Pritchard Hall is hosting a new type of Virginia Tech student this fall with two new coeducational themed housing pilot programs, SERVE and Green.
The two new programs extend the total number of themed housing programs on campus to 12, including special interest and academic communities.
Pritchard, which now holds female occupants for the first time in its history, did not host any of the university's themed housing programs last year.
SERVE, which stands for Students Engaging and Responding through Volunteer Experiences, is currently housed on the third floor of Pritchard, while Green is located on the second floor.
Jacob Grohs, SERVE's program facilitator, said the program hopes to evolve into a full community by next fall.
"The pilot program helps us learn from experience," Grohs said. "Our main purpose for the program is to help first year students focus on service and leadership."
He said the main goal of the program is finding chances for students to perform community service.
"SERVE is offering volunteer opportunities to help students get in contact with the New River Valley community," Grohs said. "We want to help the students understand the area that is now their home for the next four or five years."
The program has 10 freshman students involved this year who will help to redesign the program for next year.
"We are working to try and make an academic portion for the program for next year," Grohs said. "The program is a blend of service, theory and reflection, offering quality volunteer opportunities for our students to succeed throughout the program."
James Penven, associate director of residence life, said the new themed housing programs are being incorporated this year because of developing interest in new living and learning communities around civic engagement.
"SERVE, specifically, is focused on enhancing students understanding of the communities that they live in and are a part of and how do they connect to that community," Penven said.
Green was put in place because of the increasing amount of attention given to sustainability over the last few years.
"Our idea for the outcome of Green is that the group of students involved do not have to be convinced as to why this program is important," Penven said. "Our goal is to enhance their understanding of issues and hopefully provide them with resources and information that they can take and use in other activities that they are involved with."
Kristine Dahm, Green's program facilitator, said the idea of the housing community began during the 2008 fall semester.
"We started tossing around ideas and began doing research on what other institutions were doing," Dahm said. "We decided to start with the pilot and recruited students for this fall."
Despite having only 10 students in the pilot program, Green hopes to begin making a difference on campus this year, Dahm said.
"As a group, the students of the pilot program will get together and figure out where they want to take the program and what they want to do with the sustainability initiatives," Dahm said. "We are really working from the ground up here, saying 'Okay, here is what is going on around campus and what are we going to do about it.'"
Penven said the program is a pilot this year to gauge the interest level on campus.
"There are formal proposals that are going to be reviewed by the associate vice president for student affairs, director of housing, and director of residence life, and various others that will look at implementing the program for a permanent basis," Penven said. "We would then see the programs expanding but not getting too large for the first few years."
Dahm said the students would provide feedback about the program to help determine what changes need to be made and what aspects need to be improved.
"My goal for the program in the next few weeks is that the students will be able to understand all of the sustainability issues on campus and then they will decide what they want to get involved in," Dahm said. "One of the other goals is for the students to change the name of the community if they want to and help the program develop an identity which in turn will help the students develop their goals for the semester and for the year."