Opening of the Blue House: “Not just a residence, a lifestyle!”

New housing concepts are required as the number of students at Jacobs University grows steadily. In fall 2007, the "Yellow House" on Hammersbecker Straße became home to eleven graduate students. On January 22, just three bus stops away from campus, the "Blue House" at the Vegesacker Bahnhof welcomed its new residents.

[ Jan 22, 2008]  It is part of Jacobs University’s concept that Bachelor students do not only study in an international environment, but truly live the concept of internationality. Everyday life with other nationalities offers unexpected insights into different cultures, and the Blue House is true to this concept. It offers space for 40 students: they hail from Romania, Ethiopia, Ghana, the USA, Bulgaria, Germany, Peru, Poland, Ecuador, Japan, the Netherlands, Serbia and Lithuania.

These undergraduate ‘pioneers’ all decided to leave campus after their first year at Jacobs University for a similar housing concept with a little more distance. Resident Supervisor, Warren Laine and two Resident Associates (RAs), Tomek and Renata Jurkowski, will be responsible for the students. The three Jacobs staff members were until recently RA’s in College 3, the largest college on campus.

“We are breaking new ground here. The members of the ‘Blue Zone’, as the Blue House is also called, are people who want to take more responsibility for themselves and get a taste of ‘the real life off-campus experience’,” says Larissa Kühler, Director Campus Activities and Intercultural Affairs. “This means not only living in the Bremen suburb Vegesack, but also cooking for themselves regularly, dealing with neighbors and commuting to campus while at the same time actively shaping community life in the Blue Zone itself”.