A different kind of community

Volunteer projects. Lifelong friendships. Out-of-the-classroom experiences. GCSU’s Residential Learning Communities provide just that.

In 2000, Georgia College & State University started the housing program Residential Learning Communities, also referred to as RLCs. RLCs are designed to incorporate the academic, service and social aspects of student life into seven small living communities.

“Students are only in the classroom for so many hours a week,” Cindy McClanahan, the housing marketing coordinator, said. “These Residential Learning Communities really pull together what a student is learning in the classroom and the rest of their life aspects – their living space, their study space and their social activities.”

Each community has a different faculty adviser that works with students to provide activities that correlate with their interests and promote learning beyond the classroom.

Rachel Stephens, a junior political science major, was in the leadership RLC her freshman and sophomore year.

“I made a lot of great friends, I had a lot of good experiences and I had a lot of volunteer service hours out of it,” Stephens said. “It helped me figure out what I wanted to do.”

It was through her involvement with the leadership RLC that Stephens realized she wanted to changer her major from psychology to political science.

“It just made me realize that I really like helping people and working towards change,” Stephens said.

When the program first launched, there were only four communities: honors, the oldest and largest of the RLCs; Casa Mondo, for international students and students interested in international travels and studies; Coverdell, now known as the leadership RLC; and wellness, which promotes health living.

Since that time, three more communities have been added. The fine arts community began in 2005, with entrepreneurship following the next year. The most recent RLC to develop was the pre-nursing community that is currently in its first year.

“Pre-nursing has just started this year,” said Gregg Kaufman, the leadership faculty adviser and coordinator of civic engagement projects. “They have a very strong program. … Their expectations are somewhat more rigorous than the others.” Instead of just indicating an interest to live in one of these communities, the pre-nursing RLC, like the honors, has an application process. Students are chosen based on their grade-point average, their SAT scores and an entrance interview, along with two letters of recommendation.

Over the years, the RLCs have experienced a couple of changes other than the additions of other communities.

“It’s not necessary to reside in any one place to be a part of these communities,” Kaufman said. “Students that have a real interest … are welcome to participate whether they live in Parkhurst or Wells or building 500 or not.”

Another change is the life-span of these communities. The leadership and wellness communities have expanded their programs to two-years. While Casa Mondo is open to any major or academic level, it is still primarily a one-year program because the large majority of the students in that RLC are international student only here for one year.

Volunteer service is a intricate part of the RLC experience. In their second annual fall community service this past September, the RLCs joined together to help clean up Andalusia. In addition to volunteering as a whole, each RLC is involved in community activities and service that correlate with their community.

University studies have shown that living in a Residential Learning Community can help students mature intellectually and help them to become responsible for their own learning. It also indicated that being involved in these communities helped students become more intrigued about learning from other students and peers.

In fact, President Dorothy Leland named the RLC program a Pillar of Distinction. A Pillar of Distinction is a program or project that the university wants to focus on because it has the potential for sustainability, gaining faculty support, external recognition and capitalizing on an strengths.

“People should know that it’s a really great experience because it’s a group of people who are interested in similar things but they are also diverse enough that it’s not boring,” Stephens said. “You can learn so much from it.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 9 2009. Filed under Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry