Freshman Omar Najmi studied Spanish throughout middle and high school and grew to love the Spanish language, history and culture. Although he wants to continue taking Spanish classes in college, as a musical theater major, Najmi can’t fit language courses into his schedule, he said.

Next year, Najmi hopes to improve his Spanish by living in Vecinos, a residential community at the college where students speak Spanish and learn about Hispanic culture.

“I do not want to forget Spanish,” Najmi said. “I am hoping that Vecinos will be a venue in which I have a reason to continue learning the language.”

“Vecinos,” which is Spanish for neighbors, was organized by Annette Levine, assistant professor of modern languages and literatures. Vecinos is the first foreign-language housing program at the college.

Nine students are interested in the housing and have met twice to discuss the program. Levine said she hopes more students will sign up.

Levine said she started Vecinos because she wanted students to be exposed to foreign language outside of class. She said the program is open to students of all Spanish levels, from those with elementary speaking skills to native speakers.

“Mostly we just want people who want to learn and are enthusiastic about learning about other cultures,” Levine said.  She said while anyone who applies will likely be accepted, students must fill out a simple housing form detailing their interest in the program.

Levine said the living community will probably be located in Terrace 11, but no plans are definite right now. She said the group is looking for residence halls that are coed by door so both men and women will be able to live in the community.

Though Vecinos will be a partial-immersion program where students speak Spanish and English, there will be certain hours where it is mandatory to speak only Spanish, Levine said.

She said Vecinos will benefit students like Najmi, who cannot fit Spanish courses into their schedules, and will allow students to form strong friendships through a mutual love of Hispanic culture and Spanish language.

Freshman Melendy Krantz said she lived in Spain last year and hopes Vecinos will recreate the atmosphere and culture she experienced.

Freshman Yanique Foster said she plans to live in the Vecinos community because it will be a learning experience to help students improve their speaking skills.

“I come from a neighborhood where there are a lot of Hispanic people,” Foster said. “This will give me the opportunity to better understand their culture.”

Foster said the students in the community plan to watch movies in Spanish, listen to Spanish heritage music and take salsa-dancing classes.

“Anything we want to do that relates to Spanish culture we can incorporate into the living community,” Foster said.

Darese Doskal-Scaffido, associate director for residential life and judicial affairs, said Levine came to the Office of Residential Life in the fall with a proposal for Vecinos to establish learning outcomes of the program and what would be required of students living in the community.

“We actually created a process where any student, faculty or staff member can propose a new learning community,” she said.

She said this process was developed in spring 2004 and requires those interested to fill out an application and have a group of at least 12 interested students and a faculty adviser. The group must have a name for the community and a list of program ideas and learning outcomes participants would achieve in the community. Doskal-Scaffido said similar programs are being considered, including an outdoor-adventure learning community. 

Other similarly sized colleges have language-immersion housing, such as Oberlin College in Ohio, which has Spanish- and French- immersion housing. Cornell University also has a Spanish living community called the Latino Living Center.

Patrick O’Connell, associate professor of Hispanic studies at Oberlin College, said students living in Oberlin’s Spanish housing, “La Casa Hispánica,” must apply to live in the house and are accepted according to their Spanish experience.

He said teachers’ assistants from Latin America and Spain live in the house with the students and act as residence directors. Levine said she has a student in mind to be the resident assistant for Vecinos, but nothing is final.

The applications for the Vecinos housing program are available at the Office of Residential Life or in Levine’s office, Muller 420.   Applications must be turned in no later than March 15.