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Kirsten – EDGE

April 15, 2013 by teraz 1 Comment

I am Kirsten. They classify me as a freshman, whatever that means, and tell me that I am a member of the residential college, EDGE. What does this mean? It means I live with one of my professors and the members of my class and my other professors come to my dorm for class.

My thinking face.

Sounds cool right?

It totally is when your alarm clock didn’t go off and you have two minutes to get to class. Running down the stairs in my pajamas and making it to class on time feels like an epic win.

I am just about to finish my first year of college. Exciting right? Only somewhat when you know, like I do, that you have about eight more years to go. That doctorate seems a long way off right now, but baby steps are what will get me there. These baby steps don’t feel very baby at the time. They are long hard weeks of long hard essays.

How do you get through these torturous essays?

The answer is something I never would have come up with without the wonderful classroom and Learning Assistants (known as LA’s, they have a fancy name, but they are really just tutors) in my residential college. The classroom isn’t the most prestigious. To be honest it is a long rectangle that if you are sitting in the back you might think your professor is about a mile away.

The LAs seemed a little scary and unapproachable for the first few weeks, but after you watch your “superiors” wander to the kitchen in their pajamas a few times the new wears off.

SO back onto topic, how I learned to write an essay. I was sitting on top of one of the desks in the classroom, because I am a rebel. I was complaining, like I always seem to be doing, about how I had no idea where to start on my essay.

A guy who has now become a friend of mine stood up and walked to the white board. “To write an essay you begin with B.S., then you lie, then you B.S. some more. After that you support your B.S. and lies with some facts and finish it up with some more B.S. And you get an A,” As he said this he wrote on the board, which I photographed.

Essays 101.

While this is not a good method for actually writing essays it was very humorous. This laughable concept about lying got me writing. This is how I found the true way to write an essay, actually sit down and put words onto the paper, even if they are terrible lies. Because your sloppy words can be edited by your LAs, but an empty page cannot.

Without this humor and help I am not sure if I would have ever started that essay. I have to say that I love all the help and humor that comes from living in EDGE and using the classroom to study. Bouncing ideas off of others is, in my opinion, the best way to keep good insight and good grades.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: arkansas, college, community, education, global, higher education, learning, living, residential colleges, UCA, university, university of central arkansas

Chloe – Hughes

April 15, 2013 by teraz 1 Comment

My name is Chloe. I am a current student at UCA and will soon finish my freshman year. I look forward to what my future has in store for me. The sky is the limit.

Being involved in the Hughes Residential College program has definitely made transitioning from high school to college much easier for me. I was doubtful of my ability to succeed without the help my family being close and without going to the same school as my twin sister.

Thankfully, there are advocates and learning assistants within the residential colleges that are there to help you be your best and get the best grade that you can in all of your classes.

It is thanks to the Advocates and the Learning Assistants that I am about to end my freshman year with a GPA of a 4.0. I could never have done it without them and I am thankful for them everyday.

The tutoring available through the residential college system is in place to allow students to access resources to help them grow and transition within college. If you ever encounter something that you don’t know how to handle or don’t understand the advocates and Learning Assistants can find the answers and provide the help that you need.

You cannot fail with so many people willing to help; all you have to do is put in the effort and things will fall into place. Residential colleges are all about student success on a personal level.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: arkansas, college, community, education, higher education, leaders, leadership, learning, living, residential colleges, UCA, university, university of central arkansas

Jackson – EPIC

April 15, 2013 by teraz Leave a Comment

Bio

My name is Jackson Bagby. I am a Junior Pre-Medical Biology Student. I have been a resident of both STEM and EPIC and was a mentor during my second year living in STEM. I am also highly involved in undergraduate research on cancer, part of several RSOs (Registered Student Organizations), active in student ministry, and am a member of Beta Upsilon Chi, one of the many fraternities on campus.

Academics

When looking at UCA’s Residential Colleges, it is easy to see that there are a ton of great opportunities with all kinds of benefits. One of the most heavily favored of these benefits by the students who choose to join a Residential College is the ability to take classes in the residential hall.

This means that you can essentially roll out of bed and walk to one or more of your classes without ever leaving the building! I took both General Education (such as Philosophy and Music Appreciation) and Biology Major-specific classes (such as Chemistry and Biology) in STEM as a freshman and a Sophomore.

Academic Support

From an educational standpoint, Residential Colleges work to facilitate students’ academic endeavors in many ways. In UCA’s Residential Colleges, Mentors/Academic Advocates are hired and trained to help students with schoolwork and class projects. While they do not do the work for the students, they are available as tutors for many GenEd and major-specific classes.

One of the great things about these advocates is that if they are unsure how to help the student themselves, they are able to network and get the student plugged into a tutor who can help. These mentors are a HUGE asset to students’ academic success and UCA does a phenomenal job with choosing and training them!

Community Engagement

Residential Colleges are not all work and no play, though! There are always opportunities to get involved within the community, and sometimes earn a little money on the side! In the EPIC Residential College, students are encouraged to participate in projects that are designed to give them experience in critical thinking regarding business and leadership ideas.

This past year, students worked with a local multi-million dollar company to design and develop mobile applications. In another project, students were able to strategize plans for recruiting students to join UCA and develop ways to keep them in school to finish a degree. This project was done in cooperation with UCA’s President and Provost, both of whom genuinely care about each and every student. These projects were turned into competitions and winners received gift cards as prizes!

UCA’s Residential Colleges are truly designed with us students in mind. I have completely enjoyed my three years’ experience as a student and the benefits seem to never end. I STRONGLY encourage that you look into applying for one of the Residential Colleges here, so that you too can have an amazing college experience!!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: arkansas, college, community, entrepreneurship, learning, living, residential colleges, start up, UCA, university, university of central arkansas

Carolynne – STARS

April 15, 2013 by teraz Leave a Comment

As a sophomore at UCA and an advocate in one of the Residential Colleges I have seen first hand on two different sides the importance of any students academic career. Last year I lived in one of the residential colleges and this year I am the advocate there. There are so many positive sides to living in one.

One of the biggest ideas I love about it from my experience is the fact of 8am classes. Who doesn’t like 8am classes? I know I sure don’t! After staying up all night working on projects or even hanging out (because you can go ahead and admit it, you probably will stay up till late hours of the night just hanging out), early classes are a headache that no one wants. But you want to know something that could be some good news? Well, some good news for you is that in residential colleges is the idea of classes in your dorm. All you have to do is wake up, walk down stairs/down the hall and go to class. The more rest and still make it to class the better!

Music Appreciation with STARS Resident Master Dr. Kondwani Phwandaphwanda in the Short/Denney classroom.

Something else, from my viewings of having class inside the dorm is the idea of relationships with your classmates. It is always good to know a few other students in your class for emergency cases and when you live in a Residential College you should know almost everyone in there with you. It is easier contact because some classmates will be right down the hall from you.

The academic side of Residential Colleges is so important. In these environments, your academic success is the main priority. There are different ones with different focuses (such as Hughes, which focuses on leadership, EPIC focuses on entrepreneurship, STARS RC lives the arts, and many more).

Music Appreciation in STARS Residential College

The pictures I took are of one of the classes offered in our Residential College, Music Appreciation, which is tough by our Resident Master. Today the discussion was over different types of instruments and where they were founded. Dr. K showed diferent examples or the students to be able to get a visual picture of the instrument. In this class you learn the history of instruments and music and you also get the opportunity to see an opera and a music group that comes to perform on campus. This is a very education class and very fitting for STARS Residential College.

-Carolynne

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: arkansas, arts, college, community, learning, living, music, residential colleges, UCA, university, university of central arkansas

Laney – STEM

April 15, 2013 by teraz 5 Comments

My first day as a mentor! Move-In Day 2011.

So, first things first: My name is Laney and I am a Senior Chemistry major at UCA. I have been living in a Residential College for nearly three years and I have been a Mentor/Advocate for the past two years. As a Mentor/Advocate I have been very involved in outreach activities as well as a focus within the college to help incoming freshmen grow and learn and have the best possible experience that they can have.

So, I’ve been living in STEM for nearly three years now. STEM has been an actual entity on the UCA campus for…nearly three years now. I’d say we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well and that I probably know just as much or more about STEM than anyone else you might ask. Hopefully I can find a way to sufficiently express to you how AWESOME STEM and other Residential Colleges are as well as convince you that they could be a fantastic fit for you as well. I mean, VERY FEW juniors and seniors actually live on campus. Sure, I am a little different from most, but also STEM is a pretty awesome place that I’m sure you could grow to love as well.

Alright, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Laney, what the heck is STEM?!?!?!’ I will now address this question. Our official name is STEM Residential College. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. So, STEM is a place to live that hosts various math and science related outreach programs and that focuses on people having these majors. However, you could simply be interested in one of these things while being any other random major and we’d still welcome you in. STEM is a family. And, if you ask me, we’re the best family around. But, if you are interested I would be happy to tell you about all of the other Residential College options that UCA has to offer.

Okay. I’m not going to sugar coat this. College isn’t easy. I’m sure you’ve heard this. But I made all A’s in high school without really trying and it just doesn’t work that way here. HOWEVER, you can make choices that make things easier and less stressful for you here. Like…

Live in a Residential College. Period.

Residential Colleges were set up so that success and happiness are closer to your reach.

1) You have classes IN THE BUILDING. Some days you wake up and you don’t want to go to class. Or maybe you hit snooze a few too many times. It makes it very hard to convince yourself that it’s too hard/not worth going to class when it’s downstairs and it’s with people you see every day.

2) Your study groups will practically make themselves. When your classmates live next door and you see them all the time and you walk back from class with them…study groups are magically and simplistically made, which brings me to…

Ssshhhh!

3) NERD NODES! Once your magical study group has been made, you can mosey on over to one of the two nerd nodes that are on your floor. Nerd nodes are rooms equipped with white boards, markers, comfy couches/chairs as well as tables and normal chairs. I’ve spent a lot of late nights studying with friends in those nerd nodes. And, they’re nice and quiet and secluded [unlike the library, but don’t tell anyone I told you that]. But what happens when your study group gets stuck and it’s nine o’clock and you’d really like some help before tomorrow morning, when your professor might eventually email you back?

4) Advocates to the rescue! We’re in the classroom most nights, just sitting here waiting for you to come down and ask for help (which is actually what I’m doing right now). And there is a pretty good chance that one of us has had the same class and survived. And we’d love to help you. [The classroom is also a good quiet place to study.]

But why should you care about these things?

You only get these perks if you live in a Residential College.
They are crazy beneficial to your academic success. (Trust me. I know. I’ve been there.)
Because joining a Residential College was the best choice I’ve made since deciding to come to UCA. And I want you, whoever you are, to enjoy all of the amazing things that come with joining a Residential College as well.

So, if this intrigues you and/or you’re thinking Residential Colleges sound like a good idea…then you should definitely keep your eyes peeled for my next post, where you can learn more about STEM and other Residential Colleges! Thanks for reading!!!

Love,

Laney

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: arkansas, college, engineering, math, residential colleges, science, technology, UCA, university, university of central arkansas