“Wait, you have how many roommates?!” “These houses are for undergrads!?” Our student housing setup at the Institute is definitely an attention getter. Since our founding years, we’ve opted for a ‘household’ centric dorm setup where our undergraduate students on-campus have several roommates and a fully stocked house versus the typical college dorm (a single room with a shared bathroom).
This setup allows for students to not only establish deep friendships within their house, but to gain experiences and habits of maintaining a household that follows our undergrads after they graduate. As an alumni myself, I can attest to this. The friendships I had in student housing are ones I still have to this day - in ministry, in motherhood, in life. Part of that depth is a direct result of living day in and day out together, learning the word of God and practicing living it out with one another. Our student housing setup establishes students to have an immediate mirror in one another, as roommates. Students learn how to use their voice to sharpen one another, resolve conflict, communicate needs and build up one another in love.
Students also get weekly opportunities to set up healthy household habits like cleaning and boundaries with personal space. Not a fun experience to most, but knowing how to clean every aspect of a house and establish a system for doing so every week is a much needed life skill for young people.
Students have the freedom to establish their own social dynamics and inner workings of their household within the confines of our student handbook. Our Student Housing offers a safe space for students to experience living ‘on their own’ without doing it alone. Learning how to tell the truth in love prepares them for a lifetime of working with others. For me, my time in student housing was formative - in my friendships and in rooting my faith as my newfound sisters and I walked together in practice with the same mission-minded goals.
Comments