If you’re here, you’re probably thinking about starting an student org on campus.

First… congrats! Most people don’t even think about taking the first step. You are and that’s wonderful. Mind you, it won’t be an easy journey, but it’ll be worthwhile if you commit to it in the long term. Starting something you believe in, with people you believe in, is one of the greatest joys I think anyone can have.

But I also want to be clear. Founding a student org is an inherently unique experience. By no measure do I have all the answers or am an expert on the topic — I’m not sure you can be.

I think, though, that many lessons I’ve learned building my campus org have (at least some) universality.

And yes, I haven’t introduced myself yet! My name is James. I’m a student at Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s innovation school at USC. I started a student org at USC called OK. We focus on creating a platform for students — across USC’s twenty-three schools — to create ambitious creative projects with students they otherwise wouldn’t meet. In less than a year, we’ve brought on 30+ talented creatives, developed relationships with a range of supporters (including Notion!), and worked on some really cool projects.

My goal for this playbook is to be light on text and heavy on insight. Hopefully that’s the case :)

I’ve organized my advice in three core ideas:

<aside> 1️⃣ *“*All the world is made up of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” - Peter Pan

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But especially trust.

Being a founder of a club is a long journey. It’s also extremely hard… like way harder than I thought. Starting OK and running it as president has essentially been a full-time job. I literally quit my (actual) job the semester I founded it.