Living and Learning On a New Level

by Katie McKay

On a brisk October morning the Journalism University 101 class stands outside the WLTX television studio chatting, waiting. They shuffle their feet around the building as Rich O’Dell, president and general manager, shows them the recording studio, master controls, and marketing and advertising departments. You can see they are excited by the way they whisper to each other as they move from room to room. You can tell they really want to be there by the questions they ask, even if none of them wants to be the one to show it. They are, after all, first-semester freshmen.

Fifteen of the 22 students in this group are part of the new Journalism Living and Learning Community, housed on the ninth floor of Columbia Hall. All 15 are journalism majors. Living and learning communities are built on the premise that students who live and take classes together, share common interests and have common goals will perform better and be more engaged and involved within their areas of interest.

Stephanie Warren is the class mentor and she agrees. “They are more bonded than your average U101 class. They study together and are in many of the same general education classes,” says the second-year Master of Mass Communication student. She says, “I love the J-school, and having earned my undergraduate degree here in public relations, I know I have something to share. I want to make sure these students can get as much as they can out of the major and the school by giving them a head start in their U101 class.”

Visual communications freshman Chris Brown says, “I think the stuff we do in class is helpful. It’s interesting information we wouldn’t learn anywhere else. They relate everything back to journalism, which is really cool.”

Instead of learning things such as the shuttle system on campus, these students are discovering what the field of journalism holds for them. They visit television stations and newspapers, and they hear student panels on campus organizations. “We make everything work for their benefit and show them what they need to be successful journalism majors,” Warren says.

 “We hope to see the LLC fill up an entire floor and possibly become available to upper-class students,” says Lauren Welch, the LLC liaison and U101 teacher. She agrees with Warren’s observations about the students being close, saying these students have a sense of belonging with others with shared interests.           

The LLC and the U101 class will continue to hone in on what our incoming students need and want from their new environment as journalism majors and future journalism professionals.