Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 4 No. 4 Winter 2019 | Page 24

24 only blend academic and student life, but also enrich the university’s close-knit culture. “Residential environments on college campus- es are often very underutilized resources,” he said. “When we move from sleep-eat environ- ments to live-learn environments, this creates the groundwork for the kind of education that we espouse and deeply admire.” Regarded as a pioneer in the field, Shushok successfully instituted residential colleges at Baylor University a decade before introduc- published in the Journal of College and University Student Housing, faculty princi- pals overwhelmingly said their roles as LLP mentors made their work more rewarding and additionally enriched their family lives. “The transfer of knowledge goes both ways. I learn a lot from the students,” said Bohan- non. Bohannon leads approximately 300 students as faculty principal in the Leadership and Social Change Residential College, which focuses on integrating sustainability, social responsibility, food equality, and environmen- tal justice into daily life. “My interactions with the students make me a better teacher in the classroom and help me be the instructor and advisor I wish I’d had as an undergraduate,” he said. A family away from home Students living in the Honors Residential College are universally effusive when it comes to their living-learning experience with the Tarazagas. Pablo serves up breakfast - for dinner - just one of the ways in which the Taraza- ga's open their home to more than 300 student members of the Honors Residential Commons in East Ambler Johnston. ing them at Virginia Tech. He’s published numerous studies that affirm the benefits of living-learning environments—benefits that include improved student academic perfor- mance, co-curricular engagement, persistence toward graduation, and overall well-being— and he co-authored one of the first studies to examine the faculty benefits. Virginia Tech remains relatively unique among peer land-grant research universities for embracing residential colleges. The Res- idential College Society, founded in 2014 at the university, has blossomed into a national organization of universities exchanging best practices. In a 2011 report, “Students as teachers: What faculty learn by living on campus,” Nathan Schlundt, a junior from Los Angeles, said moving into the Honors Residential College improved his entire outlook. “My first year was kind of lonely because I was far from home and hadn’t found my niche yet,” said Schlundt, a computer science major, as he waited in line at the Tarazaga’s Breakfast for Dinner feast. “When I came to the HRC, it was a total 180. Dr. T and his family produce a great sense of community. They’re always bringing us together and inviting us into their home with events like this. Look at them— they’ll cook three hours just for us.” Tyler Pugh, a junior double-majoring in industrial systems engineering and Spanish, said Tarazaga has become a mentor. “I really wish I had him as a professor,” said Pugh, who is also a resident advisor in the HRC. “Dr. Tarazaga is so invested in his students’ char- acter. We get coffee every Saturday and talk about anything and everything. Sometimes I forget he’s an award-winning researcher. I