Animal
(and plant) house
College of Biological Sciences (CBS)
administrators know what incoming freshmen are up against.
One day they're living in the comfort of a family setting
and the next they're plopped down in the middle of the
Twin Cities with thousands of other students and an
army of faculty members who, at times, can seem larger
than life. It can be overwhelming for your average high
school graduate.
In an effort to make life a little easier
for them and, along the way, improve their chances of
success at the University, CBS created Biology House,
a haven for CBS freshmen who live, study, socialize,
and, hopefully, succeed together.
First, a clarification: Biology House
isn't really a house. It's a block of 20 two-person
rooms in Frontier Hall, part of the "superblock" of
residence halls on the Minneapolis campus, where the
vast majority of freshman classes are taught.
Now in its second year, Biology House
offers a few structured activities for the students,
but its primary role is to help build a sense of community
for them, says program coordinator Melissa Weber. "We
hope to develop the sense of a small school and the
sense of attention to the residents."
To do that, Biology House offered a
weekend retreat last fall at the University's Lake Itasca
Forestry and Biological Station at Itasca State Park
for bonding and general goofing off. About half the
students went, but it was such a hit that a fund-raising
effort is underway for a return trip in the spring.
The other activities aren't nearly as
involved as the Itasca trip, but they're just as important,
according to the Biology House residents. Among the
most popular activities are the faculty dinners. Twice
a quarter, the students select a faculty member to invite
for dinner in Frontier Hall's lounge. "Sometimes, students
think a professor is someone we can't talk to, so for
them to come here and eat dorm food with us is amazing,"
says Jenny Jeske, who lived in Biology House last year
and returned this year as the resident mentor. "I know
now that I can talk to a bioscience professor, and I
can say hi and be on a first-name basis. That's important."
Other activities on this year's Biology
House docket are a CBS alumni dinner and field trips
to the University's Raptor Center, the Science Museum
of Minnesota, and the University's Bell Museum of Natural
History.
But structured activities are just a
small part of the Biology House experience, says Will
Marean, a microbiology freshman from Wisconsin. The
heart and soul of Biology House, he says, are the relationships
formed between students and the opportunities they have
to help each other academically.
"It's everything I expected it to be,"
Marean says. "It's helped equally with both the social
aspect and academics. A lot of us socialize together,
and about 10 of us guys have a separate clique. It seems
like we do everything together."
Study groups are a familiar sight around
the Biology House, says Marnie Taylor, a pre-med freshman
from Pine River who serves as Biology House president.
"We're basically all taking the same classes, so we
can help each other instead of having to rely on TAs."
Study groups were commonplace last year,
too, and Jeske says she still sees a lot of her fellow
Biology House alums studying, eating, and hanging out
together on campus. "I still study with the same people.
I see them in classes and around campus. I'll see them
all four years, which is great."
Jeske cherishes her memories from last
year, as part of the first Biology House class, but
she admits that this year's Biology House has benefited
greatly from the trials and tribulations of last year.
"Last year was the stepping stone,"
Jeske says. "There were people living in Frontier Hall
who didn't even know that there was a Biology House.
But involvement is much higher this year, and the input
from students helped a lot."
Weber agrees. "I coordinated and planned
most of the events last year, but it helps to have the
students plan the events. I can guess, but it's better
if it comes from them.
"There's a stronger sense of community
all the way around."
by Geoff Gorvin
:: Back to Frontiers
Spring 1999 :: Back to BIO
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