With the job industry offering so few opportunities to newly-graduated college students and unemployment standing at a steady rate of 10 percent, thoughts of moving into the real world can be scary. In the grand scheme of things, the “college experience” may not seem to sufficiently prepare students for the hardships they may face post-graduation.
“I ask my students ‘where are you going to get a job’?” photography professor Vaughn Wascovich said. ” We can teach them to be self-sufficient; to build a house, to make their own food. We need to teach sustainability…a different way of life.”
Wascovich just finished applying for a grant to fund his latest project called “Tiny House.” The project consists of the construction of several single-person dwellings for honors and graduate students to live in on campus. They will serve as a new type of residence hall at Texas A&M University-Commerce and will only be available to select students.
The project began over the summer when Wascovich worked with an organization called Rural Studio, run by Auburn University. The studio focuses on teaching students at Auburn about the social responsibilities of the architectural profession while providing safe, well-constructed and inspirational buildings for the poor community in rural west Alabama.
“They have this project called ’20k houses’ where they build these little, super-efficient houses for people on welfare or with no money,” Wascovich said. “It’s a very hands on project and it helps people in the community.”
Wascovich plans to take this inspiration and turn it into a learning experience for students, beginning with a cluster of tiny houses built around a community garden Wascovich started with a few friends, located behind the Methodist Church off of Highway 24.
Ideally, this project will unite the various academic departments on campus. During their stay in the tiny houses, students will have specialized studies created pertaining to the project. The English department would teach transcendentalism, science would focus on the physics of wind and solar power and the agriculture departments could spend time on green roof design.
Along with specified areas of study, students will learn to cook and grow their own food from personal gardens surrounding their house. This, coupled with solar powered lights, appliances and propane stoves, will make these tiny houses completely self-sufficient in their environments.
“I want it to be completely off the grid; a lab for interdisciplinary studies,” Wascovich said.
Though some of the research will be conducted on the construction of the houses themselves, the main focus will be on the educational experience this experiment will provide. Students will live on their own, in a Henry Thoreau style seclusion, adapting to the limitations Mother Nature presents.
Students will also learn the retail aspects that play a part in the food sold in local markets and grocery stores. They will not only produce food for themselves but also for various food projects that will be conducted. Students will sell things like homemade salsa and honey to consumers in the community, furthering their real world experiences.
“It’s important to just be aware of the soil and the weather and how much work it is just to put that bag of peas you bought at the grocery store on the shelf,” Wascovich said.
He believes this project has the grand potential to expand, because the university campus is located so close to the metroplex. These new houses could even be a selling point to raise awareness about A&M-Commerce and the surrounding community.
“You’re going to attract a certain type of person that would be interested in this kind of project,” Wascovich said. “It’s going to take a unique person to want to play a role in it.”
With the community garden behind Methodist Church holding plans to foster the first set of tiny house, five more similar gardens are expected to be resurrected for the project. Currently, the community garden grows food for various food pantries as well as Meals On Wheels and is open to the public.
For more information on this or project Tiny House, contact Vaughn Wascovich at Vaughn_wascovich@tamu-commerce.edu