“Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.” -Abraham Lincoln (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure)
What you find in a residential college is unique and you will never experience anything else like it. Residential Colleges at UCA take the standard model of a dorm room and tailor it to your fields of interest allowing a more communal feel. Every resident has a different background but they are there for the same reason, to collaborate and further pursue their interests, be it the arts, the sciences, global awareness, and leadership. Not only do you form communities of like minds but within Residential Colleges you also for academic communities to help further your education as well.
Like I stated before, every resident comes from a different background with different specialties academically-wise and, with the tight knit community that develops through our common interests, we begin to rely on each other so we can succeed collectively. For example, I have a friend Tyler who is a creative writing major with a minor in philosophy and I often find myself coming to him for help with my philosophy class and discuss philosophical and moral issues. My suitemate, Daniel, is a marketing major but loves politics; there’s hardly even a day when we don’t find ourselves talking about past and present politics along with coming up with hilarious and creative slogans, names, and sayings for events that happen in our daily life. For me though, I’m the resident “techy,” that means whenever someone has a problem with their computer or any electronic device, I’m the one they come to. It’s also the same for math; it’s no surprise I love math and a lot of the time I’m called upon to help somebody with their college algebra homework.
Our academic community is only as strong as the recourses we have at our disposal and, within residential colleges, we have many recourses available to us to succeed academically. With the addition of an in-dorm classroom and a designated space for working on homework and studying, our community is reinforced with the tools necessary to go above and beyond in our academics. Almost every day in our writing class in our dorm classroom I find myself staying behind to talk with my friends and fellow students about a wide variety of academic topics such as music theory, philosophy, media and the entertainment industry, and of course the reason I’m that class, writing. Just off our lobby is our quiet lounge, this area is designated for studying and doing homework. It seems just about every day I see somebody occupying the room, reading a book or writing a paper on their laptop, and I occasionally see groups of students in there studying or collaborating on a class project.
A residential college brings together students from many different backgrounds but with a common goal, to let those with similar interests collaborate and make the collegiate experience better. We are so much more than a group of like-minded students with common interests; we are college students trying to further our education, that’s where the academic community that is created by being in a residential college comes in to play. Our wide variety of academic interest helps us both bond with each other and make stronger connections. After all, college is about networking and collaboration; as we enter the real world, the academic communities we form in residential colleges gives us a one-up on everyone else.
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