Beyond Retention

Learning Communities Research and Practice

Volume 1 | Issue 2 Article 4

6-5-2013

Beyond Improved Retention: Building Value-Added Success on a Broad FoundationRichard D. GebauerCabrini College, [email protected]

Nancy L. WattersonCabrini College, [email protected]

Eric MalmCabrini College, [email protected]

Michelle L. Filling-BrownCabrini College, [email protected]

John W. CordesCabrini College, [email protected]

Authors retain copyright of their material under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 3.0 License.

Recommended CitationGebauer, R. D. , Watterson, N. L. , Malm, E. , Filling-Brown, M. L. , Cordes, J. W. (2013). Beyond Improved Retention: Building Value-Added Success on a Broad Foundation. Learning Communities Research and Practice, 1(2), Article 4.Available at: http://washingtoncenter.evergreen.edu/lcrpjournal/vol1/iss2/4

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Beyond Improved Retention: Building Value-Added Success on a BroadFoundation

AbstractMany have documented the positive benefits of Living and Learning Communities (LLCs), but creating anenvironment that truly integrates living and learning across campus can be a challenge. In this paper wechronicle an LLC program that was intentionally built upon a broad foundation. By including faculty, staff,and student leader representation from across the campus - from admissions and academic affairs to studentengagement, residence life, and enrollment management - Cabrini College has created a program that hasgone beyond the numerical targets of increased retention and increased academic success. We believe theprogram has created transformational experiences for many student participants, and that these experiencesare the result of the LLC’s integrated design. After providing a history of the program and its uniqueinstitutional structure, and offering suggestions for other institutions designing LLCs, we present bothquantitative and qualitative measures of success.

Richard D. Gebauer is the Director of the First-Year Experience at Cabrini College in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

Nancy L. Watterson is an Associate Professor, Social Justice, at Cabrini College.

Eric Malm is an Associate Professor of Economics and Business at Cabrini College.

Michelle Filling-Brown is an Assistant Professor of English at Cabrini College.

John W. Cordes is an Associate Professor in Communication at Cabrini College.

Keywordsliving-learning communities, retention, academic success, first-year experience

Article is available in Learning Communities Research and Practice: http://washingtoncenter.evergreen.edu/lcrpjournal/vol1/iss2/4


Introduction

Beyond improving retention, beyond the reports from numbers and statistics, what are the value-added successes a Living and Learning Community (LLC) program can offer to its students—and what strategies can help set them in place? A closer look at one effective program addresses just these questions. Cabrini College’s LLC program provides incoming, first-year students the opportunity to apply into one of seven interdisciplinary living and learning communities, each with its own thematic culture. Though these LLCs have contributed to higher fall-to-fall retention rates, a broader and deeper story can be told by individual student successes observed across campus and over time. The impact felt by students via their LLC experience leads to increased levels of comfort approaching and working with faculty, staff, and administrators—these relational ties point to the LLCs’ wider effects. High expectations set by LLC faculty contribute significantly to students’ academic progress. At the same time, students are consistently meeting the challenges faculty and staff set to embrace diversity and embody inclusivity—all in the process of building community. Each of these value-added benefits of the LLC experience contribute to individual growth; furthermore, the benefits accrue as students’ confidence rises and they seek out new opportunities and new communities beyond the first-year, ultimately showcasing their leadership skills.

While the results of any program come from the energy and dedication of the faculty, staff, and students who participate in it, we assert that the success of our program would not be possible without the mutual, intentional, and ongoing efforts of a broad, cross-campus collaboration, the foundation upon which our effective LLC program has been built. We sketch here a short history of Cabrini’s LLC program and then turn to the institutional structures we created—specifically, the promotion of a Director of the First-Year Experience responsible for the coordination of the college’s Living and Learning Community program and the development of a Living and Learning Community Council—to unite faculty, staff and students to share their energy, vision, and enthusiastic engagement. While providing key indicators of success that document how the program has resulted in increased retention and academic success, we also highlight a student story and faculty reflection that illustrate growth and success not easily captured in numerical measures. These stories of individuals’ growth illustrate the real success of the program.

A History of LLCs at Cabrini: Building a Cross-Campus Foundation

Over the past six years, Cabrini College’s Living and Learning Community

(LLC) program has grown markedly: in the number of communities offered, the

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Gebauer et al.: Beyond Improved Retention

number of first-year students applying to and enrolling in LLCs, and the number of faculty teaching within these communities. Building this LLC program has become a cross-campus effort noteworthy for its reliance on both full and part-time faculty as well as key staff and administrators from the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership, Enrollment Management, the Admissions Office, Marketing and Communication, the Office of the First-Year Experience, and Residence Life. A seamless marketing and communication plan and a quick and easy application process have led to an increased number of student applicants. Dedicated faculty and staff and several student leadership roles within the LLC structure—including Resident Assistants, Master Learners, Orientation Leaders, Peer Mentors, and Classroom Coaches—have contributed markedly both to campus-specific successes (from deep learning outcomes to strong retention numbers for Cabrini College’s LLC students) and to external successes: Cabrini College has hosted visits from campuses across the region and nation.

In the fall of 2007 Cabrini College, via funding from a Title III Grant, launched its first official LLC, Voices of Justice (VOJ), an initiative that began as a direct effort to increase fall-to-fall, first-year retention. This LLC housed 21 students in a first-year residence hall and engaged these students in a linked curriculum that spanned five courses across the entire year. In six years, Cabrini College’s LLC program has expanded to seven LLCs, each with a different thematic culture, that house approximately 125 of our first-year students (one-third of our incoming class); each offers an integrative curriculum spanning at least four courses.

Director’s Role in Creating Connections: Marketing and Recruitment

At the start of the third year of the Title III Grant, as the LLC program slowly grew, the college recognized the need to create a director position to oversee the initiative. This role has proved to be a lynchpin for the program’s integration and growth. The Director of the First-Year Experience oversees the LLC Program and worked diligently to establish a plan for marketing and communication—a collaboration that brought together the areas of Enrollment Management, Admissions, Marketing and Communications, and the Office of the First-Year Experience (FYE). Creating an explicit, interconnected relationship among these four areas of the college led to a straightforward and accessible application process, a formative step that has resulted in incoming first-year students being highly informed of the opportunities LLCs offer on campus.

The accessible application process began with the creation of an interactive campus website. The Director of FYE’s relationship with Marketing and Communication, specifically the college’s Webmaster, led to a website that

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Learning Communities Research and Practice, Vol. 1 [2013], Iss. 2, Art. 4


speaks to prospective students about each of the college’s LLCs, offers “Student Spotlights” highlighting the experience of both current and past LLC students, and allows students to apply for their preferred LLC via an online application.

The collaboration between the Office of the First-Year Experience and Marketing and Communication continued in the form of a detailed LLC brochure (see appendix), a booklet that is mailed to all prospective students when they receive their acceptance package. Because Enrollment Management is responsible for sending out any and all communication materials to prospective students, their involvement has also been essential in the LLC recruitment process.

The college’s effort, specifically in the area of Admissions, to use the LLC program as a means to attract prospective first-year students led to a spotlight of the LLC program. In April of each year, all prospective students invited to Accepted Student Day are scheduled to attend a presentation led by a team of faculty and student leaders—representing multiple LLCs—that speaks to all facets of the college’s LLC program. This gathering allows students and families to ask questions pertaining to the program and its application process. We have found this chance to present the LLC program to all prospective students serves as an essential recruitment opportunity, complementing the College’s LLC web presence and brochure.

Fostering Faculty Involvement

In addition to collaborating with staff across the campus to improve student recruitment and increase the number of LLC applicants, the Director of the First-Year Experience also used various platforms to recruit strong faculty motivated to propose ideas, create interdisciplinary curricula, and use their engaged pedagogies in the LLC program. New Faculty Orientations and faculty development workshops have proven key among these efforts. In fall of 2007 Cabrini’s LLC program consisted of only three full-time faculty members. In six years’ time, it has grown to 16 full-time faculty (20.8% of the college’s full-time faculty) and three part-time faculty (two are full-time staff), all committed to collaborating across all sectors of the campus—a worldview that has proven central to the success of our LLC program. As well, LLC work has become a highly valued service to the college and a recognized contribution for tenure and promotion.

As our LLC program has continued to grow, we have drawn upon strategies from other colleges and universities, gathering much wisdom and practical assistance from the Washington Center in the summer of 2008. Borrowing on a model developed by the College of Charleston in South Carolina, a fellow institution participating in the 2008 National Summer Institute on Learning Communities, we decided our campus would benefit from developing and implementing an LLC Council. This council consists of all LLC Faculty Directors

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and key staff members including the Director of the First-Year Experience, Director of Residence Life, Assistant Director of the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership, and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning—all offices closely involved with the LLC program.

Throughout its existence, the LLC Council has taken the initiative to develop and revise important documents related to the growth of the college’s LLC program. For example, each LLC at Cabrini College is comprised of a faculty team typically made up of a Faculty Director and two Faculty Fellows. The LLC Council developed a “Guidelines and Expectations” document to define and distinguish the difference between the roles of the LLC Faculty Director and the LLC Faculty Fellows. The process of clarifying these roles increased faculty ownership of the LLC program, in addition to articulating important expectations.

Understanding the importance of assessment and wanting to improve upon the LLC experience for our first-year students, the LLC Council charged itself with creating an assessment tool to be administered to both LLC and non-LLC first-year students for comparative purposes. This assessment tool is currently administered at the conclusion of the fall and spring semester to monitor the impact of the LLC at the close of one semester as compared to a full academic year. Undertaking this process challenged our LLC Council to review and revise the LLC program’s learning outcomes to ensure we were appropriately assessing them. Our shared goal for this assessment process was for all constituents connected with our LLC program to develop shared understanding about the ways students are influenced by their LLC experience in regard to their academic endeavors and their wider engagement with the campus community.

In addition to the projects described above, the LLC Council reviews and approves new LLC proposals. Faculty have the opportunity to propose new LLCs in November of each academic year. Subsequently, the LLC Council is charged with reviewing all applications and responding with either an approval or a recommendation for revisions. Once an LLC is approved, an 18-month preparatory period begins to ensure the faculty team is prepared to launch the new LLC. Over this 18-month timeline, the Director of the First-Year Experience in collaboration with the Chair of the LLC Council, members of the LLC Council, and the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning offer professional development opportunities. These generally occur at the conclusion of each semester, timed to allow all LLC faculty—including those faculty teaching in the newly approved LLC—to reflect on the LLC program and their individual LLC experiences alike, while also allowing time to prepare for future semesters.

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Faculty Reflection

The following reflection, which comes from the Faculty Director of Cabrini College’s Realizing Dreams LLC, speaks to this faculty member’s sense of her own development; she discusses how her LLC teaching experience has had a positive impact on her teaching and scholarship. She also acknowledges that the experience in her community wasn’t always perfect, yet the struggles that occur ultimately lend themselves to creating a stronger community:

I really appreciate how the LLC experience allows me to create interdisciplinary connections with my colleagues in other departments. While we have a solid foundation of linked assignments and methods for integrating our course content across four classes in writing, literature, psychology, and history, we are constantly working to improve how we weave our course curricula. After creating the LLC, we realized that we have similar research interests and over time we have adjusted our texts, assignments, and even redesigned an entire course, in order to focus more on popular culture as it relates to our original theme of “Realizing Dreams.” Through the LLC, I have the opportunity to publish with faculty outside of my discipline and co-teach in innovative ways that are at the core of liberal arts learning. As my first cohort of LLC students graduates this year, I reflect back on the past four years of the Realizing Dreams LLC and remember that it was not always a “dream.” While this is a program I believe in wholeheartedly, the LLC experience can bring challenges that sometimes seem insurmountable. One year our students had conflicts that were so destructive and deeply rooted that it impacted every aspect of the students’ ability to learn and grow. As a result, I, along with two Faculty Fellows and the Director of the First-Year Experience, had to facilitate small group mediation sessions with the students. While it seemed tedious and trying at the time, it helped the students to learn conflict resolution skills and it forced our LLC faculty to solidify our communication and level of dedication to the community as we dealt with everything from a violent student to students with severe mental health issues. After experiencing a total breakdown of a community, we have learned how to better anticipate interpersonal conflicts and how to proactively teach students about listening, dialoging, apologizing, forgiving, and respecting difference.”

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It is this opportunity to work together across disciplines that faculty teaching in the LLC Program appreciate and value. While obstacles understandably will arise in particular communities, such obstacles allow students and faculty to experience growth together. This is the real definition of a community.

Success in Numbers: Increased retention and academic success

The dedication of all members of the LLC program stands as a hallmark of

its success—a committed, congenial group that other campuses regularly commend, noting our genuine collegiality. In fact, on campus faculty and staff intentionally strive for open communication and emphasize the relationship building that is so important for effective collaboration. Faculty are invested in developing not only the in-class experiences for the students but also the co-curricular programming—and such integrated learning takes much planning and coordinating of logistics. Arguably, it is our concerted commitment to connecting community building to diverse learning contexts that has helped us achieve an 80% retention rate for all LLC first-year students—nearly a 12% average increase when compared to the retention of non-LLC first-year students at Cabrini College over the past four years (Table 1).1

Figure 1: Comparison of LLC Retention to First-Year Retention Retention of first-year LLC students compared to the entire first-year class and the population of non-LLC students over four consecutive academic years.

But the success extends beyond retention. The relationships LLC students develop with faculty in their first year point to an increased level of academic preparedness. Our students report striving to reach and exceed the level of expectations that LLC faculty have set for the community. This connection stands

1 The Director of Institutional Research at Cabrini College assisted in the compiling of this data. It’s important to note that following the 2008-2009 Academic Year, the college made the strategic decision to significantly decrease the size of the first-year class.

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out when we assess the difference in academic progress (defined as achieving a 2.0 or higher at the end of the first and the second semester of the first-year) between full-time first-year students who participated in our LLCs compared to those first-year students who did not. LLC students are more likely to make academic progress than non-LLC students leading to a strongly significant relationship between the LLC experience and academic progress (x2 (1) = 7.453, p = .006); in this assessment the type of LLC is independent of academic progress (x2 (4) = 4.951, p = .292). Value added indeed.

Success Beyond the Numbers: Student Transformation and Leadership

Academic persistence and success are certainly important measures for any LLC program, but the whole notion of ‘living and learning’ points to broader possibilities for student transformation. We support this broader transformation through LLC coursework, which is designed to help students gain confidence to engage across campus, seeking out niches beyond their LLC, while maintaining the possibilities for staying connected to their thematic LLC as student leaders in subsequent terms.

Cabrini College’s curriculum is infused with a commitment to social justice —a disposition we hope to transmit to all students. In our LLCs we introduce this approach through a course called Engagements with the Common Good, a first-year seminar that combines the rigor of writing, critical thinking, compassionate action and responsible research with theories of social justice. LLC faculty take seriously the college’s mission as a Catholic institution that welcomes learners of all faiths, cultures and backgrounds, and seeks to prepare them to become engaged citizens of the world. Our LLC classes are often a critical entry point in helping to shape or shift students’ understanding of “diversity” from something like “tolerance” towards a broader disposition that embraces the spirit of Catholic social justice teaching and an engaged stance in the world. The intentional collaboration between Student Development and Academic Affairs facilitates this form of integrative, developmental learning through activities that link exploration and action and through modeling perspectives that embody pluralism and inclusivity, both curricular and co-curricular. Granted, the work of forming and embodying a disposition is ongoing—a lifetime commitment. But the seeds for such a disposition, such an outlook, are planted during the students’ first-year experience.

One compelling example of developmental transformation growing out of the broad-based nature of our LLC program comes from a student in the inaugural Voices of Justice (VOJ) LLC. Barbara’s story (the name of this student is a pseudonym) speaks volumes about the depth and breadth of change possible in first-year students’ lives; in fact, the VOJ faculty see this student’s story as

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foregrounding the college’s emphasis on relational ways of knowing that exist across our campus:

Barbara entered the learning community with strong convictions that rested in her evangelical Protestant upbringing. She struggled with the content in the fall Faith and Justice class because the course challenged her to explore views beyond those she had encountered as she grew up within her faith tradition….Although the first semester proved difficult for Barbara, through intense work in interfaith dialogue and relational ways of knowing, Barbara emerged from our first-year learning community experience with a more open-minded attitude…Throughout the rest of her college career, Barbara employed these skills, engaging across the campus with her peers in diverse efforts and initiatives….At the height of her engagement, Barbara was the president of the College’s Black Student Union and La Raza (the Latino student organization). The college deemed Barbara a diversity leader and, in that role, she provided tours as a campus ambassador, served on two diversity task forces, and sat on the Campus Culture Committee of the Board of Trustees. She also spearheaded efforts to establish a soul food lunch, gospel choir concerts, and spoken word/poetry slams on campus….Through the learning community experience [Barbara] developed the skills—and disposition—that allowed her to maintain her principles while working tirelessly on efforts that opened up spaces for all campus constituents to express themselves and their unique perspectives. (Watterson, Rademacher, & Mace, 2012) Clearly, Barbara’s story offers a portrait of widening horizons, of deepening

realizations. And it is a story that goes far beyond mere retention statistics. It underscores the confidence that students gain through their LLC experience, and has come to typify the kind of transformation possible through the LLC program. Cast succinctly, Barbara’s peers, across our Living and Learning Communities, grow into leaders ready to explore new areas of the college—as Master Learners, Peer Mentors, Resident Assistants, Classroom Coaches, Catholic Relief Service Ambassadors, Orientation Leaders, Peer Tutors, Student Government Representatives—the list goes on.

Fostering a strong network of student leaders in each of our Living and Learning Communities allows first-year LLC students to connect with potential mentors who, as “veterans,” have a common experience. Learning from Middlebury College in Vermont and their Commons Residential Advisors, each of the LLCs at Cabrini College has a Master Learner—an upper-class student who

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lives on the residence hall (in addition to the Resident Assistant) and serves as a mentor and tutor to first-year LLC students. Master Learners have typically been a part of the LLC experience in their first year and now share their experience and their curricular success with incoming first-year students to ensure their academic and social successes, too.

Each of the College’s Master Learners undergoes a comprehensive training through the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership (SEaL) and the Office of the First-Year Experience to prepare for this leadership role. In order to develop strong relationships with their first-year students on the day of their arrival, Master Learners serve as Orientation Leaders during New Student Orientation. The decision to carve out such a role arose from collaborative efforts between the Director of the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership (SEaL) and the Director of the First-Year Experience. In addition to connecting with the area of Student Development, Master Learners work directly alongside LLC faculty, meeting regularly with all constituents to collaboratively develop new initiatives aimed at enhancing Cabrini College’s LLC program, and more importantly, mentor their peers during the first-year—deepening the campus culture of community-building.

The Master Learner role serves as the focal leadership role in the LLC Program at Cabrini College; however, a team of student leaders works collectively to enhance the first-year experience for LLC students. Upper-class student leaders who are past LLC students may serve as either Peer Mentors or Classroom Coaches in specific LLC courses. Peer Mentors team with a faculty member in a one-credit College Success Seminar to co-facilitate dialogue pertaining to course topics that include academic honesty, the college’s Justice Matters curriculum, financial literacy, etc. This role differs from that of Classroom Coaches who function as in-class peer tutors, assisting students with the curriculum in specific LLC courses. This team of student leaders—Master Learners, Classroom Coaches, and Peer Mentors—along with the Resident Assistant, work together to offer strong relationships and support systems to ensure student success in the first-year.

The relationships students build across the LLC are significant; they provide students with a sense of confidence that carries over to other dimensions of their first-year experience. This confidence, while hard to measure, is enacted across campus, through daily interactions with faculty, staff, and fellow students, from semester to semester.

Conclusions: Importance of a Strong Foundation

Cabrini College’s LLC program may have begun as a retention initiative

funded through a Title III Grant, but it is now woven throughout the fabric of the

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campus culture. We continue to grow and continue to explore together; currently we are experimenting with different cohorts—developmental learners, honors students, major-specific communities—as we assess various LLC and learning community models to further build on our initial successes. What we have come to know is that LLCs at Cabrini College contribute value to our first-year students’ college experience, leading them to be more active in the campus and surrounding communities.

Building a cross-campus foundation that includes academics, student development, enrollment management, and marketing and communications is crucial to the success of an LLC program. Understanding the importance of having a Director of the First-Year Experience to initiate and foster these cross-campus relationships and the role of an LLC Council in establishing grounds for faculty input in the continual improvement of this program have proven essential to building the broad foundation of Cabrini College’s LLCs. Financial support from the college—a programming budget and faculty stipends for both Faculty Directors and Faculty Fellows—demonstrably values the time and work that faculty dedicate to this initiative. Only when all constituents, across campus, participate in creating, delivering, and implementing the first-year students’ experience can an LLC program reach its maximum potential. Offering students the opportunity to be part of a community, providing an optimal student-to-faculty ratio that allows for relationship building, and including student leaders as support systems in various capacities, are all key elements within our LLC model. All these components, taken together, create a positive living environment and contribute to the value-added successes.

Alongside individual contributions, it is the broad institutional support—the intentional and concerted setting in place of structural components—that strengthens, empowers, and ultimately sustains the program. The collegiality and collaboration of our campus-wide team undergird the value-added successes. Working together, the LLC program continues to engage in a process of building for the common good, refining our LLCs developmentally, year by year.

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References

Cabrini College: Living and Learning Communities. (2013). Radnor, PA: Cabrini College. Retrieved from the Cabrini College website: http://www.cabrini.edu/Student-Life/First-Year-Experience/Living-and-Learning-Communities/

Gonsalves, S. (2010). Evaluation of Title III Initiatives: Cabrini College.

(External Review). Radnor, PA: Cabrini College.

Watterson, N., Rademacher, N., & Mace D. (2012). Foregrounding relationships: Using deliberative dialogue and engaged justice in a living and learning community. Journal of College and Character, 13(2), 1-8.

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Connect. Engage. Succeed.

Living & Learning Communities at Cabrini College

G11-11245_Cabrini_Booklet.indd 1 12/14/11 12:18 PM

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ACE Academic and Career Exploration

Cabrini Cruisers An LLC specifically for commuters

Realizing Dreams The American Dream, your own dreams, and how to make them come true

Film & Media Studies Culture Through the Lens of Art

Honors For students in Cabrini College’s Honors Program

EARTH Environmental Awareness Community

Voices of Justice Social justice and the challenge to achieve it

�Live�&�Learn�Cabrini College’s Living and Learning Communities


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>> Chelbi MiMs, VoiCes of JustiCe llC

“ Your friends become your family. You do homework together. You wake up and go to class together. It’s just like a family–at college.”

LLCs A Great Way to ConnectA big part of college success is making connections—with other students and with

your professors. And as a first-year Cabrini student, there’s no better way to build

connections than joining a Living & Learning Community, or LLC.

LLCs are small groups of students who live together on the same residence hall floor,*

take courses together, and participate in a variety of activities all organized around

a common theme, such as the environment, social justice, or career planning.

You choose a theme that matches your interests, so from day one you’re making

friends with people who share those interests. And because LLCs are small, you’re

building close-knit relationships with faculty as well.

LLCs build bridges—between the academic and co-curricular parts of your education,

and between learning on campus and off, whether that means a field trip to New York

or having dinner at your professor’s home.

* Not planning to live on campus? The Cabrini Cruisers LLC (page 3) was designed with you in mind.

>>page 1


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>> Academic and Career Exploration Not sure what to major in? Undecided about your career goals?

You’re not alone. The ACE Living & Learning Community can put you on a path

to college and career success.

ACE is designed to help you sort out your academic and professional interests,

select a major that fits, and chart a course toward a rewarding career.

That word “exploration” is the key to all of this. First you’ll look inside yourself: What

are your strengths? What do you value? What do you like to do? Then you’ll look

outward—at majors, courses, and other opportunities at Cabrini, and at what they

mean for your career and life.

• Meet Cabrini faculty in a variety of academic

areas to get an idea of what you like (or don’t)

about different majors

• Visit cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore

to enhance the first-year experience

• Have the opportunity to meet with alumni and

get insight into their careers and the steps they

took to get there

“ I’ve been able to make bonds with people who I wouldn’t have been able to meet if I wasn’t in my LLC.”

>> eMMa MCNaMara, aCe llC

>>page 2 www.cabrini.edu/llc

Join ACE and you will


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Cabrini Cruisers is an LLC for first-year students who don’t live on campus. It’s

designed to help you make a smooth transition to college life, and to make sure that

your experience here is full and rewarding.

You’ll learn the keys to college success, and explore the range of opportunities

available to you inside and outside the classroom. You’ll work with advisors who

can help you focus your academic and career goals.

And you’ll form tight bonds with other commuter students—learning together,

hanging out together, and making lifelong friendships.

• Learn to lead by exploring opportunities through the Center

for Student Engagement and Leadership

• Build strong communication skills, which are important for

success in any walk of life

• Go to places such as New York to visit the Metropolitan

Museum of Art or dine in Little Italy

>> Cabrini Cruisers

>>page 3

Join Cabrini Cruisers and you will


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• Visit the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and consider

the U.S. Constitution’s contributions to the American Dream

• Follow the footsteps of the people who dreamed up America—

our founding fathers—on the Benjamin Franklin Walking Tour

• Connect with at-risk youth, gain insights into their dreams,

and help them take steps to achieve them

The “American Dream”—that promise of opportunity that has drawn millions

to the United States—is one of the first topics you’ll examine in the Realizing Dreams

LLC. Is it real or elusive? Accessible to all, or just to some?

It’s a perfect topic for Cabrini, a college named after the patron saint of immigrants.

And it’s the perfect starting point for a broader exploration of dreams.

What are your dreams? What challenges might you face trying to achieve them,

and how can you overcome them?

What are the dreams of others? How do race, class, ethnicity, gender, and other

factors affect their ability to realize them?

In the Realizing Dreams LLC, you’ll wrestle with questions like these and learn how

Cabrini can help you turn your own dreams into reality.

>> Realizing Dreams

www.cabrini.edu/llc

Join Realizing Dreams and you will


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• Watch iconic movies and TV shows ranging from the Charlie Chaplin classic,

Modern Times to the hit HBO series, The Wire

• Visit organizations dedicated to film and media, such as the Bryn Mawr Film

Institute, and the Museum of the Moving Image and NBC Studios in New York

• Learn from guest speakers who are professional filmmakers, actors, or critics

• Create your own film festival, working with your fellow LLC members and

the Cabrini Film Society

The Film and Media Studies LLC aims to open your eyes to the art, power, and

influence of film, television, and other media.

As you watch, discuss, and analyze media, you’ll develop a deeper appreciation

for their language and meaning, and become a more conscious interpreter of the

messages they communicate.

You’ll take a critical look at media in a broader cultural context, seeing how film

and TV engage important social issues, and gaining insight into how stories told

on a screen relate to your life and the world around you.

>> Film and Media Studies: Culture Through the Lens of Art

In the Film and Media LLC you will

>>page 5


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• Be mentored by an Honors faculty member to ensure your

academic growth

• Calm your mind on a meditation retreat

• Enjoy world-class music and art on trips to cultural attractions

such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Orchestra,

the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, and the Curtis Institute of Music

The Honors LLC is for students in Cabrini College’s Honors Program.*

You’ve already shown you like an academic challenge. Now this LLC lets

you flex your intellectual muscles as you grapple with big questions posed

in thought-provoking ways.

Your ideas matter, and you’ll be expected to express them in courses

such as “The Search for Meaning” or “Myths, Symbols, and Images.”

Our interdisciplinary focus helps you make connections between different

courses, and sharpens your critical thinking skills.

Outside the classroom you’ll put your knowledge to work for worthwhile

community causes, take advantage of leadership opportunities, and enjoy

field trips to some of the region’s distinctive cultural organizations.

* Acceptance into the Honors Program is based on students’ high school academic performance and SAT or ACT scores.

>> Honors

>>page 6 www.cabrini.edu/llc

In the Honors LLC, you will


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“ Academically, LLCs are huge. We’re putting students in a position to make connections. And that’s what academics is all about.”

>>Carrie NielseN, Ph.D., assistaNt Professor of biology, earth faCulty DireCtor

EARTH is an environmental awareness community for non-science majors, and

that name does a pretty good job of explaining what it’s all about.

At a time of global climate change and economic instability, EARTH looks at a

complex and important topic: sustainability. EARTH takes an interdisciplinary

approach, probing the intersection of environmental science, public policy, and

economics, and helping you uncover the connections between them.

Join EARTH and you’ll get involved in efforts to build a more sustainable campus

community at Cabrini. And you’ll learn how to apply your skills to communities

in the world at large.

• Explore the expansion of green businesses and learn what opportunities

they may hold for you

• Grasp how political decisions affect global sustainability efforts

• Get behind-the-scenes tours of a recycling plant and a landfill

• Enjoy activities such as tubing on the Brandywine River, paintball with

your professor, or a green-themed movie night

>>EARTH

>>page 7

In the EARTH LLC, you will


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>>�Honors

• Get involved in worthwhile efforts to promote social justice

• Speak up as an advocate for causes you believe in

• Hit the road to Washington, D.C., where you’ll visit national landmarks,

cook dinner together, and talk into the early hours of the morning

• Engage with scholars, activists, and community organizers who fight

for social justice

In an abstract sense at least, almost everyone is for social justice, or the idea of

equal rights and opportunities for all. The fact that so many around the world

struggle to attain it underscores how complicated the idea is. The Voices of Justice

LLC tackles this critically important topic in all its complexity, looking at it through the

lenses of history, art, political science, and religion.

You’ll study powerful examples of justice and injustice around the globe, and learn

about the lives of courageous men and women who work for the common good.

You’ll examine your own beliefs on a range of issues and gain a deeper understanding

of beliefs that may differ from yours.

And there’s a reason why it’s called Voices of Justice. You’re encouraged to speak

up, be heard, and become an effective advocate for causes that matter to you.

>> Voices of Justice

www.cabrini.edu/llc

In the Voices of Justice LLC, you will


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Cabrini LLC students report

• Better academic performance

• A greater sense of connection to their college work

• Satisfaction from getting to know their professors inside and outside the classroom

“ We were different people with different majors, and here we were having discussions about things we’d never thought about before. It was open. It was honest. It was incredible.”

>> MiChael CostaNza, VoiCes of JustiCe llC

To learn more, contact Richie GebauerDirector of the First-Year [email protected]

www.cabrini.edu

Equal OpportunityCabrini College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all in every aspect of its operations. The College has pledged not to discriminate on the bases of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, or disability. This policy extends to all educational, service, and employment programs of the College.

All first-year Cabrini College students are encouraged to apply to an LLC via

the online application at www.cabrini.edu/llc.

Admission to the Honors LLC is limited to students accepted to the Cabrini Honors

Program. Admission to all other LLCs is available to all first-year students.

When you apply to Cabrini through the online application, you’ll have an opportunity

to indicate your LLC preferences.

How to Join an LLC


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Admissions Office610 King of Prussia RoadRadnor, Pennsylvania [email protected] 800-848-1003 or 610-902-8552

www.cabrini.edu

Connect with students who share your interests, and with faculty who will help you explore them.

Engage with thought-provoking topics and compelling activities in and out of the classroom.

Succeed academically and socially, and get a head start toward a rewarding future.


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Beyond Retention

Documents

Transcript of Beyond Retention