Teaching Education Learning Community provides student with lifelong friends and community

For senior Teacher Education student Megan Rose, Bobcat Student Orientation (BSO) may have been what made her decision to change majors to education, but it was her Learning Community (LC) that rooted her in the Ohio University and Patton College community.

Rose, who was born in Anhui, China, and adopted when she was 9 months old, is from Dayton, OH and chose to come to OHIO after participating in the 2018 Summer Law and Trial Institute. When she began at OHIO, she was a pre-law history student but during BSO, she changed her major to education because she thought she could do more as a teacher in K-12. She is now majoring in adolescent to young adult social studies education, with a minor in political science and history.

During BSO, Rose met with her advisor who directed her to McCracken Hall (now Patton Hall) where she signed up for a LC – a decision that made all the difference.

“Flash forward to my first day of school, I attended my first Learning Community class,” Rose said. “I found community within my Learning Community through all of the study sessions. Our entire LC was in a section of Modern World History together, and we would always have study sessions where our student leader would provide drinks and food.”

Rose has maintained those friendships throughout her time at OHIO and is currently roommates with two others from her LC.

“Being a part of a Learning Community gave me a strong foundation of peers for my first semester at Ohio University, as well as friends that I will have in my last semester and beyond,” Rose added. “Even after our time in LC together, many of us kept scheduling classes together as much as we could each semester. I have found lifelong friends through my LC.”

Rose is also involved in many other activities at OHIO that include being the co-president of The Patton College Student Ambassadors, a campus tour guide, and a senior resident assistant (RA).

As an RA, Rose advises new students, in addition to becoming a part of a LC, to participate in events organized by RAs in the resident halls.

“They throw them for you, so you can make many friends,” she said.