Revamped Living Learning Communities focus on student interests

USI's Living Learning Communities (LLCs) are being revamped for the fall 2020 semester to better meet students' needs. "Recently, we've had eight LLCs on campus, and most of them have been based around students' majors," says Dr. Sarah Stevens, director of the Honors Program and Living Learning Communities. "The revamped LLCs focus more on student interests and thematic groupings."

Eleven LLCs will be offered to first-year students, including four new communities: E-Sports and Gaming, Outdoor Adventures, Creative Expressions and Service and Leadership. The Honors, Education, and Nursing and Health Professions LLCs remain unchanged.

"We received 31 applications on the first day the LLC application was open, which is twice the amount we had last year," says Stevens. "We hope to fill the LLCs with students and encourage a great sense of community."

Fall 2020 LLC changes

• Four new LLCs are being added: E-Sports and Gaming, Outdoor Adventures, Creative Expressions and Service and Leadership.
  
  
• The Business LLC will become the Innovation and Entrepreneurship LLC. Students of all majors will be able to join.
  
  
• The STEM LLC will be split into the Engineering LLC and the Pott College LLC (for non-education and engineering Pott College majors).
  
  
• The Exploring Majors LLC will be open to students who have declared a major but are not certain about it, as well as students who are fairly confident of their major but not sure of their specific career goals.
  
  
• The Liberal Arts LLC, which has not been filling in recent years, will be disbanded. The goal is that those students will instead join other non-major based LLCs, such as the Creative Expressions or Service and Leadership LLCs.
  
  
• The Global Communities LLC will also be disbanded. However, a Global Communities apartment building is being created. Organizers hope more domestic students will apply to the Global Communities apartment building since it is not limited to first-year students.

Fall 2020 Living Learning Community mentors

• E-Sports and Gaming: Dr. Crystal Steltenpohl, Assistant Professor of Psychology
  
  
• Education: Terri Branson, Instructor in Teacher Education
  
  
• Engineering: Dr. Susan Ely, Assistant Professor of Engineering, and Dr. Jenna Kloosterman, Assistant Professor of Engineering
  
  
• Exploring Majors: Aaron Adkins, Advisor and Coordinator of First Year Experience and Career Counseling
  
  
• Honors: Dr. Sarah Stevens, Director of the Honors Program and Living Learning Communities
  
  
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Dr. Brett Bueltel, Assistant Professor of Accounting
  
  
• Nursing and Health Professions: Beth Thompson, Director of Instructional Resources and Simulation
  
  
• Outdoor Adventures: Carrie Wright, Instructor in Geology
  
  
• Pott College: Dr. Glenna Bower, Associate Dean of the Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education and Professor of Kinesiology and Sport
  
  
• Service and Leadership: Jenn Horn, Instructor in English
  
  
• Creative Expressions: Coming Soon