BContact Info
Melissa Pena
Phone: 956.882.8253
Email: learning.community@utb.edu
Frequently Asked Questions
> What is a Learning Community?
> Why Join a Learning Community?
Why Join the Learning Communities?
>
You interact more closely with professors and classmates,
> You learn, study, and grow as part of a small, intentional community within UTB/TSC,
> Your courses are pre-selected and integrated across disciplines and relate to a common theme,
> You give back to the greater Rio Grande Valley through service learning projects.
Fall 2007 Learning Community theme is Health and Healing Along the Border. Students who complete the on-line application by: “ongoing”, have an opportunity to become part of an exciting, new community on the UTB/TSC campus.
Why the “Health and Healing Along the border” theme?
The Rio Grande Valley has staggering rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease coupled with a significant shortage of health care and health insurance.
To address these health disparities in our border communities, more attention must be paid to health promotion and disease prevention in culturally sensitive ways.
Learning how to improve health and healing—both traditional and nontraditional—prepares you for a long, healthy academic career and life.
All Learning Community members enroll in specific courses set aside just for community members. These courses are part of UTB/TSC required core curriculum and include, for Fall 2007, the following:
- United States History to 1877
- Concepts of Fitness
- Physical Conditioning
- Composition 1
- Applied Communication.
Classes meet in the afternoons, Monday through Friday, beginning at noon.
The community has an hour also set aside for you to hear guest speakers, work on projects, and hang out with new friends!
A Learning Community is a collection of students, faculty, and professional staff members who work together to increase your success in college.
You can develop student leadership and teamwork skills, improve your critical thinking and writing skills, and have fun in and out of the classroom with your new community friends!