Coming to the Bryant University campus as a freshman girl is an experience that can be both exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. From sharing your space with another person you barely know at first to navigating through classes and clubs with a brand new group of people, it can be difficult to find a place of stability and belonging in the first few weeks of being on campus. However, I am so happy to say that my personal experience of these first few weeks has been a positive one and this is largely based off my decision to join the Women’s Leadership Living and Learning Community on campus (also known as the LLC).
The LLC is a program run by Kelly Boutin in which a group of about 20 girls are housed together, take the same GFCL and GFOB classes as a group, and do various community building activities such as taking a trip to an escape room or having monthly dinners together on our floor. Since this is the launching year of the LLC, it felt like we were somewhat of an experiment at first- 19 different girls from across the country (and a few from outside of it) being put together to see if we could really form any kind of community.
But if at first it felt a bit like a forced experiment, now I would say our LLC group feels like a support network of girls on campus and I can’t imagine not being a part of it. The feeling is a little like that of having an on-campus family, where we might not all be best friends or get along 100% of the time, but at the end of the day we have each others’ backs like sisters and we will always encourage each other toward success at Bryant.
Overall, it feels empowering to be surrounded by a group of girls who also want to overcome the gender gap on campus to be leaders in this community, and it’s exciting to see how much the girls in the LLC could accomplish. Just a week ago, we listened to a talk called “Finding Your Voice,” where a panel of strong and successful women including our president, Via Valenti, shared their experiences of discovering their own voices and becoming leaders here at Bryant. It’s made me realize that, although we girls may be a minority here at Bryant, we still have a lot to say and a lot of power to make positive changes!
Coming into the LLC, I never thought I would get to meet so many other smart and motivated girls who would become my friends and family here at Bryant! I’m happy that I chose to become a part of this Living and Learning Community and would encourage any incoming freshman girls next year to consider this opportunity, because it is one of my favorite parts of my Bryant experience so far.
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