About The Learning Community

Join us

Are you a first- or second-year, or a transfer student interested in the life sciences? If so, this is a unique opportunity to engage with faculty, fellow students, and peer mentors in an experiential learning community with other like-minded students.

Do you want to:

• Get to know new friends in a small classroom setting (40 students or less) while exploring majors and careers in the areas of environmental sciences, health, molecular and cell biology, and interdisciplinary STEM.
• Make connections with upperclassmen who are knowledgeable and who remember what it was like to be new at ISU.
• Network with faculty who are experts in your fields of interest.
• Learn about campus resources and develop academic and professional skills that will enable a successful ISU experience and aid you in your future career.
• Have the ability to shape your learning community experiences based on your own interests and goals.
• Participate in small-group activities that engage you with students and professionals who are already pursuing majors and careers that interest you.

You can achieve all these things and more by meeting for just two hours per week!

During Orientation you will have the opportunity to sign up for the learning team that best suits your needs, and don’t worry, if your interests change as the semester progresses, you can still move to the section that works best for you!

Questions? Email Dr. Clark Coffman or Dr. Corinna Most.

Learn more about the teams

Student-Related Outcomes

• Sense of community and a strong academic and personal support network
• Increased self confidence
• Personal interactions with faculty and invited speakers
• Career and major exploration
• Create a resume and attend the Career Fairs
• Tour research labs, the tornado simulator, the ISU power plant and other interesting places
• Opportunity to return as a peer mentor for the following year (develop leadership skills!)

What students are saying

• “It made me feel like I wasn’t the only student who didn’t know what I wanted to major in yet.”
• “Joining the Sky is the Limit Learning Community was by far the best decision I made my first year of college.”
• “With the knowledge that I gained from joining this learning community, I have opened so many doors within the university, my prospective career, and the community as a whole”
• “I enjoyed how it exposed me to majors so I could see what I liked and didn’t like”
• “It truly opened up my eyes to careers that I did not know existed.”
• “Because of all of the speakers and career exploration activities, I got a better understanding of the majors that I might want to go into and others I had not even thought about.”