Cooperative Living

Cooperative living is something not many people know about on Purdue’s campus, but something that needs to be promoted more. I am now a junior living in a cooperative house for my third year. I have seen and learned so much in just three years. In case you don’t know what cooperative living is, it is a group of all women or all men living in a house together. Sometimes they often get grouped together with fraternities and sororities, but they are different in many ways. One of the things that stood out to me when going through recruitment and learning about cooperatives was that we cook all of our own meals. The house is run completely through the men and women living in the house, from cooking and cleaning to buying our food and supplies we need. The cooperative community makes Purdue feel so much smaller and gives you a community within a community. When I first came to Purdue, I was very nervous because I was going from a small town to a school where there were over 40,000 students. Once I moved into my house and got to meet all the girls in my house and other cooperatives, I fell even more in love with Purdue and everything it has to offer. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made because I met some of my best friends through cooperatives and had some amazing experiences.