Intentional Learning & Service Houses2025-26 ILS applications are due January 1, 2025
The Intentional Learning & Service (ILS) housing program is intended to create opportunities for students who wish to live, learn and act in a themed or project-oriented environment. The purpose and intent of the Intentional Learning & Service Houses is to align with the Gustavus Core Values to create meaningful opportunities for service to the college and/or the greater St. Peter community. The five houses (Walker, Adolphson, Sjostrom, Peterson, and 10-0-9) are located on the east side of campus and are designated for occupancy by groups of 4-6 students.
ILS applications are due January 1. They will be reviewed and all applicants will be notified of their status by February 10. The application includes some short essays, if you would like to review the application prior to submission, you can view all questions here.
Projects* & Themes
It is imperative that the ILS Projects are actively engaged in the life of the College. Project and themes should connect to at least one of the Gustavus Core Values. Whatever form the project takes, it must actively reach out to members of the Gustavus community to educate or engage in meaningful activity.
*To continue to support Gustavus's commitment to sustainability, each year at least one ILS project will have a sustainability focus.
About the Houses
These College-owned houses are furnished with a bed, dresser, desk, desk chair, and closet space for each resident. They also include living room furniture (soft seating and coffee table) and basic kitchen appliances (refrigerator, stove, and oven). They are considered Residential Housing and all College policies apply. Gustavus parking permit required for permitted spaces, City of Saint Peter permit required for street parking.
Questions
For questions related to the ILS Houses, contact Residential Life, reslife@gustavus.edu
Current Projects
The current ILS projects all support the Gustavus Core Values and add to the Gustavus community. Below is a list of the current projects.
Want to get involved with a current project? Click here to contact the Project team lead.
Conservation and Wildlife Apprecation
One of our main goals through this project continues to be cleaning up the banks of the Minnesota river, the area around Highway 22, and the Swan lake wildlife management area. Students don’t use compost bins, use to-go boxes at the caf instead of Gustieware, and don’t recycle correctly. We plan on hosting educational events with fun outdoor activities, as well as hanging educational posters. Our third goal is to collaborate with Ducks Unlimited to help raise money to preserve local ecosystems. Our fourth goal is to lead outdoor activities to help connect Gusties with the outdoors. We all love the outdoors and we want to help others appreciate the beauty nature has to offer. There's multiple valuable public lands with outdoor opportunities in the area that most students don't know about, and we hope to spread awareness, information, and help people enjoy what the local area has to offer. We also plan to utilize connections with the Gustavus recreation department to maximize community engagement.
Mental Health & Wellbeing
1) Increase student awareness of the prevalence of mental health issues on campus and work towards reducing the stigma around asking for help.
2) Connect students with community/campus mental health resources and organizations.
3) Create opportunities for students to participate in relaxing activities/events to escape daily stress.
Sustainable Consumption: Helping Gusties Help the Earth
First, we aim to promote awareness and comprehension amongst our campus community of the food systems that we rely on everyday. Food is at the intersection of health, community, and culture, yet we remain broadly uninformed about our food systems and their environmental and social impacts. We believe our ILS house can execute fun and informative active learning experiences to make students consider how their food consumption affects the world around them.
Second, we aim to integrate understanding of food systems between our campus community and the broader St. Peter community by involving both students and local community members in educational and interactive activities. These events would include pickling and preserving to lengthen local produce consumption, game tasting to consider protein sources, composting and food waste demonstrations, and more. These events would help students connect with community members to learn how they can operate within a sustainably consuming community during and after college.
Third, we aim to reduce the environmental impact of our campus community’s food consumption while promoting healthy nutrition. College students have notoriously bad diets but engaging in fun activities centered around the preparation of nutritious foods with peers can provide the necessary nudge to change people’s eating habits so that they make choices better for their body and our environment simultaneously.
Women and Girls in Sports
1. Create connections between Gustavus students and girls sports in St. Peter.
2. Raise awareness about the difficulties girls and women face in sport.
3. Ensure the girls in St. Peter have role models to look up to.
4. Empower female athletes.
Women in Stem House
1. Contribute to the development of a more interconnected and supportive community of Gustavus women involved in science by offering an open and secure space for reflection, discussion, and companionship.
2. Facilitate bonding for female underclassmen who are just beginning their studies in science, ensuring they have women role models within the field to look up to for support throughout their journey at Gustavus.
3. Educate female students about common experiences women undergo in this field, such as imposter syndrome, and how to address and overcome these thought patterns.
4. Investigate and determine via online surveys and tabling events the most prominent concerns and perceptions of students regarding the experience of women in science at Gustavus, as well as what the larger student body would be most interested in addressing.
5. Increase awareness of the larger Gustavus community, including STEM faculty, of the ways that unconscious bias towards women students in STEM fields can negatively impact their experience and ability to succeed, and how to identify and correct these biases.
6. Integrate more examples of women in science throughout Nobel by creating short informational posters of female faculty or prominent women scientists in history to be included on the TVs in order to promote increased feelings of belonging and community.