Brady – STARS (Part 5)

College is a lot different than high school and when you first arrive here it can be rather overwhelming, but UCA has made sure that your transition can be as smooth as possible. With the Residential College system they have set up here, you’re put in an environment you’re comfortable in and that allows you to make friends with similar interests as you more quickly than a standard dorm would. A Residential College also helps facilitate you academically as well with the use of an in-dorm classroom and advocates that live with you in the dorm for the sole purpose to help with your homework and any problems you are having in your classes.

I mentioned several times throughout my previous posts about the diversity of residents we have here and their wide verity of interests. True, all of us that live here in the STARS RC have some sort of connection to the arts but we are all much more than that, we have a wide verity of academic interests as well. It’s with these resources at hand, the classroom, and the variety of academic interests of my fellow residents, that has put my scholarly development front and center here at UCA.

In one of my past posts I talked about how I often find myself talking to my friends Tyler and Chris in our resident classroom about a wide variety of topics. By doing this I am helping myself become better versed in a broad array of subjects that I can carry over academically and make my college experience more fulfilling.

College is a place to learn and discover ideas you hadn’t thought of before and to become a sort of “Renaissance Man” – this is a person who has knowledge in a wide verity of subjects and is as worldly oriented in thought as possible, a true scholar.

Our in-dorm classroom is a powerful tool that helps your scholarly development. Not only does this prevent you from having to walk all the way across campus to your class but it also prevents the awkward silences that one often faces in a class where you know nobody in it. In our classroom everybody knows everybody and we all live under the same roof so our opportunity to help each other is much higher. This benefits everyone as a whole and greatly increases your chance of being academically successful in college.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a scholar is defined as “A person who has done advanced study in a special field or a learned person.” So really just by attending college you can be considered a scholar and because of this UCA has created a system to help further your scholarly pursuits. The Residential College system provides so many resources, both intentional and non-intentional, that help put your scholarly development front and center so when you enter the world you will have the skills necessary to succeed.