Virginia Tech establishes its first living-learning community outside the U.S.
Virginia Tech will take its Living-Learning Programs further than any has ever been. Student Affairs and the Steger Center for International Scholarship are launching the university’s first living-learning community (LLC) outside of the U.S.
Now, when students study at the Steger Center, the university’s study abroad hub in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland, they will be joining the newest LLC, Casa Maderni.
Named for the magnificent 18th century villa that houses the Steger Center, Casa Maderni shares the same aim as every Blacksburg-based LLC: to develop communities in which students learn and connect through co-curricular programming. In these communities, students with similar interests live together and participate in activities that cater to their academic, social, and personal needs. Casa Maderni will be the university’s 22nd LLC.
Living-Learning Programs such as Casa Maderni help students achieve “a sense of belonging, faster connections to their areas of interest, faculty support, and academic success,” according to Vice President for Student Affairs Frances Keene. Students in such programs often have more interaction with faculty members outside their classes, experience greater peer interaction, and live with others who are supportive of academic achievement and respectful social and cultural diversity, Keene said.
Each year, the Steger Center hosts a growing number of students from a variety of disciplines. In 2023, more than 100 students from seven programs spent an entire semester there. Short-term summer programs accounted for another 100 students.
As students’ home away from home in the heart of Europe, the center has provided a place for Hokies to live and learn since its founding in 1991. In this way, it has been functioning much like an LLC for the past 30 years, but making things official will have some surprising benefits.
Ryan Hopkins, assistant director of student life at the center, said one of the most apparent benefits is the opportunity to introduce the intentional and targeted programming that he’s been designing for the new LLC.
A 2016 alumnus with a bachelor's degree in pyschology, Hopkins has been steering the development of Casa Maderni since 2022. Being designated as an LLC, he said, will help ensure that interdisciplinary learning and community engagement opportunities are coordinated and available for all students.
“In the past, students often told me they wished they had connected with more students in other programs and made more friendships while they were here,” Hopkins said. “I think the overall theme is it is easy to stay siloed in your academic program but connecting with others makes the Steger Center feel more like a small campus experience.”
This past fall, the center piloted elements of the LLC. For example, instead of assigning students to rooms based on their majors, the staff intentionally paired roommates who were not from the same program. Shared programming — including outings to nearby Monte Brè, Como, and the Tibetan bridge Carasc in Monte Carasso — gave students opportunities to experience the region with peers from other academic disciplines.
“For the last 20 years, everyone lived with people from their own program,” Hopkins said. “Now with all the programs distributed more evenly around the living spaces, I can already clearly see the difference. Last fall was the first time I had ever seen people travel together from multiple disciplines.”
Studying abroad and Living-Learning Programs are both key parts of the Virginia Tech experience. Ensuring that all students, regardless of income, have access to transformational opportunities is among the goals of Virginia Tech Advantage.
Sydney Sokol, a sophomore majoring in human nutrition, foods, and exercise, was one of the students who experienced the pilot activities over the fall. “It’s great to see how they implement those same things LLCs are doing on campus here in Switzerland. We’re all in different majors, but when we come back together for Sunday dinners after we’ve all traveled over the weekend — one group may have just come back from Barcelona and another group from paragliding near Interlaken — we’re all sharing our experiences. It gives me a sense of community. It gives me a way to connect with people and makes me feel at home even when home is actually far away.”
Sokol’s roommate at the Steger Center, Grace Holben, described the post-travel discussions as an interdisciplinary learning experience. “We have somebody from geosciences sharing pictures of all the rocks and the landscapes. Sydney is taking pictures of all the food. Then I have the building side as an architecture student. So we just come together in the end and we just put it all together like puzzle pieces.”
As the LLC officially starts, there will be many opportunities this semester for the first cohort of 48 students to develop cross-discipline friendships like Sokol and Holben’s and many new interdisciplinary learning opportunities.
To kick off these activities, Louis-Philippe Dalembert has been invited as the LLC’s inaugural speaker. The award-winning Haitian author lives in Paris and writes about contemporary issues in Europe. In addition, students will have opportunities throughout the semester to engage with a renovation project the town of Riva San Vitale is undertaking to revitalize its historic kilns.
“The Casa Maderni will provide students studying at the Steger Center with even more opportunities to connect across disciplines and to be involved in the local community,” said Sara Steinert Borella, the center’s executive director. “We couldn’t be more excited. The Casa Maderni will help students make an engaged community experience their reality.”
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