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summer 2013 27 The success of Galileo pilot sparks more living-learning communities By Chris Kenning ckenning2@gmail.com Photos by Amber Sigman Alison Rodríguez came to Bellarmine University in part because of its small size, but as she moved from her home in Chicago last fall, she was still filled with anxious first-year questions: How would she handle her health sciences major? How would she connect with her instructors? How would she create a social group from scratch? So Ms. Rodríguez, 18, decided to join the group of 92 students who piloted Bellarmine’s new Galileo Learning Community, living alongside other freshmen studying health science majors such as exercise science, prenursing or physical therapy in the same two floors of the Kennedy-Newman residence hall. Before long, she had a fellow nursing major, 19-year-old Miranda Sikorski of Columbus, Ohio, as a roommate. She could study with next-door neighbors taking the same physiology classes. Several Galileo instructors held office hours and late-night prep sessions right in the dorm. And there were planned off-campus social trips to baseball games and the zoo that helped her social connections gel quickly. “Hey, that paper is due Wednesday, right?” she asked a passing health sciences student in the dorm on a spring day as she chatted with a group of Galileo friends in the hallway. Alison Rodríguez, left, types a paper for her Death and the Corpse course while roommate Miranda Sikorski studies for Experiencing Theater.


Bellarmine Magazine_Summer2013_single
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