It took a village

When Ruth Chung, her husband and two sons moved into their apartment at the Cale and Irani Residential College at USC Village eight years ago, the newly built housing and retail complex adjacent to the University Park Campus was nearly vacant. Chung, a professor of clinical education at the USC Rossier School of Education, recalls that the trees were seedlings, the Fubon Fountain was under construction and businesses like Target and Trader Joe’s hadn’t yet opened their doors.

From their fifth-floor living room overlooking the central piazza, Chung — one of the village’s inaugural faculty in residence members — and her family watched the complex morph from a set of empty buildings to a vibrant hub housing 2,700 students in eight residential colleges and offering Trojans and community members a variety of places to eat, shop and gather. The trees have now matured into a shady canopy, and the gurgling fountain is a focal point of lively village activities, from jazz nights and yoga classes to study sessions over matcha lattes.

“I love the ebb and flow of the life of the village,” Chung says. “I love having a front-row seat to the whole plaza.”

But Chung ­— whose tenure as a faculty in residence (FIR) ends this spring — hasn’t just been a spectator to the village’s evolution. She helped nurture the community’s growth alongside other FIR colleagues who lived and worked with students in USC Village’s residential colleges during the same period.

The faculty next door

Across USC’s 14 residential colleges, there are 17 faculty in residence who each serve up to an eight-year tenure. Alongside USC residential education staff and resident assistants, these full-time faculty members serve as mentors, advisors and advocates for students and facilitate the development of an academic focus within their respective communities. In exchange, the FIRs live in custom-designed apartments within the residential colleges free of charge and receive a food stipend, but no additional compensation.

USC’s residential college system is patterned after similar systems at British and Ivy League universities. FIRs are selected through a rigorous application process and are chosen for their approachability, versatility and commitment to education outside of the traditional framework, among other qualities. Having faculty reside with students encourages students’ engagement with faculty where they live and paves the way for enhanced relationships with other faculty in the classroom and laboratory. USC Village residential colleges differ from others on the USC University Park Campus in that the living spaces occupy the upper floors of a commercial center that attracts not only Trojans but patrons from neighboring communities.

In addition to Chung, the “last first residents” now saying goodbye to the village include Broderick Leaks, a clinical professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of counseling and mental health services at USC Student Health, and Trisha Tucker, a professor of writing at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

“I celebrate the work these FIRs did to help us literally build a village,” says Monique S. Allard, vice president for student life. “They helped facilitate a place where students can feel at home and connect with each other. They’ve helped to build a legacy here for all of us to continue and take forward.”

Creating community

When it opened in 2017, USC Village comprised six buildings spread over 15 acres, increasing the University Park Campus footprint by nearly a third. Suite-style residences occupy the upper floors, with retail on the ground level. Other amenities for students include an A-framed dining hall with custom stained-glass windows and Gothic-style seating, outdoor lounges and a 30,000-square-foot fitness center.

Along with USC residential education staff and resident assistants, FIRs organize lectures, group outings and dinners to help forge intellectual and communal bonds among students in each college community. Being part of the first FIR cohort at the village presented Chung, Leaks and Tucker a unique opportunity. “We got to contribute to establishing its culture and tradition,” Chung says.

They established a weekly “Tuesday’s Tea” event for students featuring guest speakers and refreshments like red velvet cupcakes and boba tea from the village’s Yoboseyo! Superette. Hikes to the Hollywood sign, tours of Los Angeles neighborhoods, movie nights and funnel cake making are among the activities led by these outgoing FIRs.

For many USC students who lived at the village during its first eight years, such events helped create enduring bonds. Danya Fatehi ’23, MS ’24, moved into Cale and Irani Residential College in January 2019, when she began her first year. Entering USC as a spring admit, she was nervous about making friends. Dinners that Chung hosted in her apartment for spring admits eased Fatehi’s path to belonging. “Dr. Chung created a very supportive environment,” says Fatehi, a psychometrist who will attend the Marriage and Family Therapy master’s program at USC Rossier in 2026. “At those dinners, I made friends that I continue to have to this day.”

Tucker, who served as FIR at the all-freshman McCarthy Honors Residential College, notes that while event programming has been an influential part of her job, some of her most memorable moments with students have taken place informally. “A big part of my role is interacting with students in casual ways,” she says, like impromptu conversations in hallways and elevators. “I ask them questions like, ‘How are finals going?’ ‘What was your spring break like?’ and ‘What are you struggling with right now?’”

Simran Sandhu ’23 lived in McCarthy her first year and appreciated having Tucker as both her FIR and her teacher in Thematic Option courses. “Her warmth, wisdom and constant presence turned our dorm into a home,” says Sandhu, now a student at Stanford Law School. “Whether she was hosting a get-together in her apartment or chatting with us in the hallway or lobby, she made McCarthy feel like a place where we were genuinely cared for.”

Different versions of family life

Chung, Leaks and Tucker all welcomed students into their families’ apartments and daily lives in unique ways. “Family life looks different for each of us,” Tucker says.

Six years ago, she and her husband brought home a pug puppy named Pugsly to help build relationships with students. Pugsly became a popular presence at McCarthy and around the village, with the Great Lawn being one of her favorite spots for a walk. “Students adopted her and kind of took her as their own,” Tucker says.

Leaks’ two children have grown up at the village. When he and his wife moved in to the Nemirovsky, Bohnett and McMorrow residential colleges, their son Maxwell was eight years old and the youngest student in the complex. Two years later, their daughter Alanis was born. She learned to walk in the halls of the buildings. This was shortly after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and the residential colleges had emptied as many students traveled back home. “Each day, we would pick a new floor, and she would explore,” Leaks recalls.

Though Leaks enjoyed the peace while students were gone, he says the village just wasn’t the same without them. “The energy when the students are back really makes the place,” he says. “The way that USC students have engaged with and treated my kids while we were here has been remarkable.”

Leaks recalls that former resident Karla Santoyo ’20 helped his son, who was attending a dual-language immersion school, practice Spanish.

“Having a family like Professor Leaks’ in the residence hall made the community feel more connected and personal,” says Santoyo, who is now a medical student at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. “It added a warm, family-oriented atmosphere that reminded us of home and brought a different kind of energy to student life. His son added warmth to the community — like having a little brother around.”

Both of Chung’s sons attended and graduated from USC during her FIR tenure. While her sons lived in residence halls other than Cale and Irani as USC students, they would return to Chung’s apartment to visit — especially, Chung says, when they craved home cooking.

Chung was purposeful about making her apartment inviting both for her family and for students. “I took a lot of care and effort to really personalize it and make it very homey,” Chung says. Her family also got a dog — a cockapoo named Coco — during her FIR tenure to “reinforce the sense of home and familiarity,” she says.

The social heart of USC

Over the years, USC Village has evolved into the social center of the University Park Campus. “I think the village really functions as the heart of the entire university,” Chung says. “It’s a wonderful gathering space for students, staff, faculty and the community, in ways that I think have truly been transformative for USC.”

From her living room window, Chung watches the lines at Dulce and Trader Joe’s fluctuate. With her view of the Great Lawn, Tucker sees various groups engaging in everything from soccer to sword fighting and gymnastics. Late at night, Leaks spies weekly poker games and friends eating and studying together.

“The village felt the like the perfect place to start college: busy, social and full of opportunity,” Sandhu recalls.

Fatehi concurs. “Even if you are spending your Saturday studying, you look out the window and still feel like you’re part of a bigger community,” she says.

That sense of camaraderie has extended to the village’s FIRs, who dubbed themselves the “Village People.”

“We have a special bond because of the boundary of the village,” Chung says, noting that they socialized together at progressive dinners, karaoke nights and more.

“The relationships built because we shared a common role are, to me, lifelong relationships, lifelong memories,” Leaks says.

Moving out, moving on

Completing their tenure and moving out of the village is bittersweet for the last first residents. Tucker says she’ll miss students coming by to pet Pugsly but is excited to introduce the pug to new experiences in northeast L.A., where she and her husband are moving into a townhome.

Leaks and his wife purchased their first home in the San Gabriel Valley, a point of pride and excitement — particularly for their daughter, who has thus far known no other home than USC Village. But he’ll miss the day-to-day interactions with students. “Being one of the first residents here at the village was just a really special experience,” Leaks says.

Chung is moving to the South Bay and will miss having the University Park Campus as her backyard. “Overall, our family has just been immensely thankful for this unique opportunity to be in the middle of this most dynamic environment,” she says.