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Living Learning Communities (LLCs) have been gaining popularity on University campuses over the last 20 years. While I did not have the option to fully join a Living Learning Community, my residence hall, Cawthon, is made up of roughly 80% LLC residents (University Housing). There are two LLCs housed in Cawthon: Music and Women in Math, Science and Engineering (WIMSE). Even living in the non-LLC portion of Cawthon, one can be fully immersed into the Living Learning Community lifestyle. My friends all belong to LLCs, I’ve sat in on colloquiums and seen how a community can be developed from an LLC. Being surrounded by two LLCs has prompted me to continue researching the formation, success and the academic and social impact that a Living Learning Community has on a student. In this essay, I will examine if LLC students are more academically and socially successful than their non-LLC counterparts and ask why? Through much research, and sitting down for an interview with Dr. William Parker, the exploratory-LLC coordinator for Bryan Hall, I have learned an ample amount of information that proves why LLCs are continually successful.

The Academics

Living Learning Communities continue to prosper each year as the program grows nationally. The purpose of LLCs is to promote learning with others who have similar interests or career paths, form a community where everyone can rely on one another academically. I have read several studies throughout the course of my preliminary research from all over the country and each have concluded for several reasons students excel in their studies when belonging to a Living Learning Community.

A study conducted at Texas A&M studied the thinking styles of students when observing a leadership-based LLC. They were given surveys before and after their first year in the program. The study was to compare systemic and hierarchical thinking in terms of leadership. Author Allison Dunn notes that by “focusing on active learning rather than passive, LLCs are able to create a sense of community within the participants and between the program participants and their faculty members, thus providing a positive environment for improved educational outcomes,” (Dunn et al. 152). With this in mind it is seen through the research of her and her colleagues that students actually grew as systemic thinkers. Meaning, they believed in treating leadership as something that should happen with people sharing power and leadership roles rather than having one be the sole leader and direct those under him/her.