with a new group of freshmen? How do you as an activities advisor, advisor your students to overcome their fears? How would you as a senior help a freshmen get over the anxiety of joining a campus organization?

And more to the point, what are the advantages of overcoming fears like this? (especially from a student or student leader perspective) How does it benefit a student to overcome or cope with this fear in both the long and short term?

Troy