Norcia and Bridge to Stewardship students

Additional questions?

Please contact the Office of Housing and Residence Life at:

Phone: 360-412-6163
Email: housing@stmartin.edu

Special interest communities

Interested students may indicate their preference for special interest communities on the housing application.

Norcia leaders community

Developing leaders for service and the common good.

Named after Norcia, Italy, the birthplace of Saint Benedict, the Norcia leaders community is a partnership between Housing and Residence Life, the Benedictine Leaders Program, and the Benedictine Institute. Designed to pair Saint Martin’s emerging student leaders with first-year students committed to following in their footsteps, the Norcia leaders community will feature uniquely crafted leadership programming, activities, service opportunities, and community development projects.

First-year students selected to live on the floor will be assigned to double-occupancy rooms in three-person to four-person suites with a shared bathroom. They will be matched with student mentors also living on the floor who have demonstrated their commitment to leadership and academic achievement at Saint Martin’s and wish to nurture leadership potential in other students.

Features

  • Mentoring relationships with established leaders.
  • One weekly community dinner.
  • Benedictine Leadership Program workshops.
  • Three-person to four-person shared-bathroom suites.
  • Leadership-oriented floor programming.

Requirements

  • Application highlighting interest in leadership or other community/school service and activities.
  • A commitment to being an active member of the floor community.
  • A commitment to participating in the Benedictine Leaders Program.
  • Enthusiasm, character, maturity, and dedication.
  • School spirit and a desire to make your mark on the Saint Martin’s community.

Oikos residential learning community

Caring for our world, our communities, and ourselves.

In keeping with the Benedictine values of community, stability, hospitality, and stewardship, the residence halls serve as a second home to hundreds of students from all walks of life. Greek for “home”, Oikos (pronounced EE-koss) is the theme of Saint Martin’s residential learning communities (RLC), in which first-year students share both a UNI 101 class and a floor community. Oikos is the root of modern words such as ecology, economy, ecosystem, and eco-consciousness, each of which expresses something essential about life in the 21st century and the world in which we live.

With the theme of “home” resonating through both coursework and out-of-the-classroom experiences, the residential learning communities will explore how to care for yourself, your loved ones, your community, and your world. Students will discuss what it means to keep your house in order and how to be a good steward of the planet and one’s own community. In the classroom and on the floor, RLC residents will work towards making sustainable choices so that all people can lead happy, productive lives, and they will grapple with difficult problems in their communities, including unemployment, homelessness, hunger, pollution, and injustice. A partnership between First-Year Seminar and Housing and Residence Life, the residential learning communities bring the classroom into the halls and the floor community into the classrooms.

Features

  • UNI 101 classmates living together in a floor community
  • Programming and coursework dedicated to investigating and resolving contemporary world problems.
  • Peer Mentors working in collaboration with Resident Assistants to provide academic assistance and co-curricular programming.
  • Out-of-the-classroom learning and bonding opportunities, including dinners, trips, service projects, workshops, and cultural activities.
  • Community study sessions and discussion groups.

Requirements

  • Enrollment in the corresponding UNI 101 class
  • A desire to collaborate with classmates and contribute to group discussions and projects.
  • A commitment to being an active and engaged member of the floor community.
  • Interest in sustainability and/or human rights and the ethical dilemmas associated with such topics.
  • Participation in forming the shared expectations of the community.
  • A willingness to listen to and learn from others.