Campbell Residential Learning Communities Team Building Retreat

On a scale of 1 to 10 how likely are you to be found at a Campbell Football game?

This is one of the many questions students were asked as part of a team building activity at the recent Residence Learning Community Kick-Off & Retreat. Residence Learning Community (RLC) are residential communities that connect students with similar academic interests, identity, or passions.

These students often live on the same floor or wing of a residence hall or apartment. Not only do RLCs provide students an opportunity to build relationships with peers, but they are also designed to integrate co-curricular experiences that complement and extend classroom learning. This is done by fostering faculty and resident interaction that enhances the intellectual and personal development of the residents.

Campbell University started five RLC in 2018 including communities around engineering, biology students interested in pre-medicine, and leadership. Campbell has added several other RLC in the past few years including a community around pets, transfer students, and golf management.

These communities can be transformative for students, as they create intentional opportunities for students to connect with professors, professionals, and peers. Residential experiences done well can be the most powerful vehicle for influencing student success on a college campus. We know that communities built with intentionality directly contribute to a student feeling like they belong.

Belonging and cultivating community was the focus at the Kick-Off & Retreat on October 6th. Students of each RLC and their faculty fellows gathered in the Student Union at Campbell University to participate in some friendly competition between RLC’s, discuss what community means to them, as well as establish covenant rules of how their community will operate.

The Kick-Off event was the first of four anchor programs that will be hosted by Residence Life and Housing for the 2023-2024 academic year to provide an opportunity to bring these communities together and offer shared experiences.

Each of the RLC’s at Campbell offer individual programs to the students that support the interest or focus of the RLC however the four anchor programs are an opportunity to allow all RLC students and faculty fellows to engage as a whole and be grounded in community building. The anchor programs will consist of more competition between the communities, skill building around career competencies, and opportunities for students connect with mentors.

Residence Learning Communities at Campbell move the residential experience of students from merely living in our halls to learning in our halls.