Center for Community-Based Learning

Northside Living-Learning Community

The Northside Living-Learning Community is a year-long LLC dedicated to sustainability and community engagement within Spartanburg's Northside. As a cohort of 12 students, participants live together in Milliken House at Northside Station while enrolled in a linked course each semester. The program seeks to expand the classroom by giving these 12 students the opportunity to live, learn, and work in the Northside. In partnership with Northside stakeholders and community partners, students will tackle Spartanburg's largest concerns and get first-hand, real-world experience dealing with the topics they discuss in class. Through this direct engagement, students will learn from and give back to the Northside community.

Linked Courses

As part of the LLC, students will enroll in two linked courses, one in fall and one in spring. These courses, taught by a rotating lineup of professors from diverse disciplines, will each encompass aspects of sustainability and community-based learning, seeing students get involved in the Northside to bolster their classroom experience with real-world experience.

The 2026-2027 Northside Living Learning Community (NLLC) will bring together the disciplines of environmental studies and philosophy to critically examine food systems, sustainability, and ethics within the Northside neighborhood. In the Fall, students in Dr. Amy Telligan’s Sustainable Food Systems course (ENVS 313) will examine the major driving forces shaping the modern US food system and its alternatives, contributing original data to the Spartanburg Food Policy Council Food System Assessment and Plan through a semester-long Northside-based project. In the Spring, Dr. Nancy Williams’s Philosophy of Food course (PHIL 205) will explore how food relates to major areas of philosophical inquiry, examining topics such as the nature of food, food as art, biotechnology, ethics of eating animals, food safety and human rights, cultural identity, and the politics of global food distribution and production. Across both courses, NLLC students will engage with local organizations and residents, gaining a deeper understanding of the neighborhood’s food systems and strategic development plans while actively participating in community-based learning that extends beyond the classroom.

Fall 2026:
ENVS 313: Sustainable Food Systems
Instructed by: Dr. Amy Telligan

Spring 2027:
PHIL 205: Philosophy of Food
Instructed by: Dr. Nancy Williams

Milliken House

Members of the cohort live together in Milliken House at Northside Station which consists of 6 two-bedroom apartments, each with a full kitchen, bath, and balcony. The space also houses a dual use classroom/common area. Just a few minutes’ walk from campus, Milliken House offers students the perfect launchpad for work in the Northside while still being able to enjoy all the amenities of on-campus living. Upon acceptance into the program, your housing will be assigned to Milliken House for the 2025-26 academic year.

Join the Northside LLC

The application is now closed and students for the 2026-27 cohort have been selected. The application will reopen in the Spring of 2027.

About the Northside

For more than a decade, Spartanburg’s Northside has been the focus of the most ambitious neighborhood revitalization in the city's history. Access three City of Spartanburg podcasts in a series titled Northside Rising with Spartanburg-based writer Will Rothschild, detailing the Northside’s neighborhood origins and the journey toward inclusive development through the Northside Initiative.

Northside Stakeholders

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Livingston "Liv" Hawkins at hawkinsdl@wofford.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions