A Bengal Community consists of a group of students and their professors exploring a common theme. Students in Bengal Communities have a unique opportunity to share similar academic interests, discover new academic experiences all while having increased face to face interactions with faculty and staff to assist with their transitional process. Students will also become engaged in a variety of academic and social experiences (on and off-campus) to not only engage students in the campus but connect them to our larger Buffalo community.
Our communities are open to all first-year students who want to be empowered to make the most out of their Buffalo State experience!
Types of Bengal Communities:
- First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs): These communities serve students who want to 'explore' which majors and minors are the best fit while connecting with professional academic advisors. The Exploratory Learning Community connects students who are interested in exploring themselves as they begin to understand their strengths, values, and identities while also understanding the society in which they live. Within FIGs, there are several opportunities for this discovery to occur. FIGs support first-year students’ exploration and aids in developing plans to meet their academic, personal, and career aspirations.
- Residential Community: like FIGs, these are linked courses that explore a theme as well a shared residence hall space where all living-learning community students live (i.e. First Gen, America and Me, Transfer connection, etc.)
- Special Interest Housing: designated residence hall space without any attached courses that explores an identified topic (primarily student-led with support from faculty fellow and residence life staff- i.e. Gender Inclusive, Athletics, etc.)
