New learning community opens

A new International Learning Community (ILC), opening this fall with a German language floor in Adams Hall, will offer about 67 University of Wisconsin–Madison undergraduate students a chance to live the German language and culture.

Michael Hinden, associate dean of the UW–Madison International Institute, says the new floor will expand Merit Hall’s Global Village, which has only been able to accommodate 30 students. Eventually, plans call for Italian and Spanish language and culture floors to be added to the Adams Hall ILC.

Learning communities, a growing phenomenon at colleges and universities around the world, seek to work educational opportunities into the fabric of students’ daily lives. Field trips, lectures, in-house courses, special meals, projects, discussions, social activities and more might be on the agenda of a learning community; in addition to those activities, the ILC will link with immersion programs in Adams Hall for students studying foreign languages, Hinden says.

The ILC is intended both as preparation for students who intend to study abroad, but also as a welcoming environment for international undergraduates or any student interested in living in an international community. Indeed, at least 13 of the students in the Adams Hall German floor are international students.