Menu
Menu
The Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons is a living and learning community that offers apartment-style residences in the heart of downtown Waterville.
Opened in fall 2018, it is home to 200 Colby students, faculty, and staff who are deeply engaged in our city, while also serving and supporting a variety of business, civic, and community organizations.
Residents (Students, Faculty, and Staff): 200
Application Contact: [email protected]
Living downtown offers the opportunity to become a thoughtful leader, critical thinker, and engaged citizen by integrating academic work and community involvement.
The new Program for Civic Engagement and Community Partnerships at Alfond Commons will build relationships among the community, civic partners, and Colby faculty, staff, and students.
These partnerships are central to both Colby’s liberal arts mission and the College’s commitment to a more vibrant city.
You will be part of a community dedicated to civic engagement.
You will learn from community partners in Central Maine.
You will become part of life on Main Street by living, shopping, eating, and recreating downtown.
You will put academic experiences into practice supporting community nonprofit organizations.
You will develop skills that identify, address, and solve problems.
Alfond Commons is Colby housing. All the benefits and privileges that come with housing at Colby are offered, and all the procedures and policies apply.
Faculty members who reside at Alfond Commons will guide the academic program and partnerships for the student residents, and are a key element of the residential experience downtown.
Biography
Denise Bruesewitz and her family, Thomas Klepach and Roa, 8, and Isla, 6, will live in Alfond Commons. They have lived in Waterville for the past six years. Denise is a freshwater and estuarine ecologist and Thomas has a wide variety of expertise in chemistry, medicine, yoga, and art. Both Thomas and Denise are native Midwesterners, but most recently lived in Port Aransas, Texas, and Hamilton, New Zealand, prior to Waterville. The family enjoys spending time cooking and baking, hiking and canoeing, and watching all sorts of films.
Why are you excited about living downtown?
“I look forward to joining a community of Colby students, faculty, and staff as we learn and build upon relationships that link Colby to the broader Waterville community. I’m especially excited to engage with students in the sciences to think creatively about how they can be involved in our local community and explore how they can incorporate civic engagement into their intellectual work.”
Biography
Justin Becknell is a forest ecologist. He teaches Ecology and Forest Ecosystems and studies interactions among forests, people, and global change. Before Colby, he spent 10 years studying the destruction and restoration of tropical rain forests in Costa Rica and Brazil. He is continuing this research at Colby and has begun to study how Maine’s forests are changing in the 21st century. In his spare time, Justin likes to walk in the woods, take long bike rides, collect records, and cook.
Why are you excited about living downtown?
“As someone new to the community, I want to help build connections between the people of Waterville and Colby’s students and staff. Colby students have a lot of energy and passion, and I’m interested in finding ways to channel that into benefits for the whole community. As an environmental scientist, I’m interested in learning more about the relationship between Waterville residents and their urban ecosystem. I’d like to learn what questions Waterville residents have about their environment and how Colby students and scientists can help to answer those questions.”
Biography
Sarah Emily Duff will be visiting assistant professor in the History Department in 2018-19. Recently arrived from South Africa, she is a historian of age and sexuality, and the author of Changing Childhoods in the Cape Colony: Dutch Reformed Evangelicalism and Colonial Childhood, 1860-1895 (Palgrave, 2015). Her current project is on histories of sex education in 20th-century South Africa. Before coming to Colby, she taught at universities in the UK and South Africa.
Why are you excited about living downtown?
“As a relatively recent arrival to both Colby and the U.S., I was interested in living downtown as a way of getting to know both the College and Waterville a bit better. I hope that this new development pulls the people of mid-Maine into Colby life and invites our students to think of themselves as Mainers as well as Colby students. I’m really keen to put Colby and Waterville people in conversation with one another. We’ve all a great deal to learn.”
Biography
Kevin Rice graduated from Colby in 1996, and after graduate and postdoctoral work at Wisconsin and Yale, he joined the Colby faculty in 2005. He is associate professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry, in which he teaches general chemistry and biochemistry. Kevin has mentored dozens of Colby students who have gone on to top graduate and medical schools. Kevin’s wife, Stacey, a native of Harrison, Maine, will also live at Alfond Commons. She is an artist with a passion for helping others tap into their creativity and is pursuing her degree from the University of Maine. For years, Kevin and Stacey have welcomed students into their home and are proud to be part of the Colby community.
Why are you excited about living downtown?
“Stacey and I are thrilled to be a part of Colby’s efforts to strengthen the relationship with the city of Waterville. We have witnessed the passion and altruism demonstrated by Colby students and excited to partner with them as we engage our community, especially in the realm of education, the arts, and social justice.”
Colby’s commitment to environmental protection and sustainability is evident in every aspect of the Alfond Commons design and operation.
Applying to Alfond Commons is through Colby’s room draw, but with a few added questions as part of the process. You can either apply as part of a group or as an individual.
Questions about this process?
Email [email protected].
Residents choose either a four- or six-person apartment.
Only juniors and seniors are eligible to live in Alfond Commons.
Yes. You will be asked to rank your choices, and then have the opportunity to answer additional questions relating to the halls in which you’d like to live.
You may identify a roommate to fill your place, or we will work with the group to identify someone to join.
You can complete an individual application and residential education staff will work to assign suite mates based on interests. This is an exciting opportunity to meet and learn from other members of the community.
No. As part of our institutional commitment to access and inclusion, all Colby housing costs the same.
Bill and Joan Alfond Commons
150 Main Street in downtown Waterville
