All first-year liberal arts students at Purchase College participate in smaller intellectual communities designed to appeal to students’ different academic interests and learning styles. Students may choose from three different types of intellectual communities.

Students in Nonresidential Learning Communities take a minimum of two courses together but may live in any freshman residence hall or off campus.
These learning communities are a particularly excellent way for both residential and commuter students to participate in the intellectual community at Purchase College.

So choose your learning community now! Places are limited.

Learning communities are designed for the bright and highly motivated students who will benefit from collaborative and concentrated learning. They are NOT remedial groups.

Students in Nonresidential Learning Communities:

• have a minimum of two courses and faculty in common
• work closely with the faculty teaching these courses and have a special advisor
• are given specially selected peer mentors and tutors
• have an opportunity to participate in a community that will include residential and commuter students

Why Participate?

• To get extra attention from faculty, staff, and peer mentors who will help you excel and find informal ways of studying inside and outside of the traditional classroom
• To get to know other students who share similar interests
• To join a community that lasts throughout your undergraduate years
• To feel more bonded, more quickly, to the College and its academic and social life

2012-13 Nonresidential Learning Community:

Environment, Society, and Transformation (Nonresidential Learning Community)

The Environmental Learning Community brings together students who want to explore the reciprocal interactions between society and our environment. This learning community emphasizes both the social and scientific perspectives needed to understand environmental transformations wrought by humans. The learning community also stresses activism: do something to make a difference in a local problem. All students – including those without a declared field of study – are invited to enroll in Intro to Environmental Science, Freshman Seminar (taught by Prof. Ryan Taylor) and a nature-themed section of College Writing. Off-campus field trips to the shore and local forests are planned. For further information, e-mail: ryan.taylor@purchase.edu

The Life of a Biologist (Mixed Residential and Nonresidential Learning Community)
The Biology Learning Community will provide support and camaraderie for students who are biology majors, or who are considering biology as a major. Students enroll together in General Biology I, as well as the accompanying laboratory and the Biology Freshman Seminar. A special peer tutor will be available to assist students who may be having difficulty with biology concepts, as well as preparing scientific written assignments such as laboratory reports. Group activities will include discussions about biological professions, explorations of local habitats and exposure to research opportunities on campus, in addition to sharing together in the rich cultural life at Purchase.

The Learning Community will be coordinated by biochemist Joanne Kivela Tillotson, associate professor of biology, who will also teach the laboratory sections of General Biology, and the Biology Freshman Seminar. Dr. Tillotson’s research area is the study of nutritional effects on the growth of cancer cells.

For more information, email: joanne.tillotson@purchase.edu

Updated January 27, 2012