We made it! Now for break!

Top Ten Favorite LLC Moments of Fall 2009 Semester!

1. Thomas Vu Daniels' gallery at Redline Grand Opening
- I LOVED meeting this artist and learning ALL about him! He is a master printmaker and the entire Visual Arts LLC got to chill with him and talk. he was so normal and relaxed. he talked about everything we wanted to know and we saw a lot of his work.

2. Watching the Visual Arts LLC members work on their assignments.

- It was really interested to see the different artistic styles of each art student in the LLC. I enjoyed visiting them in the lounge and seeing them work on their projects and hearing them talk about them. I hope to be able to attend some project critiques next semester. I really liked watching them create Artist Books.

3. Being Exposed to Something (somewhat) New

- I was happy to take on the job as the RA leader for the Film LLC. Film is something I have been interested in and can conceptually study, but have not had much experience with. I really liked that I have been exposed to new kinds of film and different ideas by becong involed with the Film LLC.

4. Showing them my favorite East Side Gallery...
- At the beginning of the year I made sure to bring the Visual Art LLC residents to the Inova Gallery. It is a short five minute walk from Riverview Residence Hall. We all walked there together and then explored the exhibit. It is a gallery that is set up by Peck School of the Arts and located on Prospect and Kennilworth. The gallery hosts local artists as well as international artists. There was an exhibit for a Wisconsin artist who uses natural materials in his art. Afterwards, we noticed that Urban Outfitters, a clothing store next door, had a great sale going on, so we all stopped in to do a little shopping together. It was a good outing to get to know eachother a little better and also find oneof the East Side's greatest treatures.

5. Free Pizza

- I like to provide free food for the residents at a lot of our events...usually it is PIZZA!!! Every college student loves free food...

6. Rivers Wash Over Me---and meeting a director

- We viewerd an awesome film called, River's Wash Over Me. It won awards at Sundance and many other film festivals. It was one of thos emovies where you just don't know what to ay at the end becasue it blew away your mind...(check it out)! Then we got to meet with the director and executive producer. And have free pizza...

7. Being surrounded by cool people

- I really enjoy the people I work with in the LLC. They always have great ideas and are a fun group of people. I know I can depend on them and they are helpful whenever I need help with something. It is also cool that they are interested in the same things and enjoy their jobs.

8. Milwaukee Art Museaum Trip

- I have a post about this from last month on the blog, but needless to say it was a lot of fun and we saw some cool stuff together- for free.

9. Experimental Tuesday

- The Union Theatre shows experimental films every Tuesday. They are free and a good way to spend an hour ot two on a Tuesday. The Film LLC checked out "Three Corners of the World". It was a silent film...which I havn't seen too many of, but it was interesting. We stocked up on soda and candy bars for the show. The week before they went to see Where the Wild things at at Mayfair's AMC!

10. End of Semester!!

- As much as I enjoy the LLC, UWM and Riverview, who doesn't love being able to have a month long vacation at the end of semester! It is one of the best parts of college. I'm looking forward to relaxing, time with family and friends and making a little extra money.

Why live in an LLC?

It's almost Christmas, and I'm horribly late posting this. I think I'm going to blame it on exams. They are not really fun.

Everyone knows that though, no one likes taking exams. It's nice when you're finally done with them, but you have to study for hours and hours, and sometimes you might not even know exactly what to study! You're going to have to track down a friend or someone you know in the class, figure out when you two can meet, hopefully both of you know what to study, and then have a little study party. It's hard finding a time that will work, and if you want to get a few more people to study, it's a huge hassle.
I had a pretty tough math exam last Friday, so I decided to really cram for it the night before (I studied before that, too, Mom, don't worry!) , and I was really struggling with it. I went one room away, and asked when my friend was free. He said he'd meet up with me later that night, sure enough he grabbed another person from our floor, and we poured over the material for hours.

That's what's great about living in an LLC, you have tons of people taking the same classes as you had. Six of us studied for our CompSci exam together, then we all walked over to the room together. It's pretty nice just talking about the test you took with some friends as you play a round of Halo that night.

This is why you want to...

So, you might think, "Why should I join an LLC? I can just take the normal course.."

Consider the following and think again....

1. Making Friends is Easier

- When you leave home to go to college it can be really difficult to leave behind your friends and be in an environment with all new people. Being in an LLC, you are surrounded with people who have a similar interest, goals and area of study. This gives you something to talk about with them. You also are attending classes with the same people that you live with which helps create closer relationships. There is nothing like bonding over trying to survive the next big assignment!

2. Have a relationship with your instructor

- This is more important than you may think. Feeling like you can talk to your instructor helps with class confusion, exams and finding resources. Beyond that you will feel more connected to your instructor rather than a number in a pool of people. This is also helpful when you need letters of recommendation or references.

3. Easy resources at your fingertips

- When you are in LLC, you not only have your instructor to help you along the way, you also have your RA and Mentor. Both of these figures major in the field of your LLC so they are great resources about the program you are involved with. Your RA lives on the same floor and can assist with questions about the residence halls as well as any other concerns or questions, your mentor helps you get through any struggles. Both figures will also be able to help with anything related to your LLC.

4. Class is right down the hall….

- Did you have to stay up late? Having trouble getting out of bed? No worries, class is located right here in Riverview. If you sign up for a LLC located in Riverview, it is likely that you will have at least one class located in Riverview. I loved being able to wake up and walk down the hall in my comfortable clothing to go to class. If you are in the art LLC this is perfect when you need to carry around a lot of heavy supplies.

5. Unique Opportunities

- When you are part of an LLC, special opportunities are created for you that you would not receive in other classes. For example, the Film LLC was able to meet with an award winning director who was extremely popular at the Sundance film festival. The Visual Arts LLC is always meeting with artists and doing extra projects and services for the community. These experiences help you learn and grow but are also A TON of fun and look great when you are filling out resumes.

Visual Arts LLC Instructor Honored

Raoul Deal, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Visual Art, received the 2009 Alumni Association Award for Teaching Excellence. Raoul teaches in the Visual Art Living Learning Community in RiverView Residence Hall. If you see him, congratulate him!



Raoul works with an LLC student designing a replica of a common object, to scale.

Robots?!

As I mentioned in my introduction post, the Innovation House LLC is participating in a program at Discovery World. We're building simple robots, programming them, and even making podcasts about Engineering! We're about 3/4 of the way through this multi-week program, and we're all sad to see it wrapping up!

Some of the groups made robots to automatically shoot balls into cups it scanned for (that was my group!), one of the groups pulled a cigarette out of a box, and moved it around on a conveyer belt, one group made a robot to putt in golf. There were really creative things done!

Right now, we're using professional equipment to interview professors, students, and other people for our podcasts. We split up into two different groups, half are doing an audio podcast, half are doing video ones. I'm really excited to see how they turn out.

Museum and Tree decorating

The Visual Arts LLC had a very busy afternoon this Tuesday. We took a trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum and decorated a tree in Cathedral Square for the holidays.

(Ashley, Amanda and Jordan check out some Warhol)

First we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Visual Arts LLC instructor, Raoul Deal, talked briefly about the various exhibits in the museum. We were also free to roam around to explore the different pieces. Currently, the museum has an Andy Warhol exhibit. It was really exciting to see works that were done by an artist who everyone was very familiar with.

(Megan studies reflections)

(Xeng in front of Milton Resnick's East Is the Place)

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After the art museum, we walked to Cathedral Park where we participated in a community tree decorating activity. We chose an ecology theme for our tree. We had one hour to create our idea with the materials we had. It was a challenge, yet a lot of fun! We used found and recycles materials to create a reindeer out of the tree. We used tree branches, old clothing, aluminum, berries, string, and cardboard. After fighting the cold weather the Visual Arts LLC defiantly had the most creative tree in the park!

(The Visual Arts LLC working on our winter tree)

Although the day was busy, we had a lot of fun. I liked having all of the members of the Visual Arts LLC together as a group, as well as the instructor, mentor and myself.

Hey!

Hey, I'm Brad Parbs. I'm a first-year student at UWM, studying Computer Science and I live in the Innovation House LLC in Sandburg. It's the Engineering and Computer Science LLC. I'm originally from not too far away, I'm from West Allis.

It's really awesome living in this LLC, we do a lot of cool things. The picture below is from a recent 'Fort Night' program, where we built a huge fort and watched a movie underneath. It's was really fun.

We've also done some Engineering-related programs. We are currently halfway through a program where we go to Discovery World and build and program robots. It's a really awesome experience.

Living in an LLC is an awesome experience, and is definitely worth it. It's really nice having something in common with almost everyone in your hourse, and it makes it really easy to meet people. Our house is very social, and we're always doing stuff together. We play movies in our lounge everynight, we have have game nights, and of course, have the most awesome programs ever!

Let Me Introduce Myself....

My name is Courtney Schmidt and I am a sophomore at UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. I am studying fine arts with a focus on art education (K-12). I am originally from Belgium, WI. However, during the academic year I call Riverview Residence Hall my home! It is my second year living at Riverview and I absolutely love it!

This year (2009-2010) I am an RA at Riverview and involved with the Visual Arts and Film LLCs. As an RA, I plan programs (with the help of the class instructor) for the residents involved with the LLC. I have planned trips to the art museum, film observations, and much more. We have also had programs where the LLC’s meet with professionals in their field of study. For example, last month the film LLC watched the film, Rivers Wash Over Me, and then we had the opportunity to meet with the director. We were able to ask anything that we wanted to, which was very exciting and inspirational! The visual arts LLC was also able to speak with a master printmaker who has worked with well known artists. My favorite part of planning these programs is to give residents a unique experience that won’t be found outside of the LLC! During my first year at UWM I was a resident who was part of the visual arts LLC. The wonderful experience I had as a resident inspired my involvement this year. I hope my contribution gives my residents the same experience I did.

Living Learning Communites @ UWM

Welcome to the UWM Living Learning Community Blog! Most posts will be written by UWM students that are currently participating in a Living Learning Community, either as a student or a Resident Assistant. Our first two bloggers for 2009-2010 are Brad Parbs and Courtney Schmidt. I'll allow them to introduce themselves in a post next week. In the meantime, check out www.LLC.uwm.edu for more information about Living Learning Communities, and www.universityhousing.uwm.edu for more information about University Housing. We're also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/UWMUniversityHousing.

University Housing will begin accepting LLC applications when contracts are mailed in January.