As Personnel Assistants arrived mid-August to prepare for the new school year, they faced a conundrum: Paul and Barbara Gentile Hall, or PBG, Taylor’s newest residence hall, was not ready to house students.
When help was needed, Gerig Hall answered the call.
Gerig temporarily housed several PBG students waiting for their new residence hall to be ready. What began as a temporary housing arrangement quickly became an opportunity for Gerig residents to welcome and get to know members of another residence hall’s community.
“There was always someone at the front desk ready to smile or open the door as we took a procession of plants through the doors,” Mary Keck, a sophomore human physiology major and PBG’s front desk manager, said.
For Keck and the other PBG residents, this time became a blessing rather than a burden as Gerig welcomed them with open arms.
Keck found it nice to be in a place full of support.
“It was one of the most special things I ever experienced,” Keck said.
Gerig became more than a place to be temporarily housed; it became a place of community.
Bethany Dinius, a chemistry education major and PA on 3G, Gerig’s third floor, said some of her favorite memories came from conversations with the PBG leaders. The students talked through their hopes and concerns for the upcoming year, including their visions for their residence halls and floors. Dinius was encouraged by how the PBG leaders responded to the uncertainty surrounding their move-in, she said.
“They were like, ‘We don’t know when we’re gonna move into a dorm, but we trust that God’s timing is going to work out the way He wants it,’” Dinius said.
When PBG was ready, what followed was a campus-wide effort to get the new residence hall ready for its residents.
Members of Residence Life, including PAs, DAs, and Hall Directors across campus, with added help from Gerig residents, lent a hand moving PBG students and staff into the new building.
“It would not be fair to them to have just PBG leadership do all of that instead of an entire dorm,” Kathryn Monsma, a senior global studies and history double major and Discipleship Assistant on 3G, said. “All of Res Life got to come over and help.”
Students helped move residents and staff, encouraged the PBG leadership team and prayed over the new residence hall. A large prayer circle gathered outside PBG during the move, Monsma said.
For Gerig, the experience meant something more than simply helping a new residence hall get settled.
In the past, Gerig has been treated as a hall full of loners and outsiders, and students have not known how to interact with Gerig, Monsma said. Gerig residents have spent the past several years trying to change that perception and find ways to connect with the rest of campus.
This opportunity to host PBG students was an answer to prayer, she said.
“We really are all around campus and really want to be hospitable,” Monsma said. “We’ve been trying to show that we are equally friendly Taylor people and not the weirdos in the corner.”
Gerig has also hosted residents of Cellar, the basement floor of English Hall.
Gerig residents hope that this is a first step toward students recognizing the thriving community within the walls of Gerig.
Should you have yet to step inside Gerig Hall, the door remains open. All are welcome to experience this vibrant fellowship firsthand.
