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TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Residence hall groups join up with LEAPS for service project

Freshman Interest Groups and Living Learning Communities are officially joining the TCU LEAPS project to help with the annual community service project this fall.

Rachel Siron, assistant director for Residence Life, said her office wanted to incorporate a service project into the programming of the LLCs, and LEAPS, an annual day of community service, was a good fit.

“A number of our students will participate in LEAPS anyway, so we thought it would be great for them to participate together as a group,” Siron wrote in an e-mail. “We encouraged each resident assistant to choose a LEAPS service event that correlates with their respective theme area. This way, students are participating in areas that are important to their LLC.”

There are five freshman interest groups, ranging from Education to Business to Service and Learning. The FIGs are communities of 20 to 25 students who choose to live in one of five different areas in Foster or Clark halls to promote opportunities for students to engage with one another, according to the Student Affairs Web site.

Bridgit Breslow, hall director of Foster, oversees four of the FIGs in Foster.

Breslow said the FIGs becoming directly involved in LEAPS should not be a huge change.

“Three of my (FIG) RAs last year were also LEAPS group leaders who were able to work with the LEAPS execs to get all of their people signed up for the same group,” Breslow said. “So they had already been doing it on their own, but now (are) involved officially.”

Breslow also said that the LLCs were well represented, as many students went from FIGs to LLCs. Living Learning Communities are themed housing similar to FIGs available to upper-level students.

The groups were given options as to where they would be using their time helping with the LEAPS program, and they tried to choose service projects that applied to their group’s theme, Breslow said.

This is the first year students have been allowed to work on projects as groups, thanks to the use of Microsoft Sharepoint, Breslow said. The system has changed the way sign-ups for the project are done, allowing the FIGs and LLCs to get involved as a group.

Wesley Gentle, a junior music major and group leader for the Service and Learning FIG, said the group was happy to help with LEAPS. His group will be involved at a local YMCA setting up the organization’s fall carnival and will return to help run it at a later date.

Gentle said his group is looking forward to helping out with LEAPS.

“I think (LEAPS) is an amazing program,” Gentle said. “It gets people out in Fort Worth in places they might not generally go, which is good for the community as a whole.”

TCU LEAPS

When: Oct. 24

Register now at my.tcu.edu

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