Residence Life

So You Want To Be a Leader

While many of our learning communities at Ohio State are focused on academic or career interests, we sometimes like to think outside of the box with our “themed” learning communities. These learning communities might be based on personal interests or passion areas of students. One such learning community is First Year Collegian. As you might have guessed (hopefully), this community is for first-year students who are interested in getting involved at Ohio State from the time their bright-eyed selves get to campus in August.

Tara is one of the outstanding members from First Year Collegian. She is a member of the Learning Community Council and will be a Resident Assistant with us next year. Tara has taken advantage of everything First Year Collegian has to offer from the moment her spunky self got to Siebert Hall in August. Read below to hear how being a member of the learning community has impacted her first year at OSU.

FYC Kick-Off Event at Whetstone Park of Roses.

FYC Kick-Off Event at Whetstone Park of Roses.

Personal growth, leadership, and service are three pillars that I hold myself accountable to everyday here at Ohio State. These three pillars define not only who I am, but who all Buckeyes are. The First Year Collegian Learning Community assisted me to strengthen these pillars in my life through service projects, conferences, and events. I recommend this community to every incoming freshmen because it helped me find a niche on this great campus with surplus friends and endless opportunities, while teaching me strengths as a leader.

Throughout my experience in the First Year Collegian Learning Community, I was able to enhance many of my leadership characteristics, as well as discover others that I wasn’t aware I possessed. With the assistance of exciting activities, I was able to learn about myself. Some of the activities included a day spent at Rose Gardens, playing kickball and bonding with other leaders while discussing traits they found important in order to be perceived as a successful leader. Another experience was spent at the Ohio State Union in a leadership conference where I was able to hear leaders throughout the campus speak about various techniques and methods to enhance your leadership abilities while still bonding with my peers and hearing their perspectives on the speakers. However, the most memorable event for me was an event called Buckeyes Got Your Back, where all the members of the First Year Collegian Learning Community were able to learn how to address everyday situations that happened throughout our lives. I thoroughly enjoyed this seminar because of the emphasis it held on striving to be a leader everyday and not only striving to be a leader when you are at club meetings, an internship, or an intramural sport. Personally, I believe this event wrapped up the ideas of leadership and reminded everyone how important their everyday behavior was, and the impact we are all able to make on our surrounding peers. I left the seminar with a little more motivation to help make a difference not only campus, but wherever I choose to go.

The application deadline for First Year Collegian is May 4, 2015. You can apply to be a member of this community at go.osu.edu/learningcommunities.

Wise Words From a SLIC’ster

The renewal season for housing at Ohio State is upon us. Did you know you could participate in a learning community during your second-year as well?!?!?

One of the premier learning community options for second-year students is the Sophomore Learning and Involvement Community. The community is housed in the lovely Residence on 10th, and focuses on leadership, service and career/major development for second-year students.

This year, the LC is focused on The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Students received the book when they came to campus in the fall, and have had the opportunity to listen to “Last Lecture’s” from various faculty and staff across the university. Below, one SLIC’ster, Kush Doshi, shares his experience with The Last Lecture and SLIC.

The way the Sophomore Living and Involvement Community has shaped my ideas and thoughts as a person has been phenomenal. The Last Lecture aspect in the learning community has changed my life, believe it or not, and I am certainly not exaggerating the truth. The Last Lecture (perhaps the most important one that shaped the way I thought or will think throughout the rest of college) was when Dr. J came to speak. Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston is the Vice President of Student Life, and is thoroughly active on campus and she came to speak about what her last lecture in life to her students would be. Dr. J spoke about perhaps the most important characteristic in life, especially now that college is playing a role in our lives…finding your true passion. She talked about how sometimes, students come to college studying things they are perhaps pushed to do rather than things they actually want to study. These students may or may not succeed academically, but they will certainly will not be happy. If you find your true passion, you can be truly happy.

I soaked the words in initially, not giving it much thought. However, I began to question whether I was doing my major, Neuroscience, because my parents wanted me to do it or because I wanted to do it. The deciding factor came when Dr. J made us do a quick exercise. She told us to close our eyes and think about what makes each of us happy. I closed my eyes and I thought and I thought and I thought. Not a single subject or matter about neuroscience popped into my head. What I thought about were two words: people and medicine. I wanted to pursue medicine, but I wanted to work with and study people. I opened my eyes. So, why was I doing neuroscience? She asked in a soft voice “What did you guys see?” A girl to my right answered: “Helping people makes me happy so I’m doing Public Health. A boy to my left answered: “Finding a cure to a disease makes me happy so I’m majoring in biology.” I couldn’t answer the question because what made me happy couldn’t be defined by my major.

SLIC Last Lecture_Dr J 2

 

Throughout the rest of the lecture I was stunned. I had an epiphany in this Last Lecture, the one that would change the course of my life. Eventually, I would talk to Dr. J again and she would steer me in the right direction. Eventually I changed my major to Public Health and I couldn’t be happier. However, would I have ever changed my major if there wasn’t this Last Lecture? Perhaps not, but it’s thanks to SLIC that I have found a new passion. My story is just one of many. However, these experiences that SLIC provides to students are invaluable and I would highly recommend for every student to attend them. For me, just going to one of these events changed my major, imagine what this experience could do for others.

Let’s Talk About Learning Communities

In a learning community (we affectionately call them LC’s), students live together on a residence hall floor and are grouped together based upon a common major, interest (art, leadership, etc) or theme. In many of our learning communities, students take a class together, and faculty are often in the residence hall environment engaging with students.

A main reason learning communities are so great at Ohio State is because you have a community as soon as you step on campus. You are surrounded by people who have something in common with you, which saves the awkward “what do you like?” conversations. We also have found that students in our LC’s have a higher GPA than their peers, feel more connected to the university, and are better able to balance their academic/personal lives at Ohio State. Who wouldn’t want all of that?!?!

SLIC 14-15_2

Don’t they look like a great group?

There are a multitude of great things happening in learning communities at Ohio State. This blog will highlight many of these opportunities and experiences, coming directly from the students in the LC’s. We are proud of our learning communities in Residence Life, and we know sharing is caring. This blog will serve as our way to share.