5 Reasons College Students Should Be in Professional Organizations

“Student engagement is the product of motivation and active learning. It is a product rather than a sum because it will not occur if either element is missing,” writes Elizabeth F. Barkley in Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. I'm a college student myself, and I'm very familiar with this equation — and how low the product sometimes can be.

Take professional associations, for example. They exist in essentially every industry, and most offer substantially discounted student rates. Yet in my experience, not many college students are motivated enough to get involved. Should they?