Information Systems Manager Monique Cain kicked off this years’s Black in Academia Lecture Series with a lecture on the benefits at-risk students receive from living in the University’s living-learning communities Wednesday in the French House of the Honors College.

Cain, who received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from the University, presented the lecture based on her dissertation, which she completed in spring 2012.

According to the University’s Residential Life website, living-learning communities are residential communities that provide first-year students with the opportunity to participate in leadership development, service-learning and community outreach.

The lecture explained how the experience of living in learning communities helps integrate at-risk students in academic and social life through the use of academic and social programs to contribute to student success.

According to Cain’s dissertation, students who are first-generation college students or who come from families challenged by low-income levels are classified as at-risk.

The primary problem is that at-risk students tend to lack the generational transfer of knowledge, whereas non-at-risk students enter college with an advantage, Cain said.

“Learning communities have a high impact on at-risk students,” Cain said. “They provide an opportunity for collaborative learning with other students and faculty.”

Students involved in living-learning communities were more successful socially, Cain said. She also found that students who described themselves as shy in high school became more outgoing and felt more connected to campus life after participating in residential colleges.

Cain said students appreciated the support provided by living in learning communities — especially the academic support.

“Students were not so intimidated in front of peers.” Cain said.

Cain used a mix-method approach to her research. She incorporated quantitative analysis, which includes statistical procedures, and qualitative research, which includes focus groups.

The Black in Academia Lecture Series began in spring 2010. It was added to the Black History Month Celebration as a way for people who can not attend night time events, to have an opportunity to participate in Black History Month Celebration events.

According to LaKeitha Poole, coordinator of African American student affairs, the lecture series was designed as a way for faculty and staff to get to know their peers.

“The faculty and staff at LSU care about each other,” Poole said. “The lecture series provides an opportunity for faculty and staff to learn about their peers research and work.”

Cain said working in ResLife sparked her interest in this subject.

“I saw the benefits students gained from residential colleges and wished I could’ve received the same benefits,” she said. “I was motivated to research students with similar characteristics as me — low-income and first generation college student.”

The 2013 Black History Month Celebration will hold two more lectures throughout the month of February. The next lecture, Feb. 20, will be a panel discussion on the journey to the graduate degree.

The last lecture will be given Feb. 27 by Joyce Jackson, associate professor of geography and anthropolgy on “Rockin’ for a Risen Savior: Repertoires of Memory in the Louisiana Easter Rock Ritual.”

Both lectures will be held at noon the Univerity’s Honors College in the French House Grand Salon.