Learning Community

All first-year students are part of a Learning Community (typically in tandem with your First-Year Seminar) which provides opportunities to combine experiential learning and community-building through exciting off-campus field trips. Your Learning Community will deepen and extend your classroom knowledge as you explore intellectual questions in real-world situations, and it will also give you the chance to make friends and have fun together as a cohort.

Here’s a sampling of FYS Learning Community activities in recent years:

Off-campus:

• Traveling to Philly, NYC, and Washington DC to visit museums and other cultural sites
• Attending the Philly film festival
• Attending Broadway musicals or other theatrical productions
• Visiting/touring local courthouses
• Cheering for the home team at a Flyers game
• Competing in a scavenger hunt
• Taking archery lessons
• Braving a Halloween haunted house
• Visiting a wolf sanctuary
• Attending Harry Potter Festival, ComiCon, OutFest, etc.
• Enjoying a group dinner together at a restaurant

On campus:

• Hanging out to watch movies and eat pizza together
• Hosting study groups + snacks during midterms and finals
• Creating ceramic bowls to donate to the Empty Bowl fundraiser
• Hosting board game/video game tournaments
• Inviting visiting experts and guest speakers
• Attending Arcadia theater productions or musical performances
• Exploring art exhibits at the Arcadia Gallery