Month: March 2015

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.

Taking Care of (Global) Business

When my mom first tossed the learning community pamphlet my way, I sneered. My exact thoughts were “what the heck is a learning community, I don’t wanna do that?!” Fast forward another six months and I’m pulling onto campus on move-in day anticipating meeting my roommate, along with the other 35 students who chose the Global Business Learning Community.
 
My name is Molly, I’m from Michigan, and I am finishing up my first year here at The Ohio State University. I’m currently admitted into my business specialization of Operations Management, and I have every intention of eventually doubling with a degree in Logistics as well. Coming to Ohio State was one of the hardest, but best decisions I have ever made in my life. As you can imagine, I didn’t have much support from the people back home in “that state up north.” As you can also probably imagine, I didn’t exactly know anybody when I first came down to Columbus, being that this school isn’t much of a popular choice from where I’m from. Luckily for me, the Global Business Learning Community made my transition here a lot easier.
 
Since day one I have made nothing but awesome friends. My entire learning community got to move in early and have a few extra days to get to know each other before campus madness had begun. I can honestly say that we all got along really well immediately, and starting with that very first day on campus we all headed to dinner together and then to the Oval to kick around a soccer ball. Since then, not much has changed. Being surrounded be these ambitious business students all the time has really pushed me to be my absolute best. I get to go to a lot of the same classes with them, work on homework and study with them, but more importantly, seeing all the other things they’ve gotten involved with here at school has made me want to find my true place at OSU, too. Although we’re all friends and have this learning community in common, we’re also almost all involved in clubs or organizations outside of our LC. It’s an enlightening atmosphere to be around, being able to not only work together but also learn from everyone around me, too.
Out exploring. With hard hats.

Out exploring. With hard hats.

 
The Global Business Learning Community (GBLC) has done more than introduce me to friends. It has provided me with some very unique opportunities and has really helped me to shape my path for the rest of my college career and then onward. Our community brings in speakers, we go on tours, we learn about strengths and how to apply them in the real world, we get to go to Toronto, and most importantly, we have fun along the way.
 
One event that all GBLC members have had the opportunity to partake in is something called an industry clusters dinner. So, what that means is, I got to sit down with about five of my LC peers at a nice fancy dinner with both a professor in the business college and then also a business leader, in my case, one of the head executives of the franchise, Piada Italian Street Food. As we talked over a delicious (and free!) meal, he told us about what it was like expanding his company into what it is today, how he got the job he did, and what his daily routine looked like in this position. There is an industry clusters dinner every couple of months, and each dinner hosts a different business leader and college staff to talk with us about the business world. Opportunities like this, which may not sound too enticing right now, are not opportunities just anybody has the access or privilege of partaking in. Because I’ve sat down with the head of Piada, it has given me a contact for when it is time to find an internship or job. He will remember me, and we have now established professional relationship, which has given me a sort of foot in the door. Plus, I had free range to ask anything that might help me figure out what it is or isn’t I want to do in my future careers.
 
Now time for the GBLC bonus, as if everything I said wasn’t good enough already: Being a member of the Global Business Learning Community gets you direct admission into the business school. Yep, you heard me right, direct admission. It allows you to skip through the competitive application process a few years down the road, and you can start taking classes towards your major much sooner, reducing stress levels by tenfold. Not only this, but being a direct admissions student to Fisher College opens up a door to even more opportunities. The business school is always holding events and speakers and workshops to better prepare you for the real working world and to help get you involved.
 
My first year at Ohio State would not have been the amazing experience that it was without the opportunities and people the Global Business Learning Community has introduced me to. I’m way more established and focused than I ever anticipated being, and it has really just made everything here go so smoothly. I am so happy, grateful, and eager to see what other doors the Global Business Learning Community will open up for me down the road, and I would encourage any single person to join this community, or at least another that encompasses your interests. It is a decision you won’t ever regret, and I promise you that.
 
As I briefly mentioned before, GBLC is heading to Toronto, Canada next month—so STAY TUNED and GO BUCKS!

Celebrating Chinese New Year in I-House

One of the signature events for our International House Learning Community is their Chinese New Year Celebration. Today on the blog, I-House student Logan Ward shares about his experience.

Chinese New Year Celebration.

Chinese New Year Celebration.

Last month, the International House Learning Community hosted a Chinese New Year Celebration in the Morrison Tower lobby.

The International House Resident Advisers, Joseph Lee and Yilu Sun, took a group of nearly 20 residents  – both international and native – to Saraga Market at 1:00 pm in order to purchase some the necessities for the party. Items that the group set out to buy included hot pot (a traditional Chinese meal form) ingredients such as lamb, tofu, vermicelli noodles and Chinese cabbage along with Chinese dumpling ingredients like celery and ground pork. Residents also had the chance to do some shopping of their own and bought many Asian products such as seaweed and rice cakes.

After the group returned, the RAs set out to recruit more I-House residents to decorate the lobby for the evening event. The decoration team decorated the lobby in total red and gold – the traditional Chinese New Year colors – with lanterns, streamers and other decorative items.

This is when I got involved with the celebration. I helped press the dumpling fillings together in a bowl (for a reason that I will explain later) and begin bubble tea – commonly known as boba – preparation.  I, along with some other residents, set out the dumpling fillings on the tables so that participants could work on making their dumplings. This was an interesting task for most of the participants, because many had never even eaten Chinese dumplings let alone made some themselves! I got to fold a few in order to learn how, but had to go back to the kitchen so that we could start boiling them.

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One by one the groups handed in their dumplings for boiling. While this was going on some other residents started cooking the hot pot – which was also a big hit among the non-international students. I also boiled the tapioca pearls and water for bubble tea. We prepared two kinds of tea – black and green. Bubble tea is my specialty, so I really enjoyed getting to share that with the residents at the event.

I have to admit that cooking in the kitchen for the event was quite stressful, because everyone was doing so many different things all at once; however, I thoroughly enjoyed being apart of the event and I know everyone who came did too. Afterwards, a lot of the residents stayed in the lobby and played a fun Chinese game called Mahjong (one of my favorite games) and the laughs and conversation from the party continued.

This event is one of the main reasons I love being a part of the International House Learning Community: sharing a culture and learning culture are my two favorite things to do. I love the I-House Community and am so glad I decided to get involved.

What is a Learning Community? And Why Should I Care?

Our SUSTAINS Learning Community.

Our SUSTAINS Learning Community.

Over here in Residence Life, we are in the midst of learning community recruitment season. Over 200 upperclassmen applied to be part of learning communities next year and we just hosted 200 admitted students who wanted to learn more about our learning communities. Definitely an exciting time of year for us!

As we have talked with current and prospective students, we have got a lot of questions about what a learning community exactly is. GREAT QUESTION!

A learning community is a group of students who live together on a residence hall floor or floors (i.e. currently, the 9th and 10th Floors of Siebert Hall host the First-Year Collegian Learning Community). All of our learning communities at OSU revolve around academic departments or majors (Engineering House, Future Health Professionals) or themes/interests (Visual and Performing Arts, International House). Our learning communities typically consist of 30-90 students.

Residence Life staff and our partners from academic departments provide programs and other opportunities for students centered around the learning community, and these often happen in the residence hall setting. These opportunities could be anything from dinners with faculty members to a trip to New York City to a service project with the Ronald McDonald House. Students in learning communities have the opportunity to make the experience their own, and we find many of our students become super engaged in their communities. The student posts’ on this blog highlight many of these opportunities.

Ok, I know you are knowing thinking, “But Lisa, why should we care?”. You should care for so many reasons! First and foremost, our learning communities are a great way for students to have a community the moment they step on campus. The people you live with will have the same major or interest as you, and you immediately have a connection. We also find that students in our learning communities are more successful in adjusting to college, find a stronger connection to Ohio State and become more involved, and they have higher GPA’s than their peers.

We say this all the time to students and parents, but learning communities are a GREAT way to make this large university your own little community. We are proud of these communities and work hard to make sure all students have a great experience in them. If you have further questions, please check out or website or email us at reslearn@osu.edu. We love hearing from you!