It seems embarrassing and almost impossible to say this now, but my first day in Bloomington consisted of lots of crying. I was thrilled to be at college, but was also scared. I could not imagine living in southern Indiana at all, let alone a long period of time. I met Karen Grant and she had an amazing talk with me. She was so compassionate and I felt so blessed to be a part of the KLLC. Within a few hours I met friends I will have forever (and this is really true!) and spent the entirety of the KLLC orientation with a huge smile on my face.

The Kelley Living Learning Center is an amazing opportunity. It allows you to be surrounded by passionate and interesting people all the time. And that’s not just the students! The people that work with the KLLC are also like this. Through my various X255 classes and trips with the LLC, I have found that the faculty consists of incredible people that I will definitely stay in touch with after I graduate. Next year I plan on being a mentor for the KLLC because I am so passionate about this!

Something the KLLC has definitely helped me out with is class. There are KLLC tutors that help you one-on-one with various challenging courses. Most TA’s have a room of 50+ at free help sessions, and the KLLC allows you to get individual attention with someone that has been through the same thing before. I know that the Kelley Living Learning Center’s mission is to help facilitate strong bonds between students interested in business, but the people are so fantastic that Kelley almost seems secondary because we all have so much in common besides business!

Jacqueline Birkel