Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 4 No. 4 Winter 2019 | Page 22

The joys of living-learning
22
The Tarazagas - from
left: Penelope, Pablo,
Valentina, Vanessa,
Isa, and Lucas.
You can also
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in Virginia Tech
Magazine
MARYA
BARLOW
FOR VIRGINIA TECH
A faculty family of six has grown to embrace
325 students in Virginia Tech’s Honors Res-
idential Commons. Their close-knit bond is
one of the many reasons you’ll be seeing more
living-learning programs (LLP) at Virginia
Tech, as the university prepares to have 65
percent of on-campus students in LLPs by
2025.
Two years ago, Pablo Tarazaga and his
family of six left their house in Blacksburg’s
Woodbine neighborhood to join 325 honors
students in a residential hall on Virginia
Tech’s main campus.
Tarazaga, wife Vanessa ’05, a son, three
daughters, and a collie moved into a sunny,
furnished faculty condo on the fourth floor
of East Ambler Johnston Hall. The prolific
researcher, associate professor of mechanical
engineering, and Virginia Tech alumnus M.S.
’04, Ph.D. ’09, hoped to use his new role as
faculty principal in the Honors Residential
Commons (HRC) to forge connections with
students beyond the classroom.
“I never thought of the university as just a
place for vocation and study,” said Tarazaga,
a John R. Jones III faculty fellow. “It’s about
the formation of the student as a whole, as a
thinking person. My wife and I were really
drawn to being part of these students’ lives
and helping them walk through this challeng-
ing, formative time.”
Practically overnight, the Tarazaga clan
morphed from a band of six into a tight-knit
family of hundreds.
Students came by the dozens to join the
Tarazagas for Tuesday dinners in the D2
dining hall, Friday Principal’s Teas, and
Saturday ice cream socials. HRC residents and
the Tarazaga children worked on homework
assignments side-by-side. Spontaneous games
of tag, hide-and-seek, kickball, and soccer
with the kids became stress-relieving diver-
sions for the college students. Tarazaga family
movie nights swelled to 40-person affairs.
And the interactions continued to grow—in
quantity, in attendance, and in creativity.
Over Tuesday night Spanish Coffees, stu-
dents and faculty practiced Spanish conversa-
tion skills. Tarazaga family holidays expanded