Future Students

Learning Communities

Learning communities connect students with social and learning activities that extend well beyond the classroom. Students in many communities take a few courses together, get to know upperclassmen peer mentors, study together as a group, do service projects, and gather just for fun. Students in learning communities typically interact with faculty more than other students. In some of the communities, the members even reside together. Iowa State University's learning communities are consistently ranked among the top 25 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Overall, student satisfaction and engagement is higher for students who participate in learning communities than students who don't. Both the one-year retention rate — and the six-year graduate rate — for learning community students are 11% points higher than those for other students. Learning communities of particular interest to students in College of Human Sciences include:
Community	Coordinator
Adult Non-Traditional Students (A.N.T.S.) especially for students who are over the age of 25 as well as those who are married, have children, work full-time while attending classes part-time, or those who have had a break in their college education	Darlene Fratzke dlfratzk@iastate.edu
Common Threads especially for students with a major in Apparel Merchandising, Design, and Production	Chris Wise ct@iastate.edu
Directions especially for students with a major in either Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management or Family and Consumer Sciences Education and Studies in the Department of Apparel, Educational Studies and Hospitality Management	Dawn Fiihr dmfiihr@iastate.edu
Food Science and Human Nutrition especially for students with a major in Food Science, Nutritional Science, or Culinary Science	Anne Oldham aoldham@iastate.edu Suzanne Hendrich shendric@iastate.edu
Human Development and Family Studies especially for students with a major in Early Childhood Education; Child, Adult, and Family Services; or Family Finance, Housing, and Policy	Pat Walsh pwalsh@iastate.edu Lisa Sharp lsharp@iastate.edu
Kinesiology especially for students with a major in Kinesiology and Health	Carol Cordell ccordell@iastate.edu
Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers especially for students in Elementary Education, and those in other majors who are seeking teacher certification as well as undecided freshmen who want to explore teaching as an option	Al Campell arc@iastate.edu Hina Patel hinap@iastate.edu
Step Forward especially for sophomores who are members of an ethnic minority	multicul@iastate.edu
Transport especially for transfer students	Darlene Fratzke hsci@iastate.edu
Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) especially for first-year incoming freshman women who major in a science or engineering field of study	Lora Leigh Chrystal lchrysta@iastate.edu
WiSE Transfer especially for transfer students who major in a science or engineering field of study	Lora Leigh Chrystal lchrysta@iastate.edu
Other ISU Learning Communities