**Review of First Monthly Learning Community Initiative

The first monthly learning colloquium was held in Cramton Auditorium. All Freshmen students taking a freshman seminar course were required to attend this event. It was a very interesting and informative session. Through this session, I learned a number of things regarding research, Howard's history, intellectual work, and different tools that are essential for freshmen that originally eluded me. The discussion was led by Dr. Carr, a College of Arts and Sciences professor in the African-American Studies department.

The discussion began with research. He asked the audience what their definition of research was, and then he showed a list of the basic steps in the research process. When performing research, an individual is to try and state the topic as a question that you want your audience to answer. If the topic is too broad then you will not be able to successfully write a research paper because there will be too many aspects of that topic to cover. Narrowing the topic to one that allows you to concentrate on it and pose different subtopics is the key to an excellent research paper.

I came to Howard University knowing hardly anything regarding its history, but Dr. Carr enlightened me on a number of things regarding this subject. The only thing that I knew was that it was found in 1886 by General Oliver Otis Howard. I was even unaware of the fact that General Howard was Caucasian. Through the learning initiative, Dr. Carr revealed the purpose for Howard's establishment and other important aspects of the college. I learned that Howard University has always been a university, unlike many other schools that started as a college and developed into a university. Howard was not established to simply allow African Americans to learn a trade, but it was founded to educate African American. The idea of educating African-Americans was an idea between the AUC, Fisk, and Howard. On the other hand, Hampton University was stressing the idea of blacks simply taking up a trade. Before coming to Howard, I had seen the seal many times, but I had never taken the time to examine it. The Howard University seal originally had people in the background, but the seal was redesigned by Kelly Miller, and his design stands as the seal to this day. I learned that the motto on the seal, "veritas et utilitas" translates into "truth and service."

Dr. Carr laid out a checklist for freshman listing our roles as first year students. He entitled it "Intellectual Genealogy and Purpose." The first item on this list is to obtain library cards in Washington, D.C. We are to get a library card from both the Library of Congress and a local D.C. library. Dr. Carr's three ground rules for intellectual work are: be present, read and write, and speak.

In conclusion, the Learning Community Colloquia was very insightful and beneficial to me as a freshman student. Dr. Carr kept me alert and attentive throughout his presentation. He gave me a new perspective about what it will take on my behalf in order to have a successful year in not only my Freshman Seminar class, but all of my other courses as well.