Honors 2: Exploring and Studying

Hello again!

Since the last post, the Honors 2 LLC has been up to a lot (other than working hard in classes, of course!). We had a couple fun events. One event was really great. We stayed right here in the residence hall and went to one of the every Thursday night events, tie-dyeing! A couple people in the LLC had never done tie-dye before, so they got to see the process and had a great time experimenting with different techniques. This was a great opportunity for everyone to do something fun together and take a break from studying.

Some of the LLC participants also went to the tower-wide event where they were instructed on how to paint a painting! This was great to see them get even more artistic and get to catch up.

Coming up, we will be going to the cat cafe with the LLC. This will be a great opportunity to continue to explore Milwaukee. We will get to ride the MCTS bus and checkout a new activity close to campus. We will also be going to the Honors College play to support our fellow peers and to experience another aspect of the Honors College - cool clubs and awesome events!

Other than all the events, the LLC participants have been studying for their traditional courses and working on papers for their final papers within their Honors College courses. Thankfully, we have a great lounge on the floor that they can all utilize to not only study in but work with each other to provide feedback and get new ideas.

Cultures and Communities: Fun Nights and the Milwaukee Public Museum

Hello Cultures and Communities LLC! 

This past month has been so rewarding for me as a Resident Assistant. I have gotten to know many of the residents in this LLC, and they are all coming out of their shell. It is so awesome to see everyone making friends with the people they live near and have classes with! 

We have had alternating bi-weekly study nights and game nights for the past month, and it seems like everyone has been enjoying them a lot! Even if we do not have a game night or a study night, almost every night is a social night! There is always more than one person hanging out in the lounge and laughing, studying, or just talking with their new friends. If anyone is ever bored, they can just walk out of their room to hang out in the lounge.  

On December 1^st, a group of some members of the Cultures and Communities LLC and the Local to Global LLC visited the Milwaukee Public Museum. As you can see in the picture, we were a pretty happy bunch! We had a great time, and we learned so much about different cultures, both old and new! We also got to learn about dinosaurs, rain forests, butterflies and more! The trip was very educational and applied to many things we try to promote in our LLC.  

I wish everyone the best of luck on their upcoming final exams, essays, and projects! I am so excited for the events we have coming up next semester. See you after break! 

Community Engagement: Make a Difference Day

Winter is finally here! On one of the coldest mornings of November, we had our Make a Difference Day event put on through the Center for Community-Based Learning, Leadership and Research. We were lucky enough to get snow the night before so we had to get creative with our rakes. A few residents woke up bright and early on a chilly, Saturday morning to do volunteer work within our community. We used the busing system to get transported to our assigned houses and helped elderly winterize their homes and do some needed yard work. While the leaves were piled high and the wind was bitter cold, we pushed through and made a positive impact on our community.

The residents were happy to have participated and we were even rewarded with a few Snickers bars! The rest of this month was filled with a well needed Thanksgiving break, lots of studying, and plenty of exams. The lounge has included socialization and studying and the residents are filled with anticipation to finish finals and fast forward to Winter Break!

Transfer: Homecoming and Hanging Out

November was a great month for the Transfer LLC!

First, UWM had their homecoming festivities in the early weeks of November. One of the great activities that took place was an LLC Banner competition. Every LLC was to create a banner that represented their LLC and they would be hung up during Homecoming. The LLC Banner that was voted best would then be taken onto the court at the Men’s Basketball Homecoming Game. This year the Transfer LLC won! A couple of the Transfer LLC residents were selected to take the Banner onto the court during the game and it was a great time. Everyone had a lot of fun making the banner and seeing it represented not just on their floor, but also to the rest of UWM at the game. The banner was a great way to show the many different schools that transfer students come from. This allowed the residents to come out of their rooms and learn about the many different places that other transfer residents have come from, whether that be from UW-Stevens Point, or all the way from West Africa! The transfer residents have also had a great time getting involved with others in the common areas of their halls. In Riverview, many transfer residents come out of their rooms to hang out with others in the common areas. They spend time studying, playing pool, talking, etc. and have also become more comfortable with surrounding resources such as the MCTS Bus system. This resource has allowed them to be able to go out and explore the many great experiences that can be had around the City of Milwaukee.

ASL: Dinner and Bowling

Finals are coming!!! Not to be dramatic or anything but finals are coming soon and I don't think anyone is ready for it. Thanksgiving break gave all of us a chance to catch up on some sleep and get a head start on some of our final projects. Aside from classes the LLC has been having a lot of fun this month!

On November 7th we had our Staff and Student Dinner. There were 4 teachers from the ASL department that came and many residents from the ASL LLC were there. We ate dinner and played animal sign tag. Since there were so many people we had to teach new signs for animals that hadn't been taught in class. Many of the residents were excited to learn the new animal signs because they were more exotic, exciting animals. Overall, it was a great night and I think everyone had a lot of fun. 

We also had an event on November 28th. The ASL LLC partnered with the Signing Student Association to have a bowling night at the Union Rec Center. Our stakeholder Erin Wiggins came and had a great time bowling with us. We even had a resident that isn't in the LLC join us. He has done an amazing job learning sign language over the semester just by hanging out in the lounge! We are so excited that another person has started learning about ASL and is interested in learning about the culture. This is what the ASL LLC is all about, teaching people about what it is like to live fully immersed in Deaf culture.  

Social Welfare: Coffee with a Cop and Service Learning

One of the main events that occurred in the month of November was the Social Welfare LLC’s partnership with the UWM Police Department to sponsor Coffee with a Cop in Sandburg. Coffee with a Cop is a program used by police departments across the country to connect with the communities they serve. The UWM Police Department usually hosts 3 of these events per semester, and we were lucky to be chosen as the sponsor for the final event of the Fall Semester. In addition to the Coffee with a Cop, we got together before break and had an ice cream and coloring event in our lounge. As we wrap up our semester, we are looking forward to a pizza party before study day and potentially touring the UWM Police Department and hearing from our own officers about careers in law enforcement.

A major component of the class associated with our LLC, Criminal Justice/Social Work 105 (Intro to the majors), is the completion of 10 hours of service learning within the Milwaukee community. By now, a majority of the residents have completed their service learning and reflected on the lessons that they’ve learned. One resident, a first-year Criminal Justice major, chose to complete his service learning at an elementary school within the Milwaukee Public School district. At the beginning of this resident’s service learning, he came to me and mentioned the difficulties of revealing his major in a classroom of young children who, for the most part, have grown up with a strong distaste for the police. Recently, he came to me and told me that he was putting together a presentation for the children in the classroom about the good things that police do. By the end of his service learning, he had not only gained experience and valuable knowledge, but he also left a lasting impact on the students in the classroom. This is just one example of the success that can occur by choosing to pursue an education in Criminal Justice and Social Work at UWM.

Film: 16mm film and Floor Events

November has been a busy month for the residents of the Film LLC. Students have continued working with the department’s Filmo Cameras and Sekonic Light Meters in order to shoot on 16mm film. Our Peer Mentor Alexis has helped guide them through this process, staging several in-floor demos to make sure everybody is getting the best experience they can. The students also created a special Film LLC Banner that was displayed at the Homecoming Basketball game. This month also saw several floor events, including a festive Thanksgiving-themed arts-and-crafts night, and a board game night featuring dozens of assorted card and board games.

Engineering: Upcoming events and Community

As was mentioned in the first Engineering LLC Blog, we have some exciting events coming very soon for our residents! Our dates have had to be rearranged, but we have finally set the time for our Engineering Olympics! The Engineering Olympics will take place over the course of the week of November 12^th. Residents will be briefed on the events of the Olympics, put into teams, and given materials on Monday, November 12^th, and testing day will be Friday, November 16^th. The winners of the Olympics will receive the honor of having their names on the Engineering Olympics Plaque! This plaque remains in the LLC for all to see. We hope that all our residents are as excited as we are for this event! Our other LLC event that will be happening is our Discovery World Museum trip. While we don’t quite have a definite date for this event yet, we know it will be in early December. We highly encourage our residents to join us for this event. Not only will we be discovering and learning about different exhibits in the museum, but we will also be experiencing Milwaukee and its Public Transportation services, making this event an overall great learning experience for our residents. In other news, our residents have successfully made it past mid-terms! Almost every night, residents are out in the lounges of the LLC working on homework for various classes and helping each other to learn and grow in their community. We have exceptional residents in our LLC and we are very proud of the work that they do. We hope that they can continue to collaborate and work with each other to finish the semester out strong!

ASL: Pumpkins and Glitter

Oh my goodness! October is already over. Midterms are now behind us and we are looking forward to Thanksgiving break in just a few weeks. Although we are having lots of fun here, I think people are ready to head home for the break and see their families. Obviously, a break from classes is always greatly appreciated as well.  

The ASL LLC has done many fun things this month. One of the most attended events was pumpkin decorating! Almost half of the residents on the floor were crammed into our small lounge to paint pumpkins. There was also a lot of glitter involved in the decoration process. It was such a mess but totally worth it. I made a pumpkin that was entirely covered in glitter that is now the floor mascot and we have a tiny army of pumpkins scattered around the floor as well. Throughout the month we had many other events including a visit to the Union Art Gallery to see the scholarship winners and a few of the West-o-ween events hosted by the West Tower Activities Team (SWAT).  

We have a few more exciting events coming up in November. On the 7th the ASL department will be coming to Sandburg for the Staff and Student dinner which is a great way to get to know the ASL teachers outside of the typical classroom setting. We will be eating dinner and playing games that focus on some of the techniques used in American Sign Language. We are also partnering with the Signing Student Association board to have a bowling night for the LLC. There will be plenty of snacks and hopefully the residents are better at bowling than I am. Either way I know they will have a ton of fun! 

Social Welfare: Documentary and Discussion

The month of October was a busy one for the Social Welfare LLC. We have attended several exciting events as a community and partnered with the Community Engagement & Leadership LLC (North Tower Floor 10) for a screening of the documentary 53206. This event was attended by Officer Griffin from the UWM Police Department and Academic Advisor Talisa Smith, who teaches our Social Welfare orientation class.

Following the screening of 53206, residents of the Social Welfare LLC and Community Engagement & Leadership LLC were able to have an open discussion with Officer Griffin and Talisa about the contents of the documentary. Our residents reported that they enjoyed the event and felt like it was a valuable experience. We are looking forward to partnering with the Community Engagement & Leadership LLC more in the future!

In addition to our 53206 screening, we still have plenty of events in the works. On November 28, the Social Welfare LLC will be sponsoring Coffee With a Cop alongside the UWM Police Department in Sandburg Halls. Coffee with a Cop is a program used by police departments nationwide to connect with their communities and have open, honest conversations with no agenda.

There are plenty of great things in store, the school year is off to a great start!

Film: Light and Discussion

This month the Film LLC was a packed full of activities.  The students began their film adventure by learning the basics of 16mm with the Filmo camera, as well as learning how to measure light with the Sekonic Light Meter.  They also had the privilege of attending a private Milwaukee Film Reel Talk discussion with acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Holland, whose film Pokot “Spoor” was featured in the Milwaukee Film Festival.  Many students volunteered at the film festival as well, conveniently located at the Oriental Theater just a few blocks away from the Film LLC’s location at Cambridge Commons.  Finally, almost all of the students in the Film LLC completed their PRIDE Survey!

Outdoor Recreation: Exploring and Adventure

In the past two months the Outdoor and Rec LLC has been up to lots of fun things. In September, we took a bike ride tour of Milwaukee using the Oakleaf trail. We visited Estabrook Park in Shorewood and took the Oakleaf trail down to Reservoir park to enjoy the views of the city. In total it was a 10 mile bike ride and so much fun! We were led by Outdoor Pursuits on this awesome ride.

In October we went on a fall colors hike with Outdoor Pursuits on the Zimmerman trails in the northern unit of the Kettle Moraine. It was great to get out and see all the changing leaves and get lots of cool pictures. We even saw a baby garter snake. In total it was a 5 mile hike in perfect 50 degree fall weather. All around it was a great hike in the peak of the changing colors. It was really great to get out of Milwaukee and see some other great nature areas that Wisconsin has to offer.

In December we are really excited to be going on an ice-skating outing before finals take over all of our time. It will be to celebrate the holidays and get out and enjoy the cooler weather in Milwaukee, maybe with some hot cocoa and cookies.

Transfer: Art Museum and Hocus Pocus

Over the past two months, the Transfer LLC in South Tower has been trying all types of new adventures and thriving! One of my favorite parts about being the Resident Assistant (RA) for this community, is that the residents have actually built their own community! Between floors 19 and 20 there are roughly 72 residents. With that being said, there is usually a group between 5-10 people hanging out in the lounge together! Through making these connections with one another in the lounge, many have found similar interests, same classes, and have even began creating some of those life-long friendships with one another!

Highlighting the month of October, the Transfer LLC joined the Transfer LLC located in Riverview and went to the Milwaukee Public Art Museum! Every first Thursday of each month is free entry for students! We took public transportation to the museum and spent roughly 2 hours exploring the different exhibits and taking pictures with one another!

Taking pictures and having fun before even getting inside the Milwaukee Public Art Museum!

 Admiring modern artwork.

  

However, the fun did not stop after the art museum! The lounge for this LLC was super excited about it being the month of Halloween and decked out the lounge with spooky decorations! On Halloween night, RA Alyssa planned a Halloween event called Fang-tastic Fiesta.  There was caramel apples, pumpkin pie, candy, apple cider, and an assortment of sweet treats! In addition to being able to dive deep into theses spooky snacks, the residents watched Hocus Pocus using a projector in our lounge!

There was over 20 residents that stopped by for this event and either grabbed some snacks (caramel apples, candy, pumpkin pie, apple cider, etc) and stayed to watch the movie!

We flipped our lounge around so we could use a projector for Hocus Pocus! Also notice all of the fun Halloween decorations in these two pictures in the Transfer LLC lounge in South Tower!

I’ve learned through my few months as a RA that free food and entertainment is usually the way to go, so many people love to indulge, socialize, and simply hangout when food is involved. However, the fun doesn’t stop there! Check back again next month to see what we are up to!

-          RA Alyssa Landenberger (Transfer LLC- South 19&20)

Business: Halloween and Pumpkins

Hi everyone! My name is Autumn and I am the RA for floor 3 of the Business Panthers LLC! This is my first year as a Resident Assistant, but my second year living in the LLC. I am so excited to share everything our LLC has done this month.

The Business Panthers LLC has been having a blast for the month of October! All of our lounges were filled with very spooky decorations for Halloween. All the LLC students have been doing great and making connections with their professors as well as each other. It is so much fun being able to live with people in the same classes as you! On Thursday, October 25^th, our South Tower Community Council (known as STAR) put on a trick-or-treating event and many of our residents participated. We had our second LLC event on Friday, October 26^th from 6:00-8:00 pm. It was Pumpkins, Painting, Pajamas, and Pancakes which was a play on the four P’s of marketing. We all went to the Sandburg Green Room and relaxed while painting pumpkins, eating pumpkin pancakes, and drinking some apple cider and hot chocolate. It was a great bonding experience for RAs and residents.

For future events, we have the Lubar Fall Multicultural Networking Forum: “The Role of Business in Social Impact” with keynote speaker Michelle S. Nettles, Chief People and Diversity Officer at Molson Coors. This event will be Tuesday, November 6^th from 5:00-7:00 pm. We also are working on getting our Milwaukee Bucks trip going! We are so excited to do this event again. I went on that trip last year and had so much fun, so I am very excited to take residents this year!

Community Engagement and Leadership: Documentaries and Exploring Milwaukee

This month has been filled with fall activities, movie nights, and a super cool event collaborated with the Social Welfare LLC! Almost every Tuesday of this month, we have got together with snacks, soda, and pizza, to watch some important documentaries that are needed for the Community Engagement and Leadership LLC Class. Among one of these films was 53206. Jake, the Social Welfare LLC Resident Assistant, decided to collaborate this screening with both of our floors. 53206 is a documentary about how this ZIP code has the highest percentage of incarcerated black men in America. We had to the opportunity to show this film but also have a Police Officer present who grew up within this area. A group discussion was held after that allowed everybody to ask any questions regarding how to help through service learning or better others’ lives. 

As many of the residents are new to the Milwaukee area, it was a great opportunity to learn more about the community they live in and what they can do to improve theirs and others experience. I have also noticed many of the residents coming together to enjoy and embrace different opportunities in Milwaukee. To name a few, they have gotten groups together to participate in intramural sports, spent time at Bradford beach, strolled down Black Cat Alley, and explored many food places! 

JAMS: Debates and Free Speech

The Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies (JAMS) Living Learning Community (LLC) has had an exciting past few weeks. The JAMS LLC students have had a few fun opportunities to deepen their JAMS related knowledge, real-world experience and to meet others who are interested in their intended major.

JAMS LLC students had the chance to attend a debate between Democratic Senator, Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger, Leah Vukmir, on October 8. JAMS Students were able to reserve tickets to this event, which was held in the Peck School of Arts, at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee (UWM), just a short walk from their LLC location. The Peer Mentor for the JAMS LLC took a few students to pick up tickets for this event after their JAMS 101 class discussion. A few upper-level JAMS students were able to over this event for their student organizations and the Media Milwaukee and JAMS social accounts. This was a unique event, UWM only offered tickets to a few groups of students.

The second fun opportunity JAMS LLC students had was attending Guest Speaker, Professor Alexander Tsesis, who spoke on freedom of speech on college campuses. This event was held in the afternoon on October 11, in UWM’s Physics building. While this guest speaker event covered JAMS related content, it was open to the public.  

UWM held an Exploring Majors Fair on October 22 in the Union Ballroom. This was an event open to all UWM students, but offered as an opportunity to the JAMS LLC to talk with JAMS upper-level-students and faculty to learn more about their intended major. JAMS was represented by upper-level-students, faculty, and advisors.

These events have given JAMS LLC students opportunities to explore their intended major, experience real-world JAMS related industry practices and learn more about specific topics within JAMS. We are about half way through the fall semester, and we still have a lot of exciting events to come!

Cultures and Communities: Buttons and Ice Cream

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the Cultures and Communities Living Learning Community! I am Bri, the Resident Assistant on Floor 6 of West Tower, and I am directly involved in the LLC because I live here and will be planning events for everyone. Also involved in the LLC is Camilla, the RA on the 8^th floor of West Tower and your peer mentor, Luz. We can’t forget our LLC stakeholders, Jen, the director of the LGBT Center, Mai Yer, the interim director of the Inclusive Excellence Center, Rachel Buff, Executive Director of the Cultures and Communities program, and Ariel Milton, Assistant Director of the MKE Scholars program. We are very excited to meet everyone in the LLC, and we can’t wait for you to see all of the fun events we have in store for you.

We have already had our LLC kickoff event, a button making ice cream social. At this event, residents of the Cultures and Communities LLC and their friends socialized and began to make connections with the people they live around. I was told that the ice cream was delicious, and the company was friendly! Also, at this event, residents were able to make their own identity buttons. Residents were given the option of putting their personal pronouns on a button, or writing/drawing something else that represents their identity. By the end of the event, we were all full of ice cream, and had many new buttons to put onto our backpacks (buttons on backpacks seem to be a trend at universities).

We are so excited for the upcoming events this year! Upcoming, we will be attending the Coming Out Monologues Event, as a part of National Coming Out Week. This event is on Monday, October 8^th; we hope to see you there!

Local 2 Global: Globes and Bowling

Hello everyone and welcome to the Local 2 Global (L2G) Living Learning Community! My name is Allison Densmore and I am the RA for this awesome LLC! Something interesting about me is that I was in this LLC last year, so I know exactly what it is like to be in L2G! This year has already been a blast with all of the fun stuff we have been up to. To start it all off, we had our Local 2 Global LLC kickoff event on September 8^th. This was the perfect time for those in the LLC to make new friends with their fellow classmates as well as make paper globes! It was a great turn out and we all had a blast coloring our own globes. A few weeks later we had the LLC bowling event which was so fun and a cool place to bond some more with each other as well as a great place to meet all the other students at UWM who are also in LLCs. Over the past few weeks, the LLC residents have been studying together in the common area and really getting into the swing of classes. I am working on planning some events for the LLC which include a study abroad information night, touring the American Geographical Society Library, and going on a field trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum. I look forward to what comes next for our LLC!

-RA Allison

Arch 2: Legos and Doors Open

Hello Architecture Design LLC! This year we hit the ground running with a great Kickoff event. We got to bring out our inner child and design some interesting lego buildings. A few weeks ago the LCC went out into Milwaukee for Doors Open Milwaukee. We went to see a few of the popular theaters, scenic views, and a design firm. There was a challenge of figuring out the bus system but this challenge was a great way to help the community bond as a whole. The LLC community is having a great year so far. We have all made new friends and have been able to get more involved in the community!

Engineering: Catapults and Football Games

The entire community has been extremely social and building great friendships since day one! In the month of September, we had our LLC Kickoff event and our community had a great turnout of 45 residents. They were given a time frame of 15 minutes to build catapults out of 20 popsicle sticks, two arm lengths of tape, a spoon, a handful of rubber bands, and a marshmallow as a projectile. Also, to make it even better we had 4 special guests! The Dean of the College of Engineering Brett Peters, The Associate Dean of the College of Engineering Ethan Munson, Professor Daniel Beller, and South Tower RLC Kristi Preston attended the ENTIRE event! They chatted with the groups while they were bringing their creative designs to reality. Overall the best group shot the marshmallow about 20 feet and won a free Engineering T-shirt! 

Furthermore, we held the Bears vs. Packers game and had another stunning number of 23 residents show up! The atmosphere was exciting and competitive and brought together even Bears and Packers fans! Then the 11^th floor had their walkover to the Industry Expo to introduce them to the exciting atmosphere of 221 employers there to hire current UWM engineers to internships or even full-time jobs! Those that went were pleased with the experience and gained valuable information for when they attend the next Industry Expo in the Spring to possibly attain their own internship! Overall, we are extremely excited for what is to come this year for our LLC!

Honors 2: Pizza and Friendships

Hello, and welcome to the Honors 2 LLC! My name is Bri, and I am the Honors 2 LLC RA. This is my third year as a Resident Assistant and second year on the Honors 2 LLC floor. This LLC is all about community and utilizing the resources and opportunities that the Honors College has to offer. Although the residents in this LLC are not all in the same class, they take similar classes within the Honors College and use each other to write and review papers, get involved in Honors College related clubs, and attend Honors events. Some of these residents lived in the Honors 1 LLC last year, so this LLC is a great opportunity for residents to continue friendships from last year while also making new ones.

So far, we are having a great time getting to know each other on the floor and getting to know the Honors College and what it has to offer even more! To start us off, we had an LLC kickoff event with the Honors 1 LLC at the Honors College. We went to the Honors College pizza party. This was a great chance for the residents to meet new people on the floor while also getting to interact with professors and other classmates within the Honors College (all while getting some free food!).

Coming up, we are going bowling with professors off campus. We are looking forward to getting to explore the city a bit and having some fun outside of the classroom.

Transfer: Game Nights and Involvement

The community within the Transfer LLC (South Tower Floors 19&20) continues to grow as we get to know each other more and attend events. So far this year, the Transfer LLC has done Game Night, attended the Involvement Fair, and participated in Taste of Oakland. Each of these events have been smaller group sizes and it has enhanced the conversations we are able to have with one another. 

For Game Night roughly twelve residents and the Resident Assistant (RA) played games in our lounge after we have our first floor meeting the week of move in. For the residents that participated in this event, they are constantly the ones who sit in the lounge together, work on homework, and talk outside of their academic lives. 

The Involvement Fair was hosted by Student Association at UWM and had a large variety of clubs and organizations tabling to show new students as well as continuing students what our school has to offer to participate in. 

Lastly, Taste of Oakland, the residents favorite event so far! For this event, we went to local restaurants that accepted UWM Meal Plan and ate dinner and chatted with one another. This was a two day event- the first night we went to Noodles & Company and the second night we took the shuttle (transportation between all residence halls) to Ian’s pizza. Each night brought in a different crowd of residents and we learned about the many restaurants that accept meal plan and their general locations. 

The RA created an Instagram account for the floors (@ra_uwm_alyssa) where she uses the social media platform as the number one method for sharing events, check it out! Coming up this month we have events geared more towards Exploring Milwaukee and Campus Organizations!

Community Engagement and Leadership: True Colors and Late Nights

Welcome to the Community Engagement and Leadership LLC!

It seems like Move-In day was just yesterday! This first month has already been filled with transitions, connections, and growth.  At this early point in college, times are hectic and everything is just a bit confusing. However, all of our LLC residents have done amazing with making friends and supporting each other through it all. They have all been busy decorating the floor lounge to make it feel like home and have made their own fun just about every night. 

To begin the year, I hosted a Kick-Off event where each resident took a "True Colors Leadership Style Test". I then placed the residents into groups based on their color (leadership style) and they worked together as a group to solve various mysteries and riddles. Everybody ended up getting to know a little about each other and connecting to those who have similar personalities and leadership styles. I felt as though it was important to find a common ground for all to connect on as our floor is very diverse when it comes to their chosen majors. 

Since then we have had many late night Mario-Kart sessions, endless coloring pages finished, and socializing within the lounge. I have had so much fun this past month and am beyond grateful for the amazing residents that I have an honor of working through college with this year. Each and every one of them has shown their unique strengths and how they can become a strong leader who will do good in the world. 

I am excited to see where the rest of the year takes us!

Social Welfare: Partners and Exploring

So far, our LLC is thriving and off to a great start this year! We are lucky to have not only an excellent group of residents within our community, but also some amazing partners within the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. Early September, we held our LLC Kickoff where we brought together some of our partners, including the UWM Police Department and Talisa Smith, an academic advisor for the School of Social Welfare and the teacher of our LLC class.

At this meeting, UWMPD Officers Steven Ohland and Nadina Campos spoke about their journeys to becoming police officers and how to succeed in the field, as well as what to do to get there. We look forward to seeing UWMPD involved in our future events!

Over the next couple of months, we have some fun events planned that involve exploring different criminal justice systems and processes within Milwaukee, and looking into how Social Work plays a role in our society as a whole.

Check back for more updates on our wonderful community!

Business: Trivia and Treats

Hello everyone and welcome to the Business living learning community (LLC)! My name is Shane Summers and I am the RA for floor one and two and also one of four Resident Assistants (RA) who help run the business LLC. The other three are Autumn Lessard (3rd floor), Luke Rogness (5^th floor), and Brittany Szczensy (4^th floor). Before getting started, I would like to express how excited we are for the upcoming year! It will be fun.

For our kickoff event, we hosted a trivia night called, “Trivia and Treats”. While the goal was to have fun (and of course, enjoy free food!) we also wanted to get students excited and informed where their majors can take them --- so we incorporated Wisconsin business trivia into the night! Did you know that the founder of Kohl’s was a Wisconsinite and later became a U.S. Senator?

In attendance, was our stakeholder, the one and only Dr. Michael Freimark! Dr. Freimark teaches Business Administration 100! This class is highly recommended for all business students and a required class for Business LLC students. Business LLC events are a great way to get to know your professor and TA!

All in all, this kick off was a success! From snacking on sweet treats to learning about Wisconsin businesses, it was a great way to start of the year. We look forward to the many more fun events in the future --- stay tune for “Pumpkin painting in pajamas” our next fun event!

JAMS: Intros and professors

The Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies (JAMS) Living Learning Community (LLC) if off to a great, exciting start. As always, the most important step in having a successful year is to have a group of residents/students who are excited about what is to come, this was easily attained this year as the type of residents/students who choose to be in an LLC, especially the JAMS LLC, tend to be go-getters with an inherit excitement about all things JAMS.

On day one of living in University Housing, Resident Assistant Sam Wisneski met with all JAMS LLC members to tell them about what it means to be in an LLC and what they can expect for the year. This was an important first meeting and RA Sam is confident that the LLC members were more comfortable with what they can expect following the meeting.

The first event that the JAMS LLC held was, “learn about JAMS.” This event took place in the fifth-floor lounge in Sandburg South Tower. The purpose of this event was to have fun while learning about the exciting major that they have chosen. At the event, they had the unique opportunity of being introduced to their professor, Michael Newman. For an hour, LLC members got to ask Professor Newman questions about their major and learn from Professor Newman who happens to be the JAMS department chair. The peer mentor for the JAMS LLC, Emily Perret was also present. Emily talked about the things that she is able to help the residents with and talked about her experience as a senior in the JAMS program.

The events that have been held so far have introduced the JAMS LLC to the exciting year to come. We look forward to continuing to build the bond between academics and living as the semester and year continues.

Health Professions: Scavenger Hunts and S'mores

Hello Health Professions LLC! This year has already been so much fun. All the students are making connections with each other and some professors/TAs! We had so many things that happened in the first month of college. The LLC had our kickoff event which was a resource scavenger hunt, then some s’mores while playing an intense volleyball game. The students are enjoying the LLC and all that it has to offer. We recently had the Housing Res Life Challenge Soccer Game and so many residents came and had so much fun while spending time with some friends.  

Happening in the LLC, there are some exciting things that the RAs are happy to get started. We are doing the LLC annual Health Professions LLC House Cup Challenge. This event is to help the students get involved within the community inside as well as outside of the community. It will be a two-month challenge that will have weekly fun tasks to complete for points. The winning team will get to have dinner with the College of Nursing and College of Health Sciences Deans! It’s super fun and we can’t wait for the challenge to start!  

~RA Skyler and RA Kyleigh 

ASL: Games and Fun

Welcome to a brand-new year! 

My name is Vanessa and I am the RA for the American Sign language Living Learning Community (ASL LLC) This is my second year as the RA (resident assistant) and my third year living on the floor.  I am incredibly excited to be back this year and I cannot wait to see what this new year has in store for us!  

So far things have already started off great. On September 12^th we had our LLC kick-off event where we all got together to play ASL Games. These were all games that encouraged the use of non-signing skills often used in ASL. Since many of the residents have just started their ASL 1 class I felt it was very important that we have games that anyone could participate in. Hearing or Deaf, extensive ASL knowledge or none at all, everyone was able to participate and have a great time! 

Recently people have been spending a lot more time hanging out in the lounge together. I am so happy to see them doing this all on their own since it is the best way to build community and meet everyone on the floor. Hanging out in the lounge is also one of the best ways to increase their ASL skills since the best way to learn a language is through practice.  

I already have some event ideas in the works and I can’t wait to see how the floor grows and learns together while enjoying the perks that come with living in an academic focused community. 

I hope your school year is off to a wonderful start!

The LLC playing gesture telephone which is a mash up of charades and telephone. 

Group photo of the LLC members, stakeholder Erin Wiggins and West Tower Supervisor, Haley Zangl