UConn Business Connections Learning Community

Learning Community Mentors

Hey there! Sarah again.

One of your many UConn housing options that you have as a freshman is to live in a learning community. 40% of all incoming UConn freshman are involved with learning communities. You can live in either an interest based or major based learning community. There are options like: Leadership House, Eco House, Business Connections House, and Nursing House. We offer 17 learning communities— 8 interest based, and 9 major based. Learning Communities are really great—especially as a freshman because you know before you even get here that you have at least one thing in common with everyone with whom you are living!

I am in the School of Business as a Finance major with a concentration in Health Care Management and also part of the Business Connections Learning Community (BCLC) – where I lived my freshman year and will be doing it for another year starting in the fall. It is located in the southern part of campus in the Alumni Quadrangle – L. Richard Belden Hall.

When it first started only three floors were part of the BCLC, this past year there were four floors, and for this upcoming year we are going to take up most of the building! As a business major you don’t start to take most of your business classes until you are of junior standing. By being in the BCLC it gave many opportunities to be active in the business school that I would not have been able to do if I wasn’t part of the group. We had speakers come like Peter Karl who is the President and CEO of ECHN (Eastern Connecticut Healthcare Network), events held like an etiquette event, and field trips to places such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and to Bob’s Discount Furniture. They also do an alternative spring break trip every year; last year they went to the Czech Republic and Germany and next year they will be going to China! One of the best parts is that they are getting one college credit for going—pretty cool to go away on spring break and get class credit isn’t it?

One of the aspects that I enjoy most about living in the Business Connections Learning Community is that everyone that I am living with is taking the same classes as me. This makes it really easy to ask someone a questions about course work or group projects. Also, when I have a test-  so does everyone else. That means there is a lot less temptation to do other things except study because everyone around me is studying as well.

Tyler and I in the Student Union!

I have made some of my best friends through my learning community. I met my last year’s roommate, Anna, on the learning community Facebook page and we decided to live together for our freshman year. We are great friends and actually won best roommates for our dorm! Anna and I went to Washington, D.C. for spring break together this year as well. We make daily trips down to Whitney Dining Hall which is the Natural Roots Dining Hall located in East Campus. I can’t wait until school starts so we can see each other more again. I also have another great friend that I met in my learning community Tyler. We lived across the hall from each other last year, and will again this year because we both stayed in the same rooms. We are also both tour guides here at the Lodewick Visitors Center. The two of us recently got back from a trip that we took together to his hometown in Houlton, Maine. It is all the way up by the Canadian border, only about seven and a half hours away. We had a great time and are looking to do another road trip together before the summer is over.

Learning Communities are a great way to get involved at UConn as soon as you get here. It definitely helped me have an awesome freshman experience and I recommend them for all incoming freshman. That’s all for now!