"We're hoping to create a community, a place for people from lots of different backgrounds and proficiency levels to be able to learn from each other and form a community," social relations and policy and Spanish senior Abby Cooper said. "Because we see the value in living-learning communities, and we want that for Spanish speakers at MSU."

Cooper holds the development chair in La Casa. She works at developing a plan for the following year and is working on housing.

Human resource and labor relations and Spanish senior Korey Deans said people of various proficiency levels are welcome, and there are multiple tiers to proficiency.

"There's reading, writing, speaking and listening. For someone who grew up in a household hearing Spanish most of their life, who might be very shy or would consider their oral abilities weak, they still have a place in La Casa," Deans, the chair of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging said. "Anyone who has a passion or an interest of the Spanish language is welcome there."

According to La Casa’s website, there is no requirement of prior Spanish experience, only an enthusiasm of learning the language.

Students must sign up for La Casa when they sign up for housing. Cooper said sign-up works differently for incoming and returning students. Returning students can express their interest and sign up early next semester when on-campus housing is available. They will be automatically placed into Shaw Hall.

Incoming students will also have to sign up, but they will do it through the Live On website when they begin to look for freshman year housing. Due to freshmen and sophomores being required to live on-campus, junior and senior standing students do not have as much opportunity to live in the dorms.

"This program is not focused on juniors and seniors, but we are trying to find ways to get them more involved," Cooper said. "So we're trying to work with housing to make sure the RA in La Casa is a Spanish speaker."

Cooper said the LLC began with Jennifer Gansler, an advisor for the Spanish department. Deans said Gansler reached out to find students to co-chair the LLC in April, and they have been working since to get the community up and running.

Partnerships chair and Spanish junior Karissa Zárate said she lived in MSU’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) LLC her freshman year. She said she was able to see firsthand living with other people who she had similar experiences to.

"(La Casa) offers a unique perspective that other LLCs might not have," Zárate said. "A lot of other LLCs are created by staff, by faculty, and they might have just one perspective about dorm college life and student life."

Zárate hopes to forge meaningful relationships with other groups on campus to further La Casa.

"We hope to have many, many years for the future of La Casa," said Zárate. "This can be by strengthening relationships, partnerships, expanding our networks between other cultural groups, Latinx groups, Hispanic groups on campus, increasing resource accessibility and promoting cultural exchange."

The four co-chairs said one of the many reasons they opted to participate in this LLC was to be more involved with campus life. International relations and Spanish sophomore Ana Dunfee said one of the reasons she decided to participate in La Casa was that she was trying to get involved in a community with people she resonated with.

"This is a group of people I've resonated with, these three people, but we were also creating a group of people that I feel like I would have loved to experience and live with my freshman and sophomore years," Dunfee said. "I think all of us can attest to that to some extent."

Being the only student-led LLC means the co-chairs of La Casa can be stronger advocates for students.

"As representatives of the student body, if the student body is asking for these things, then you can't really say you're not hearing the students if we're the representatives coming to you," Deans said.

Deans said they are able to see if the university is willing to help them and work with them firsthand, an experience many students do not have. 

"There's so many opportunities for us, especially because we're starting at ground zero for us to reach out around campus and really promote the most inclusive community that we can," Dunfee said.