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Opening Celebration for Concordia University Irvine's Global Village Living Learning Community Draws a Large Crowd

Opening Celebration for Concordia University Irvine's Global Village Living Learning Community Draws a Large Crowd

      

Irvine, Calif. (September 3,2013)-- On August 21st, Concordia University Irvine celebrated the launch of Global Village, a unique dorm community that creates a residential experience where students and professors interact outside the classroom and students enjoy greater opportunities for learning right where they live. More than 100 members of the campus community, including President Dr. Kurt Krueger and founders Dr. Shang Ik Moon and Dr. Charles Manske, gathered for the opening of the Global Village dorm.

The dorm is one of four living-learning communities (LLCs), re-purposed dorms that house 40 to 50 students, all of whom applied to live there based on a common interest. Global Village dorm is for students interested in global studies; Holis House is for students wanting to emphasize healthy living in body, mind and soul; WINGS is for students seeking greater help transitioning to college life; and CUI Bono is concerned with life’s big questions.

In each dorm, a professor and the professor’s family live among the students for the entire academic year, providing an element of family and personal interaction uncommon for most college students. The goal, says Director of Residential Education and Services Scott Keith, is for everyday interaction between students, professors and professors’ families to provide a deeper, more transformative influence that goes beyond the classroom.

“Students are happier to be part of your institution if you are able to provide accessible ways for students and faculty to interact outside the classroom,” Keith said. “An LLC provides a place where students feel that they intrinsically belong and that engages them co-curricularly in an interest of theirs.”

Dan Waite, Executive Director of Global Programs, says of Global Village, "Our dream is that this physical space will help bring to life cross-cultural conversations and deep community. We don’t want to just politely accommodate each other and say 'hello' on the sidewalk. We want to be intentional about sitting down for meals, playing games together, sharing movies and music - breaking down barriers of culture as we share our lives together in community."

"To paraphrase Gandhi, we do not want our campus to be a collection of 'walled houses' and 'stuffed windows,'" Waite continued. "We want this Global Village to be a space where 'the cultures of all lands are blown about as freely as possible.' When the first century Christian Justin Martyr was asked by the Romans what was special about this new community, he stated in defense: 'we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly with them, and pray for our enemies, and endeavor to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.'  And this is the kind of community we are trying to create here at CUI."

CUI founding president Dr.Charles Manske says students come to college from a family, then graduate, marry and return to a family situation.

“The college experience is not a vacation from family living where you can sow your wild oats,” Manske says. “There ought to be a Christian example of a professor,and the professor’s children and spouse, and how they learn to live and interact with other people in a Christian way. Students better understand their responsibility to live for God and for others when they see a family living in their residential unit with the values of love, forgiveness, acceptance of correction, all done under God’s love and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s what changes people’s lives, when you see that working out in the life of a professor.”

Student Christopher Thorne, as a sophomore majoring in psychology, says his interest was piqued when he learned that his favorite professor and family would be living in the Global Village living-learning community dorm.

“We were signing up for places to live and they told us there were these new things called living learning communities that you could join,” Thorne says. “I thought, ‘That looks really cool.’ When I heard that Dr. Mallinson was going to live here, I was excited. I get to meet his family, see how they are. I know I’ll learn a lot from this,especially with him here. You don’t hear about professors living on campus. I hope Dr. Mallinson can lead some really interesting discussions.”

“Here at Concordia University we view this Global Village as a place where students can learn how to witness to Jesus Christ as their Savior,” Krueger told the assembled group. “We are very mindful of the Great Commission.”

“This is indeed a very awesome occasion and my heart is filled with joy,” Moon said in remarks before and during the ceremony. “It’s the kind of thing we dreamt about when we were opening our school many years ago when there was only a hilltop here. We made a concerted effort from the beginning to be global.  This Global Village can become a wonderful example of how to make a global living a reality, united under the love of Jesus Christ. We can translate our faith and beliefs into action.”

Karen Gurske, a sophomore studying elementary education, applied to live in the Global Village but was “really nervous coming into this. I thought, are the international students going to like me? What barriers are we going to have to cross — language barriers, cultural barriers, everything. But in the first couple of days I realized these girls are very similar to me. They have different experiences, different heritage and a different language, but we all interact in a Christian manner — very friendly, polite, helpful. So my nervousness and my worry has turned into relief. I’m pretty excited for the rest of the year to see how these relationships build. Hopefully they can teach me as much as I can teach them.”

Manske says the idea of a living-learning community was in CUI’s DNA from the start. The initial class of 35 students in 1976 lived together in the only building on campus, where the classroom was located and a faculty member also lived.

“We did not think that professors should be sitting home and students should be living in a dorm,” Manske says. “The heart of the community was the living-learning concept, interacting twenty-four hours a day, students and families.”

Scott Keith, who was in charge of developing the new living-learning communities, started by identifying existing groups of interest on campus such as the Global Citizens club and CUI Bono, an academic society. That led to the formation of residence halls specifically for students with those interests.

Faculty’s reaction has been positive, he says. “The faculty living on campus are exceptionally excited about being here,” says Keith. “It’s caught on like wildfire. My wife and I have lived on campus for almost a year. It’s been an incredible experience. I’ve gotten to know the students so much better and look forward to sharing that experience with the current faculty in residence as they learn what it’s like to live on a college campus again and open your home and your lives to students.”


The broader effect, says Keith, is creating a “truly residential campus” with ample opportunity for staff and faculty to serve as direct, positive influences on the lives of the students. This will enrich the college experience for everyone, improve academic results and retention and bond graduates to their alma mater, creating a stronger alumni community, he says.

Nokukhanya Shabalala from South Africa says she looks forward to “sharing my story, my culture and bringing a different perspective,” in the Global Village dorm. “I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other, or God wouldn’t have created different people around the world.”

Zigie Wang from China says his “dream is to learn together, talk together, play games together and eat together. If we can make friends with other cultures, we can make friends with anyone.”

Gurske hopes to be part of “a community of students who are passionate to learn about other people and able to communicate in a way that transcends the typical say-hi-to-you-every-morning. We want to build a family of cultures and backgrounds and hopefully we’ll be intertwined and supportive of each other in all our different endeavors.”

 

Living Learning Communities at Concordia University Irvine

CUI Residential Education and Services believes that the learning environment extends beyond the traditional lecture hall and laboratory and into the informal learning spaces of the residence halls, recreation areas and gathering places. Living Learning communities are small defined groups of students who come together with faculty and student affairs professionals to engage in a holistic and intellectually interactive learning experience. The communities are distinctive, theme-based residential learning environments that: (1) promote faithfulness; (2) encourage student choice and design; and (3) align with the Concordia University Irvine mission and vision.

About Concordia University Irvine

 

Concordia University Irvine is a U.S. News Top Tier Regional University that prepares students for their vocations—their calling in life. CUI offers undergraduate, graduate,doctoral, and adult degree programs in a beautiful Southern California location, with online and regional cohort options. Concordia’s undergraduate program is distinctive among universities in the region because of the University’s innovative and engaging Core Curriculum, and its Lutheran heritage that provides a thoughtful and caring Christian community that lives out Grace Alone. Faith Alone. Read More.

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