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.
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, 2018. Invitations to selected students will be sent to their Hampshire College email address in early to mid-July. We respectfully request all applicants maintain access to their Hampshire College email during this time. Questions about the communities or application process can be directed to LLC@hampshire.edu.
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 11 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.
FARM! The Edible Living Learning Community (LLC) is an interdisciplinary, co-curricular Living Learning Community, focusing on food production, sustainability, and agriculture, radiating out from the vibrant Hampshire College Farm. The FARM! LLC 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 on-farm work, monthly dinners made with local food, and other related opportunities, such as a film series, guest speakers, visits to other local farms, cooking classes with seasonal vegetables and/or hyper-local meats, 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 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 11 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.
The Visions and Practices for Creating Change (LLC) is for students curious about building futures of collective care and support. We'll explore the radical possibilities of centering relationships at the heart of change-making, and dream of new structures and systems for sharing digital, artistic, natural, and economic resources. Co-sponsored and facilitated by the Ethics and the Common Good Project (ECG), we will cultivate visions and engage with practices for transforming ourselves and our communities. Over the next four years, you’re going to have the opportunity to be part of communities working towards real and effective social change on and off campus. Through workshops, field trips, and trainings in the fall semester, we’ll build shared resources of support, and grow a trustful community we can rely on to collaborate on meaningful collective action. Together we’ll learn how to develop sustainable relationships, engage with conflict productively, question our place in the world, and explore contemplative and creative practices. In the spring semester, you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with your fellow LLC members on community projects of the group’s choice. Throughout the year, you’ll have access to mentorship from students, staff, faculty, and community partners who are applying these practices in fields ranging from environmental and racial justice, to gender and sexuality, to artistic interventions. This is a space where we aim to connect our personal experiences with our interests and studies, showing up as our full selves in service of community.