LEARNING COMMUNITY FEATURED
STUDENT PROFILE

NAME:
Bryn Finucane

LEARNING COMMUNITY:
Spanish-Education

How does a Learning Community benefit me?
That was my first question after receiving my acceptance letter into the Learning Community. I am a Spanish Education major and I was pleasantly surprised when I found out I was in the Spanish-English Learning Community.

My freshman year I lived on the 6th floor of Sanderson which was the home of the Spanish-English Learning Community. The majority of the students who lived on my floor were freshman who were Spanish or English Majors. As a part of the program, we all were enrolled to take two of our courses together. My community took a writing course and a Spanish course together. At first I was a little skeptical of this arrangement because I didn’t think that I was going to have the opportunity to meet as many people as those students who were not involved in this program. This certainly was not the case. Like most students, I was really nervous and kind of scared to go to my first class. I thought that I was going to look “out of place” because I was a freshman but the community gave us all a little support which made the first day a little less scary. After being involved in the Learning Community, I realized that I met just as many other students as the non-participants did and not only was I able to meet them, I was able to form strong relationships with them. It is now one year later and most of us do not live together anymore but we are still best friends.

I believe that there are many benefits to participating in a Learning Community. Friends and the relationships that you form with them is one example, another example is how the Learning Communities benefited me academically. Most of the time, the Learning Communities are based on a major or minor. Already you are surrounded by people who are interested in the same field as you are. This serves as a wonderful tool when you are looking for a study buddy or if you need help on some homework. You were able to walk down the hallway and, hopefully, find all the answers to your questions.

Would I recommend that you participate in the Learning Community Program?
Absolutely!!! If someone where to ask you to be involved in a program where you get to meet great people and be given the opportunity to go on trips that are specifically designed for the Learning Communities, how could you NOT want to be involved??

LEARNING COMMUNITY FEATURED
STUDENT PROFILE

NAME:
Kip Migdalias

LEARNING COMMUNITY:
English Education, BSED

How does a Learning Community benefit me?
I recall getting a phone call, the summer just before my freshman year began. Excited to be entering the dorms, as only one of my three sisters had ever lived at college before me (and only for a year), I was also hoping not to fall into the stereotypical lifestyle at the dorms: partying, lethargic weekends, and gaining a billion pounds. And thus, the call I received about the learning community was a perfect one. It gave me the opportunity to meet many amazing people, while still providing me with the necessary focus on my studies.

I contemplated for a brief moment before telling the voice on the other line,“yes, I'd love to join a learning community.” So, in the fall and spring of 2005-2006, I was placed in Sanderson, on the 6th floor in a wing full of prospective English Education majors. The other wing was demarcated for Spanish majors, which, luckily for me had long been an interest of mine. I met many wonderful individuals, two of which are my best friends at West Chester today (I'm now a junior). I joined English Club my freshman year with a number of my friends from the floor and am proud to say that myself and a few of them are still part of this club today!

The learning community was so strong at building friendships that I found myself seeing those I lived with around campus and noticing how easy it was to smile, wave, or say hello to them without a hint of awkwardness. Despite the fact that many of us have ended up living in different places as our college careers progressed, our friendships remain as strong as ever.

Educationally, the benefits are just as prominent. I had WRT 120 (an introductory writing course geared toward English Education majors) with the majority of my floor. Imagine us, an arsenal of self-motivated students that had a passion for literature and the English language, approaching the classroom together, having come directly from our like dorm, nearly blotting out the sun with our numbers. I felt bad for the few students in the class who weren't part of the learning community; their bonds weren't as strong as ours.

That semester I also had LIT 168, Conventions in Reading, a core English majors’ class, and an introduction to Lit-theory. If you've ever read theory, then you know that it takes more than one reader to fully grasp the concepts. It takes the conversation and dialogue of a group to fully grasp the concepts of theory (especially those in Falling into Theory, our first theory book...I still shudder thinking about it!). And what a coincidence, a group is exactly what I had, and it was each member in my learning community that helped me establish the knowledge I needed to delve into the complexities of that class.

I got A’s in both those classes. And, needless to say, it was thanks to my learning community peers that I was so successful my freshman year. In fact I received A’s in all my classes that year (with the exceptions of B’s in Psychology and Public Speaking). Both those classes pitted me alone (without anyone from my learning community) against the harsh forces of non-English classes (as math would test me in my sophomore year).

I still get help to this day from those great friends that I met in the learning community my freshman year, and most of my fondest memories reside there. More than benefitting me, the learning community made me who I am at West Chester.

Would I recommend that you participate in the Learning Community Program?
In case that first response didn't field it: yes! I would highly recommend anyone and everyone's participation in the learning communities. I do not doubt that the communities for other disciplines (the sciences, mathematics, foreign languages, etc.) are as good as the one that I participated in, and so it shouldn't matter that my experience was as an English major. So, if you get a call some summer day just before your freshman year, I ask that you consider my words, and consider the wonderful times ahead for you. Say yes to living in the learning communities.