Freshmen in secondary education will soon find it easier to meet other students in their program and prepare for teaching careers, say university officials.

Beginning this spring, freshmen in secondary education will be able to participate in a learning community specially designed for them, said Dayle Nickerson, student services specialist for the College of Education.

“It will help them gain information they need to proceed in a licensure program and build a community of students around a common goal, in this case, education, and help them build a sense of professionalism,” he said.

Nickerson said the idea for the learning community evolved from conversations with the Secondary Education Club.

“We were seeking ideas about how we could improve the program,” she said.

Nickerson said secondary education students were complaining they “felt lost in the system” and were “out there by themselves.”

“One of the goals [of the new learning community] is to help students connect with each other and establish a group of cohorts that hopefully they can maintain through their years here at Iowa State University,” she said.

Nickerson said the learning community includes a seminar that meets once a week. Two peer mentors will help run the program.

Bethany Moore, peer mentor, said the learning community will provide an opportunity for her to help secondary education students.

“My role will be to facilitate the group meetings and be someone who the students can come to with questions,” she said.

Moore, junior in English, said students will take Introduction to Instructional Technology (CI 201) and Pre-student Teaching Experience (CI 280A) together.

The group will interact outside the classroom as well, she said. “There will be bowling, a movie night and other fun activities,” Moore said.

Moore said this is the first learning community program specifically for secondary education students.

Nickerson said the program will make it easier to track student progress through the secondary education program.

“In the past, the only way we [knew] if a student [had] been seeking licensure is if [they had] enrolled in the university teacher education program or if [they had] spoken to a coordinator in their licensure area,” she said.

Nickerson said students can register for the learning community program through Access Plus during their regular class registration period.