Wisconsin Students Swap Dorms for Senior Housing

Marquette University PhD student Daija Holliday chats with residents as she leads a brain game activity Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, at St. Camillus in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

It’s Saturday at St. Camillus senior living community in Wauwatosa, and the residents are busy.

One group just left for their weekly walk through the Milwaukee County Zoo, another group of residents are taking part in a yoga class near the pool. Brain games are underway in the theater. Later, there will be origami and a stand-up comedian.

But it isn’t St. Camillus staff leading the activities — it’s their much, much younger fellow residents.

Marquette University PhD student Daija Holliday leads a yoga class Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, at St. Camillus in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

When Marquette University students returned to campus in late August, most moved back into their dorm rooms or apartments just west of downtown Milwaukee.

But five students moved into St. Camillus Life Plan Community, which officers senior housing ranging from independent living to memory care to hospice.

Daija Holiday is working on her Ph.D. at Marquette. When she moved to Milwaukee from North Carolina, she heard about the program at St. Camillus and jumped at the opportunity.

“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,” Holiday said. “And I kind of have that slower lifestyle that maybe fits a community like this.”

Sam Sampson’s relationship with his grandparents was also one of the reasons he decided to live at St. Camillus.

Sampson, 23, moved into the senior housing facility last year, when he moved to Milwaukee from India to pursue a Master’s degree at Marquette.

He says his grandparents died when he was a child, and he has always tired to fill that void in his life.

“I used to go to the homes of my friends so that I could visit their grandparents. I would sit and chatter with them,” Sampson said. “I found a sense of finding my own grandparents in those ways. So when I heard about this program, it made me feel this is the right place that I want to be.”

Sampson landed at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport last fall and went straight to St. Camillus with just his suitcase.

The staff at the senior living center provided him with a furnished apartment for a few weeks so Sampson could get acclimated. When the first snowstorm of the season arrived, everyone was excited to see his reaction.

“I remember it was November at 3 a.m. and I went outside and saw the snow,” Sampson said. “That was an amazing experience. And then the residents kept asking me to do a snowball fight.”

Since then, Sampson has become a favorite around St. Camillus.

“He’s in our ukulele class and he’s going to sing a love song during one of our performances in October,” said resident Susan Kirsch.

Sampson also hosts weekly TED talks, technology classes and “Sam Unfiltered,” where he performs stand-up comedy.

“I have a new boyfriend and I wear this all the time because it has great, deep, touching meaning,” says resident Mary Weller, pointing to a bracelet from India that Sampson gave her after she loaned him a phone charger.

“These are wonderful kids,” Weller says. “They’re bright. They’re good communicators. They’re fun. I just think it’s one of the best things that goes on here.”

Residents laugh as they participate in a brain game activity led by Marquette University PhD student Daija Holliday on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, at St. Camillus in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Intergenerational programs trade volunteer hours for rent

Stacy Barnes is a nursing professor at Marquette University who heads the Wisconsin Geriatric Education Center.

In 2019, Marquette nursing and physical therapy students were rotating through St. Camillus for their clinical hours, but Barnes wanted to expand the partnership. She started gathering information about intergenerational housing programs across the country and world.

Barnes was inspired by the Humanitas retirement home in Deventer, Netherlands, which allows students to live rent-free alongside residents in exchange for 30 hours per month of volunteer work.

But Barnes says many programs, including Humanitas, placed students in nursing homes. She wanted Marquette students to be among “active” seniors.

“There are a huge amount of studies that support how beneficial intergenerational interactions are,” Barnes said. “And there are many examples of intergenerational housing programs similar to this, or variations thereof, across the country and around the world.”

The plan was to launch the St. Camillus housing project in 2020, but because of the pandemic, it was postponed until 2022. So far, 14 students have lived at the senior living facility.

Marquette University PhD student Daija Holliday leads a chair yoga class Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, at St. Camillus in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Mount Mary University in Milwaukee also offers an intergenerational housing community for independent seniors, undergraduate student single mothers with children under 12.

These types of programs not only benefit students financially, but they also help tackle loneliness, stereotypes and ageism, Barnes said.

“One of the outcomes that is very consistent across programs and models around the world is that programs like this really reduce social isolation and loneliness, and we know that is true not only of the older adults but also of the students,” Barnes said. “It helps build genuine natural relationships between the generations, and people are feeling more connected to others, a true sense of belonging to a community that’s broader than just a few people.”

Retirement home residents participate in a brain game led by Marquette University PhD student Daija Holliday on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, at St. Camillus in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

St. Camillus is a large, up-scale campus with more than 600 older adults who come and go from their own apartments. Marquette students live in their own apartments next to residents in the independent living space.

They are also allowed to used the amenities at St. Camillus including the gym, grocery store, swimming pool, movie theater, restaurants and pub.

The students pay about $600 a month in exchange for volunteering at least eight hours a week. That’s about one-third of the cost of a Milwaukee apartment.

“These could be very structured programs like a walking club, or a trivia night or a discussion about current events,” Barnes said. “Or it could be something much more casual like dining together with other residents, or cheering on the Packers.”

Marquette University PhD student Daija Holliday guides residents through a class of chair yoga Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, at St. Camillus in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Daija Holiday, the Ph.D. student, hosts movies, brain games, origami and fitness classes. The residents are huge fans of Holiday’s offerings.

“We love Daija, we love her living here and we love coming to these classes,” Kirsch says after a chair yoga class. “She changes it up. Today was a mellow one. Sometimes we’re marching in place, sometimes we’re doing more aerobics. I’m trying to talk Daija into doing a dance class, like they do on TikTok.”

When she heard this, Holiday laughed.

“Here’s the thing. They saw my (cowboy) boots, and they said I had to teach them line dancing,” Holiday said. “So I gave them a little taste. And since then, it has been a consistent request. But they have demands. I keep telling them I promise once my schedule works out, I’ll do it for y’all.”

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Wisconsin students trade dorm life for senior housing was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.