Pam Person, Director
The Center helps colleges and departments across the university to design and offer curricula and programs that enrich students’ first-year college experiences as a foundation for their ongoing success at UC. In recognition of her work and its impact upon the University of Cincinnati Pam has recently been selected by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition and Houghton Mifflin Company as an Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate.
Gregory Metz, PhD., Assistant Director
His primary responsibility is to support Peer Leaders and contribute to the continuous improvement of Learning Communities. Greg has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University, and in his academic work he has studied student experience and change processes in educational institutions. He has extensive professional experience as a college level Dean including coordination of advising programs, design and implementation of college transition programs, and supervision of educational opportunity programs for first generation college students. Greg has also taught extensively at the undergraduate and graduate levels in both Education and Sociology, and taught high school history as well. He lives in Wyoming, Ohio with his wife (Sharon) and daughter (Lauren), and enjoys basketball, playing guitar and listening to a wide array of music.
Amanda Jones, Program Manager
As a 2004 McMicken College of Arts & Sciences graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Amanda has a strong loyalty and dedication to enhancing the experience of the Bearcat family for all future generations. Her ongoing efforts in student development include advisory roles for the Alpha Lambda Delta First Year Honor Society and her creation and development of the First Year Student Government Internship (FYI) Program. Amanda is also responsible for the Enrollment Management of the Learning Communities Program and serves as the Secretary for the University of Cincinnati Undergraduate Academic Advising Association (UCUAADA). Her advice to first-year students is to get involved early and often. She says your first year is all about finding your niche and creating your college experience.
Karen Peacock, Executive Staff Assistant
Grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from UC in Graphic Design. After spending 12 years in California, she has recently returned to Cincinnati to be closer to family. Karen has worked in a variety of administrative capacities and has a strong interest in cross-cultural issues, including Teaching English as a Second Language. Karen is excited to be a part of the First-Year Experience and Learning Communities office here at UC.
Jennifer Dively, Graduate Assistant
As a member of the Center staff Jennifer is responsible for ensuring smooth day to day operations of the Center as well as administering the Center’s Faculty-Student Activity Grant program. A 2002 University of Cincinnati graduate from the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, Jennifer takes great pride in giving back and contributing to the Bearcat community through her work in the Center and in her advisory role with the Alpha Lambda Delta First Year Honor Society. Her advice to new students is to take advantage of all the wonderful resources and opportunities that UC has to offer.
Jacqueline Jones, Undergraduate Assistant
A senior here at the University of Cincinnati and will be graduating in Spring of 2008 with a Bachelors in Political Science. She has been involved with Learning Communities for 4 years now. Her first year she was a Learning Community student in the Pre-Law “Practice” Learning Community. For the past 3 years she has been an Undergraduate Assistant for the Center where she runs the Learning Community AIM for students and presents the Learning Communities program at Orientation. Other groups and activities that she has been involved includes Rally Cats, Learning Community Student Council (Fmr. President), First Year Student Council, Special Election campaign for Jean Schmidt (2005),Ohio First Year Summit (2005-06), LeaderShape Institute of 2006 and German Club. She will also be traveling to Germany this September to study German culture and architecture with the German Department at the University of Cincinnati.
Julie Idoine, Undergraduate Assistant
A senior double majoring in communication and organizational leadership. She is an undergraduate assistant for the center and has been a peer leader in the past. In addition to working at the center she is a member of the women's rowing team at the university, cincinnatus honorary society, and mortar board along with various other clubs and memberships. She loves her job and everyone who works at the center in making a difference in the lives of first year students!
Katie Gill, Peer Leader Captain
A fourth year Communication Sciences and Disorders major out of the College of Allied Health Sciences. This will be her 2nd year with Learning Communities. Last year she applied to be a Peer Leader, got the job, and was assigned to the All Allied Health LC. She has found that being a Peer Leader and being associated with Learning Communities has greatly enhanced her experience here at UC. It gave her a chance to meet other students, learn about resources here on campus, and develop skills that helped contribute to her success today. As a Peer Leader, she used tools like learning style assessment and different workshops, such as time management, that really helped her first year students. Being a Peer Leader to first year students was an amazing experience. She had forgotten about all of the changes a first year student goes through during the transition from high school to college.
Cal Roberts, Peer Leader Captain
A junior here at UC in secondary education over at the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services and his focus in his major is history. He was in a Learning Community his first year here and a Peer Leader last year. This will be his first year as Captain and he is really looking forward to this experience. The reason that he got into this program is because of the wonderful experience he had with his Peer Leader and how much she helped him throughout his first year. He felt that he should share his experience with others which lead him to become a Peer Leader. Being a PL last year was so great because of the relationship he formed with his LC and he loved helping students who were once like him. His next goal is to help all of the new PLs have successful LC's and have a wonderful experience like he was so lucky to receive.
2007-2008 Peer Leaders:
- All Allied Health Angela Estes
- CSD Kim Schwartz
- AMIT 1 Allison Ossege
- AMIT 2 Brandon Rose
- HLSC and Pre-Med 1 Emily Vehr
- HLSC and Pre-Med 2 Jeff Marsh
- HLSC and Pre-Med 3 Candice Burnam
- Nutrition and Dietetics Katlyn Kutzlo
- Special Education Sarah Schmolinsky
- Early Childhood 1 Tyler Idoine
- Early Childhood 2 Erica Nuesse
- Middle Childhood Paula Goodloe
- Secondary Education 1 Chuck Maddox
- Secondary Education 2 Jeremy Ross
- Criminal Justice 1 Emma Wright
- Criminal Justice 2 Natalie Geiss
- Criminal Justice 3 Jessica Halliday
- Envisioning Art and Design 1 Cameron Dunn
- Envisioning Art and Design 2 Jessica Hoh
- Equality and Multiculturalism Lacey Gray
- Hola Que Pasa Tym House
- Journalism Keisha Byrd
- Major Choices: UC Caitlin Vagedes
- Major Choices: A&S Jennifer Poon
- Mind and Will Casey Trimble
- Race Class and Gender Betsy Morgan
- Sciences and Pre-Health 1 Kyle Mesker
- Sciences and Pre-Health 2 Kyaira Renner
- Sciences and Pre-Health 3 Caitlin Reger
- Sciences and Pre-Health 4 Christopher Erb
- Sex Drugs and RR 1 Darrin Stemple
- Sex Drugs and RR 2 Derek Wilson
- Sex Drugs and RR 3 Matthew Stuckey
- Talk Soup Rachel Hopkins
- Liberal Arts Tradition 1 Leah Whitman
- Liberal Arts Tradition 2 Ndongmo Takougang
- The Practice Brian Berling
- The Twilight Zone Ayesha Ekanayake
- Honors Pre-Health Professions 1 Eileen Slavin
- Exploring The Sciences Rachel Spearry
- Undecided Engineering 1 Denise Brunck
- Undecided Engineering 2 Jonathon Koester
- Computer Engineering 1 Bao Nguyen
- Computer Engineering 2 Richard Keller
- Electrical Engineering 1 Sampurna Mukherjee
- Bio Medical Engineering 1 Kate Hoyt
- Bio Medical Engineering 2 Thomas Cramer
- Chemical Engineering 1 Heather Nejman
- Chemical Engineering 2 Stephanie Berger
- Civil Engineering 1 Chad Muhlenkamp
- Civil Engineering 2 Mike Freshwater
- Mechanical Engineering 1 Stephen Major
- Mechanical Engineering 2 Kevin McGroarty
- Aerospace 1 Daniel Ruffley
- Aerospace 2 David Cole
- Computer Science 1 Arthur Sobczak
