Living-Learning Communities
Living-learning communities bring together diverse groups of students, where students live and take class together, as well as have opportunities to travel, become engaged in the community, and do research together.
Each living-learning community is led by dedicated and talented faculty members who prepare the experiential learning components and provide opportunities for students to combine their academic and residential experience. Communities are designed for students to create meaningful bonds and friendships with fellow classmates and connect their interests inside and outside of the classroom.
Earth Lodge
The Earth Lodge is a sustainability related living-learning community that offers a shared living experience that moves students beyond the limits of the traditional classroom to enhance learning and promote interdisciplinary engagement and discussion. The Earth Lodge has a long tradition at Richmond, being its first living-learning communities for upper-division students.
- What is your vision for a better world?
- How does social change happen?
- What role can you play in creating positive change in the world?
- How can we co-create the conditions for communities to thrive?
The Earth Lodge focuses on supporting and catalyzing student’s roles as active agents for cultivating a better world through an immersive and community-based exploration of sustainability, environmental justice, and social change. Earth Lodge will be exploring the questions listed above and will serve as a facilitated living and learning experience where students will take ownership and agency over the trajectory of the group, based off participants interests in sustainability, environmental studies, and social change. The Lodge is an intentional shared living experience that moves students beyond the limits of the traditional classroom to enhance learning and promote interdisciplinary engagement and discussion.
With a focus on sustainability and outdoor education, students in Earth Lodge will participate in a variety of experiential opportunities to expand their perspective and push them past their comfort zone. While there is no unit-bearing course associated with the Earth Lodge, residents can expect several programs throughout the academic year, both on and off-campus, and have opportunities that are only available to Lodge members. Lodgers may explore a variety of different programming options, which could include a Literature Circle, Experiential Overnight Trips, Outdoor Education, Community Engagement, and Self Reflection Design Exercise.