What are the Communities?
Learning Communities are groups of students with a shared academic interest, future career, and/or personal identity or interest. Members of a Learning Community:
- live together in the same residence hall, often on the same floor, to build your community and have a "home away from home"
- learn together through at least one shared class to ensure you have support in the classroom and can achieve academic success
- connect to other students, upper-division Peer Mentors, and faculty and staff with shared interests
- prepare for the future through exclusive academic, social, and professional activities and events
- take trips throughout Nebraska and participate in community service projects
Check out what students say about the communities!
Themed Communities are groups of students with a shared personal identity or interest and are more similar to "affinity groups." Members of a Themed Community:
- live together in the same residence hall, often on the same floor, to build your community and have a "home away from home"
- connect to other students, upper-division Peer Mentors, and faculty and staff with shared interests
- engage in a variety activities and events to continue building community and further their understanding of their community topic
- take trips throughout Nebraska and participate in community service projects
Themed Communities do not take courses together like Learning Communities do, but are still able to learn alongside one another through the variety of courses students take their first year.
Who Can Join a Community?
Learning Communities and Themed Communities are open to ANY interested first-year student at Nebraska! All of the communities are not major-required, so individuals are able to join any community they are interested in.
Many of the communities are primarily focused on different academic and career pursuits such as, 'Exploring Health and Medicine,' 'Pre-Vet: The Path to Veterinary Success,' or 'Responsible Design: Architecture, Interior Design & Landscape Architecture.' However, there are some communities based on personal identities and interests such as, 'Prism: LGBTQA+ and Allied Students,' 'Into the Outdoors,' or 'Branch Out: Joint ROTC.'
View all the communities available.
To join a Learning Community or Themed Community, you must first complete your Housing Application. There are slightly different processes to join a Learning Community vs. a Themed Community.
You can always email learningcommunities@unl.edu with any questions.