A new housing option will be available to women in the upcoming school year. Vanderhill Cottage will be run by Lindsay Hubbell, the resident director of Fern Smith Hall. It will house six to 10 female students.
A series of events allowed for the opening of this new addition to residence life. Currently, Kendall Stanislav and his family live there. Stanislav was the on-campus apartment RD and transitioned into his new role of director of experiential education in the Compass Center. Next fall, Hubbell will become the RD of the apartments, along with the new Living Learning Community.
Conversations regarding the LLC began in October when Hubbell presented the idea to dean of resident life Marlon Haverdink. Hubbell learned about LLCs during her time in graduate school. Ever since her arrival at Northwestern, she has kept the idea of an LLC in the back of her mind, and the opportunity arose when the Vanderhill Cottage opened up.
An LLC can have multiple themes. Big universities have several, each having their own individual focus: ethnicity studies, first-generation college students, gender and sexuality, sustainability, global health and technology.
Hubbell’s vision for the LLC lies within Women in Leadership.
“The LLC provides me an opportunity to pursue my passions,” Hubbell said. “But more importantly it provides a space for a small cohort of women to be intentionally mentored so that they will leave NW as confident and prepared women in their work fields, relationships and for the Kingdom of God.”
Women living in the home will also have a certain curriculum they will complete during the year. While texts have not been finalized, possible texts include “Nothing to Prove” by Jennie Allen, “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and “Daring Greatly” by Brené Brown. Each week, the women will read a chapter from a selective text and hold a house meeting over the content.
Another factor to living in the home is mentorship. Each woman will receive a first-year female to mentor through freshmen year. The LLC home will also emphasize hospitality by hosting house events and Women in Leadership events, further developing event-management skills.
Along with hospitality, the home will emphasize leadership, which will be developed through hosting events, developing communication skills and having hands-on experience with leading. The last learning objective lies within identity and finding what role they can play in the world.
“I would hope that the women will learn more about themselves, the way in which God has uniquely gifted them and how their gifts are needed in this world,” dean of student life Julie Elliott said. “The reality is that the women on our campus are already in many leadership roles and are excelling in many ways, but institutional surveys show that they do not recognize themselves as leaders. That grieves me. I want them to embrace their gifts and offer them up to God and others, not hide or minimize their gifts because they are women.”
Vanderhill Cottage will cost the same as apartment living: $10,100 a year with the opportunity to use the 10-meals-a-week plan to reduce the cost by $600. The cottage comes with beds, dressers, closets, basement storage, a study room furnished with desks, large kitchen, laundry, two bathrooms, a porch and a balcony.
The women wishing to apply must be current freshmen through juniors, have a GPA higher than 2.5 and have a desire to know more about community and Christ. Applications are open online through March 6. A 30-minute interview of all applicants will take place from Wednesday, March 11 through Friday, March 13. Sign-ups for an interview time are in the Student Life Office with the interviews taking place in Hubbell’s office in Fern.
