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Housing at college usually means a dorm or maybe an off-campus apartment. But Wisconsin Public Radio's Corrinne Hess found a group of students who picked a third option - a retirement community.
CORRINNE HESS, BYLINE: It's a busy Saturday at St. Camillus senior living community just outside of Milwaukee. One group just left for the Milwaukee County Zoo. Another group does yoga near the pool. There are brain games. Later, there will be origami and stand-up comedy. But St. Camillus' staff aren't leading the activities. The community's youngest residents are.
DAIJA HOLLIDAY: Back to business. You know what time is.
HESS: That's Daija Holliday, a Ph.D. student at Marquette University. She and four other students live at St. Camillus. Holliday says when she moved from North Carolina to attend Marquette, the intergenerational living program seemed perfect for her.
HOLLIDAY: I love community living spaces. I love anything where I might be able to engage with people. And I also grew up with my grandparents. And I kind of have that, like, slower lifestyle, that quieter lifestyle that maybe fits in the community like this, where it's like, yes, I do like to go to bed at 9 o'clock, so this works out for me.
HESS: Universities across the country have been adding intergenerational living programs. The AARP estimates at least 80 universities in the United States are collaborating with retirement communities. Marquette Professor Stacy Barnes heads the Wisconsin Geriatric Education Center, which prepares students to work with seniors. Before this program, Marquette nursing and physical therapy students were rotating through St. Camillus for their clinical hours, but Barnes wanted to expand that partnership.
STACY BARNES: There's a huge amount of study that actually supports how beneficial intergenerational interactions are.
HESS: Marquette launched its intergenerational program in 2022. Students volunteer at least eight hours a week with the residents. In exchange, they pay about $600 a month for their apartment at the facility - well below market rate.
BARNES: Many of the students have talked about feeling like they have a big family here at St. Camillus, and the older adults talk about the energy that the students bring.
HESS: Graduate Sam Sampson lost his grandparents at a young age. He says that loss was one of the reasons he decided to live at St. Camillus.
SAM SAMPSON: I used to go to homes of my friends so that I can visit their grandparents. And I would sit and chat with them, like for, like, all this kind of aimless banter. I found a sense of finding my own grandparents in those ways.
HESS: Sampson is a favorite with his new neighbors. Among them is Susan Kirch.
SUSAN KIRCH: He's in our ukulele class, and he's going to sing a love song during one of our performances.
HESS: Sampson also hosts weekly TED talks, technology classes and Sam Unfiltered, where he performs stand-up comedy. Mary Weller shows off a bracelet Sam gave her after she loaned him a phone charger.
MARY WELLER: They're wonderful kids. They're bright. They're fun. I just think it's one of the best things that goes on here.
HESS: The students in Marquette's program say it's made moving to a new city less lonely, and their senior neighbors say it's made them feel less lonely too.
For NPR News, I'm Corrinne Hess in Milwaukee. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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