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FRESHMEN FORM SELF-GOVERNING COMMUNITY | |
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From: Media Relations The first citizens of the Bradfield Learning Community - 36 James Madison University freshmen - will take up residence on the college campus Wednesday, Aug. 23. Targeted at "students who are interested in civic responsibility and community," the new program will offer the first-year students a chance to live and study together in a self-governing community."Research shows that freshmen are more successful in small communities," said Lee Ward, director of JMU’s Center for Leadership, Service and Transition. Ward added that the Bradfield community is a new way JMU is attempting to fulfill students’ needs to feel they matter. Housed in a wing of Chesapeake Hall on the JMU College of Integrated Science and Technology campus - the men and women will live on separate floors - the freshmen will participate in leadership and service-learning programs and enroll in the same general-education course, "Individual and Community Perspectives." Ward and three other faculty will team-teach the section. Weekly "reflection sessions" to talk about what’s going on in class, in the residence hall and elsewhere on campus, as well as community service-learning projects to be determined by the students, are parts of the new program. To be considered for the community, each student wrote a statement on why they would like to live in a learning community. The community is named for sociology Professor Cecil D. Bradfield, a founder of JMU’s Community Service-Learning program who retired last spring after 29 years on the JMU faculty. Bradfield will meet with the group from time to time during the year to share his commitment to and knowledge of the value of community. For more information, contact Dr. Lee Ward at (540) 568-3788, or Steve Grande, associate director for orientation and first-year programs, at 568-2374. # # # By Janet Smith (540) 568-8008 |
 
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Publisher: Media Relations For Information Contact: JMU News Bureau |
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