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Learning Communities at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½

A learning community is a group of individuals sharing common goals, values, and ideas that actively engage in learning with and from each other.

Mentoring at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½, ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ School of Medicine’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), was selected to sustain students’ excellence and academic success through the development and implementation of a structured mentoring program. It is designed to maintain close student to student, and faculty to student relationships as ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ increases its class size. ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ implemented its QEP in the fall of 2011 with the goals: to train faculty mentors and to mentor all students through Learning Communities (LCs).

In student learning communities (MD, GEBS, MSPAS and MPH LCs), small groups of 4-15 students and faculty meet regularly to discuss topics relevant to program competencies like adjustment to school transitions, time management, and cultural sensitivity. These learning communities also strive to cultivate a supportive learning environment and strengthen faculty-student and student-student relationships.

Faculty learning communities address the teaching and mentoring needs of their peers as well as the facilitation skills to participate in learning communities. Faculty LCs at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½ are broken into specific groups to offer a more tailored approach to networking, career development, and lifelong learning.