Happy Spring!

In just under one month, on April 17, 2017,  Learning Community applications are due at this website! Unsure whether or not you want to apply? Read below about Theresa Mikolay’s experience in the Pharmacy House Learning Community. She may just convince you. Or, at least, warm your heart…

I have to admit; I was a bit skeptical at first.

I didn’t think I needed a Learning Community. I was pretty social in high school and I didn’t doubt my ability to make friends. I heard others around me talk about the fact that Learning Communities aren’t needed. They said, “You meet people in class regardless of whether or not you live with them!” I’m happy to inform you: They are wrong. This rumor is wrong. Learning Communities are beneficial!

I joined the Pharmacy House Learning Community as it was part of my EAP (Early Admissions Pathway for Pharmaceutical Sciences) requirement. The Pharmacy House Learning Community was the best decision I have made thus far as a college student. I don’t think I would be the same person right now without it! My whole floor is so close and we are all able to help each other whenever someone needs it. It also allowed me to make friends and form bonds a lot quicker with people who have the same aspirations as I do. There was never a time I felt “annoyed” in a Learning Community; all I experienced were the benefits.

You can’t always trust your high school self to make the best decisions regarding what you think you might want in college. I have learned so much about myself that I never would have realized. It would have been a lot harder for me to make friends in college and learn about the resources I need for my major if I did not join my Learning Community. This is because there were always various activities happening just for us: Networking with professors, meeting pharmacists, or social gatherings in the Canfield Lobby that created significant bonding time. Although I was social with the friends I had established in high school, I realized that I still am an introvert, and that my Learning Community made the development of close relationships to others in my major, my Hall Director, my Resident Advisor, and even my Academic Advisor, much easier.

Pharmacy House is a place that I truly call a home. My friends seem like family and I never really feel homesick. I’m grateful for the opportunities and memories I’ve made this year!