Residence life and housing offers a number of living and learning communities (LLC) that we invite first-year students to consider in their housing preferences. The living and learning communities provide an opportunity for first-year students with similar interests to live together while being strengthened and led as a community with the support of faculty, staff, and student leaders. All LLCs are located within first-year residences.
In all of these communities, students will engage with a wide variety of campus community members and form lasting relationships with one another. The minimum commitment for participants will be a regularly scheduled 2 hour bi-weekly meeting for the first semester. While residents in the community will live together for the full academic year, the bulk of the facilitated programming will take place in the first semester, creating conditions for autonomy and self-regulated programming in the second semester. Participants in the living and learning communities will receive CEL-1 hours for their participation.
How to Apply
Incoming students will be invited to indicate their interest in any of the living and learning communities on the housing preference form, which will be available on TheHub in June. The form asks students to indicate which, if any, communities to which they would like to apply. Applications for each community will be available on the new student to-do list. All applications are due on July 1, 2017, and students will receive a confirmation of our receipt of their forms after this date. Questions about the communities or application process can be directed to LLC@hampshire.edu.
Program Descriptions
The Bodies, Brains, and Culture Living and Learning Community (LLC) is co-sponsored by the Program for Culture, Brain, and Development (CBD). This LLC will provide a group of 12 first-year students with the opportunity to live among peers who are passionate about exploring the relationships between the body, brain, and culture. This community will promote a social environment for students to exchange ideas, spark discussion, share perspectives, reflect, and learn together. Through an interactive program of bi-weekly workshops and hands-on activities, students will explore the biological/chemical, neural/psychological, and cultural/societal factors that influence who we are and what we do.
In the fall, activities and workshops will be organized by CBD faculty, staff, and students. In the spring, with the help of CBD, LLC students will be responsible for directing portions of the programming. Students in the LLC are expected to participate in both semesters of the LLC activities. Examples of workshop topics include: exploring neuroscience and the arts; untangling the body/mind/brain connection; understanding stress and resilience; and representations of the human body across cultures and time. Students engaged in this LLC will gain exposure to the broad range of intersectional opportunities available to them at Hampshire; and can expect to gain meaningful relationships, lasting connections with faculty and staff, access to greater campus resources, tools for facilitating conversations and dialogue, and a foundation for campus leadership.
The Community Engagement for Social Change Living and Learning Community (LLC) is co-sponsored by Community Partnerships for Social Change (CPSC). This LLC will provide the opportunity to live among students who are passionate about putting social justice into action. It is a space to exchange ideas, collaborate, reflect, and learn together. Through an interactive program of workshops, field trips, dialogues, and local activism, students will develop skills and critical knowledge to become active and effective agents of change during their time at Hampshire and beyond. We will examine issues that arise in campus-community partnerships and how to best navigate these issues when working in communities that are not our own. Through workshops led by staff, faculty, students, and community leaders, CPSC aims to place the work in a larger context and provide tools for putting social justice into action. Most of these workshops will take place in the fall. Example sessions include: privilege/power and anti-oppression awareness, self care, organizing techniques, PRAXIS (the process of theory, action, and reflection), communication and facilitation skills, art for social change, mutual responsibility, and reciprocity. This community will meet regularly in fall and spring semesters.
TThe Environmental Justice and Sustainability Living and Learning Community (LLC) is an interdisciplinary co-curricular living learning community sponsored by the dean of students office in collaboration with campus partners. The LLC will introduce participating students to the healthy food systems, campus operations, creative curricula, and innovations in campus life that comprise the foundation of the Sustainable Hampshire initiative. Participants can expect a blend of learning and fun as they develop together as a residential community, learning from one another and exploring shared interests. Students will be involved in interactive bi-weekly programming, with additional opportunities and outings to connect with local community organizations and explore the natural beauty of the area. Program topics are influenced by student's LLC applications, with examples of exploration including: the Hampshire College Farm, systems tours of our R.W. Kern Center and solar arrays, local film screenings, sampling of locally grown food, and discussions ranging from composting to global resource conflicts. Residents of the LLC will be introduced to upper division students involved through their academics, activism, and student group membership. Additionally, students will meet key faculty and staff excited to share their areas of expertise. For new students, these relationships will provide meaningful connections on campus your first year, and continue beyond the LLC experience.
The Ethical Changemakers Living and Learning Community (LLC) is co-sponsored and facilitated by the Ethics & the Common Good Project (ECG), and will offer a dynamic and experimental living-learning experience at the crossroads of relational ethics and collective changemaking. Together, we’ll learn to embody resilient approaches to transforming ourselves and our communities through storytelling, ecological interdependence, and best practices from grassroots social movements on the frontlines. We will also dive into questions of the commons, experiencing new structures and systems for sharing digital, artistic, natural, and cultural resources. We will build toolkits to approach some of the most complex questions that we face as a species, including the relationship between individual and community, environmental and racial justice, conflict resolution and reconciliation, gender and sexuality, science and ethics, contemplative ethics, and creative/artistic interventions. The LLC will connect regularly in the fall semester for workshops, field trips, and trainings, and will continue to connect in the spring semester.
FARM! The Edible Living and Learning Community (LLC) is a new, interdisciplinary co-curricular living learning community, focusing on food production, environmental justice, and sustainable agriculture, radiating out from the vibrant Hampshire College Farm. FARM!, co-sponsored by the Hampshire College farm, will focus on following our food from seed to table, with numerous stops along the way. Students will learn about organic vegetable production and sustainable animal husbandry at the Hampshire College Farm, through CEL engagement, required farm work, and other on-farm opportunities, such as participation in research activities. Other activities may include a film series, guest speakers, farm visits, cooking classes with seasonal vegetables, hyper-local meats, and local dairy products, and engagement with the local agricultural community. FARM! participants will be instrumental in shaping the content in the fall, with students taking initiative in the spring (with continued support) to create their own community programming. Through intentional work and living, FARM! students will develop meaningful relationships with other students, faculty and staff, connections to upper division students engaged in all aspects of the food system at Hampshire, and access to resources and opportunities on campus and across the Five Colleges.
The Looking/Reading/Writing Living and Learning Community (LLC) is designed for first-year students to engage critically in activities and discussions in the arts and humanities. This community is one in which 12 students will be given the opportunity to live with one another while engaging in activities that involve the issues in art, literature, film, music, and curatorial studies. Staff, faculty, guest artists, and student leaders will lead discussions, workshops, and screenings that invite students in the LLC to examine the significance of creative expression in contemporary society and debate the historical importance of the arts for the human condition, while bonding and building friendships. Activities may involve reading together, watching films and performances, working with visiting artists, and traveling to exhibitions and events in the Five Colleges. Students can expect to gain meaningful relationships with one another, lasting connections with staff and faculty, connections to upper division students engaged in promoting the arts and humanities at Hampshire, and access to resources and opportunities on campus and in the Five Colleges.
The Wellness Living and Learning Community (LLC) is designed for first-year students to develop a holistic lifestyle that balances physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. This community is one in which approximately 12 students will be given the opportunity to live with one another while learning about wellness topics including, but not limited to, nutrition, meditation, mental health and stress reduction, sexuality, relationships, and other wellness topics. Staff and a student leader will lead discussions/workshops every other week that invite students in the LLC to examine themselves and how these topics intersect with their community. Students will also have ample opportunity to participate in other wellness-related initiatives and will make valuable connections with campus leaders with specializations in the field. Students can expect to gain from this experience meaningful relationships with each another, lasting connections with staff and faculty, and a foundation for wellness and community health. Please note: This community will be substance-free.
