At Virginia Tech, education is more than just going to class; it’s about the experience. The time you spend with friends, classmates, and faculty will transform your college experience; all you need is the chance to make the connections.

The residential colleges at Ambler Johnston invite you to become part of an intentional community of scholars and leaders who make learning a way of life. Open to students of all majors, years, and interests, the residential colleges offer a diverse social and intellectual environment that allows members to learn from each other.

These communities challenge students to be part of something bigger–to become founders of a tradition. At the residential colleges, you will find a family in a supportive intellectual community where you can shape your own experience and participate actively in the educational experience of others.

It was a fortuitous dryer malfunction that brought new neighbors together in the Residential College at West Ambler Johnston. Shortly after students moved in last fall, Ben and Jennifer Sax’s dryer broke. In the common laundry room on the fourth floor, while drying their clothes, the couple—who are live-in faculty principal and senior fellow for Virginia Tech’s newest living-learning initiative—got to know their new neighbors, and students got to know them as real people. “The residential college motto is ‘to know and be known,’” said Ben. “Doing our laundry, we were just people engaged in conversation about things we were passionate about. And they found out that we wear underwear, too.” Read the full Virginia Tech Magazine story.