Lately, I have seen tons of negative publicity regarding involvement culture, especially at the University of Florida.

Involvement culture is the idea that your success is directly correlated with how involved you are on campus. The more positions you hold, the higher up you are, the more lines on your resume, the better.

Many believe this mentality is dangerous.

First of all, as students, we begin focusing more on our extracurricular lives than on our studies. We disproportionally devote energy in networking and philanthropy, and not enough on Calculus and English.

Secondly, involvement culture becomes a huge stress if we start measuring our worth based on how many leadership positions we hold.

I hope you take this all with a grain of salt, because it is definitely not the truth.

Anybody who is seriously involved, and for the right reasons, will tell you that school should always come first.

The secret to success is time management. If you appropriately manage your time so that you make it to class, study for exams, and attend your necessary meetings, it truly is measurable.

Not to mention, methods of success have changed over the past few decades. Procuring a job is not as easy. Higher education is almost necessary, but even a diploma doesn't cut it anymore.

Universities know that they are not only developing students, but also successful members of society. When we apply for jobs, employers need to see more than just fifteen credits a semester.

Personally, I am a involvement culture advocate.

I love how it makes us more than students; how it encourages us to get involved in causes we did not know existed; how it gives us the opportunity to work in fields we never considered.

Without involvement culture, I would have never realized how much I love event planning; or my passion for politics; or how I can help raise money for Miracle Children at Shands.

Involvement culture helps me feel like I am more than just going through life, but rather taking control of it.

Problems arise when people partake in involvement culture for the wrong reasons.

If you partake for the right reasons, good rule of thumb is that 'it only works, it only benefits you.' Become involved in something you care about because of personal passion and internal drive, not to add to your resume.

Employers and peers can see right through the "doing this for the clout" bluff.

Your positions only mean something on your resume when they mean something to you.