Talking Stick - July/August 2016 - 29

(VCU) in Richmond participate
in with more than 30 community
organizations; to creation of an
entrepreneurship living-learning
center at the University of Florida (UF)
in Gainesville, an LLC that is home
to LaunchPad, an independent local
incubator with two dozen start-ups.
Regardless of the intensity or
duration of these LLC partnerships,
several benefits are clear. For housing
departments, improved town-gown
relationships, practical mentorship
and internship opportunities for
students, and improved graduation
and job placement rates for LLC
participants are a few advantages that
appear to surpass the established
benefits of traditional living-learning
communities. "I've been able to learn
about different opportunities that
exist for everyone, including students,
and I have been able to share those
opportunities with my residents
and the university community as
a result of engaging with these
partners," says Hannah Frei, residence
entrepreneurial director for Infinity
Hall, the home of the University of
Florida's entrepreneurship livinglearning center.
Brian Samble, assistant director of
academic initiatives and assessment
at the University of Tennessee,
explains that the experiential
learning opportunities for students
when working with partners in the
community or in industry are often
unmatchable by campus partners.
UT living-learning communities
have enjoyed one-time and ongoing
partnerships with Oak Ridge National
Labs, the National Park Service, Second
Harvest Food Bank, and the Tennessee
Theatre, among others. "Students
who commit to academic programs in
collaboration with their LLCs should be
offered opportunities to contextualize
what they learn in the classroom into
practice with professionals in the field,"
Samble says.

For Nerice Lochansky, assistant
director of VCU ASPiRE at Virginia
Commonwealth, having dozens of
community organizations as partners
helps ensure that every student in her
LLC can find his or her niche. Through
intensive experiences like conferences
or multi-day alternative break trips,
students have opportunities to form
close relationships with LLC and
community stakeholders. "One of
the best things about VCU ASPiRE
is the ability for students to be at a
large institution but find their home
in a much smaller community," she
says. While this type of environment
is beneficial to any student, Lochansky
finds that it is especially helpful for
first-generation or higher financial
need students that ASPiRE serves.
In addition, housing staff enjoy the
support that comes from treating
community partners as true coeducators influencing the residential
curriculum.
Community partners also see
LLC engagement as advantageous.
In a long-term partnership such as
those that VCU ASPiRE has with many
organizations, partners know they
can depend on ASPiRE to provide
responsible, trained, competent
volunteers who will be able to take
on roles of increasing responsibility to
help make a difference, says Lochansky.
Samble adds that at the University of
Tennessee partners gain access to a
talent pool and students gain access to
employment opportunities: "Our LLCs
serve as an internship and employment
pipeline for top companies,
government organizations, hospitals,
and more."
Payal Khurana, a founding partner
of UF's LaunchPad, says that one of
the biggest benefits for the more than
20 start-ups incubating in Infinity Hall
is access to interns. "There is always a
learning curve," she says, "but free or
low cost help from students who are
passionate, hardworking, and excited

about learning something new is really
great for our companies." From the
student perspective, the experience of
working with a start-up is very different
from an internship with a corporation.
Khurana recalls her internship as
an undergraduate student at an
engineering firm, which included very
exciting, meaningful opportunities
coupled with some less inspiring
work and a fair amount of downtime
that she filled browsing the web.
She juxtaposes that image with the
experience of an entrepreneurship LLC
student who came to an open house
at LaunchPad, spoke with her about
his passion for photography, and was
connected to a production company
incubating in Infinity Hall. "Now he is
interning with them, and it is just a
totally different experience than I had
as a corporate intern," she says. "He
is hustling every day, working with
his passion, and learning side by side
with the founder of this company. We
know there is no other way this student
would get this level of experience
somewhere else."
Quang Tran, Khurana's partner
at LaunchPad, says there is value for
the university and community on a
larger scale as well. "Our university
aspires to preeminence, but to be a
preeminent institution, we need to
be in a preeminent city," he says. He
believes the partnership between
local companies and the university,
anchored in Infinity Hall, is helping
to keep business, talent, and jobs in
Gainesville. "This partnership is new,
this building is new, but this is going to
be the catalyst for real growth for the
Innovation District and a major force
propelling us toward preeminence."
For all the benefits that LLC
partnerships beyond campus bounds
offer, there are also distinct challenges.
Though there may not always be a
common language and understanding
of student needs between student
affairs and academic affairs, Frei says

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