Casa Madríz Living Learning Community

APPLY TO CASA MADRIZ ABOUT ESTHER MADRIZ MEET OUR Team 

In the Casa Madríz Living-Learning Community (CMLLC), first-year Latina/o/x/é students come together building on a common background to form a new community of support, connection and cultura.  Casa Madríz brings together students from all majors to collectively reflect on what it means to be a Latina/o/x student in higher education and how our education is an act of resistance. Students live together in Toler Residence Hall on the USF Campus.

Belong & Build Community

Casa Madríz is a home for first-year Latina/o/x students at USF. We know that adjusting to college is a big transition. Casa Madríz offers first-year students a supportive community of peers, access to support staff and connection to mentors and professors to ensure that Latina/o/x students feel welcomed, supported and seen at USF. 

Learn Together

Students will take three required classes as a part of their engagement in CMLLC:

• CLS 100 & 101: Latinos & Education - Legacies of Resistance & Building a Collective Future  (2 units - Fall 2025 & 2 units- Spring 2026)

  • This is a year-long course, Professor Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales that engages students in learning about the US educational system and its interaction with Latino communities.  Students will also reflect on their educational journeys, connect with Latino faculty across campus from a variety of disciplines and learn about education as resistance in the Latino community.

• RHET 110: Written Communication I (4 units)

  • All Casa Madriz students will enroll in a special section of RHET 110, taught by Professor Melisa Garcia . This is an introductory writing course that will be tailored specifically to speak to the experiences of Latino students and will not only cover the mechanics of writing but will also engage students in thinking about their voices as Latino scholars.

• RHET 120: Written Communication II (4 units)

  • In RHET 120,taught by Professor Melisa Garcia, students continue examining, interrogating, and practicing writing, speaking, and multimodal communication. Students discover and develop research projects based on their goals and interests, building connections between their lived experience and the wider world of human knowledge. Pursuing the Jesuit value of eloquentia perfecta–speaking and writing for the common good–students work both independently and collaboratively to understand and address diverse perspectives.

CONNECT TO THE LATINÉ COMMUNITY - AT USF AND IN SAN FRANCISCO

Students in Casa Madríz will participate in a yearly retreat, and monthly community-building and programming led by Residential Life staff. These events create opportunities to build community with each other, connect their academic curriculum outside of the classroom, and also engage and explore the Latino community in San Francisco through attending community events, participating in community-engaged learning, and exploring the city.

Students will also have the opportunity to connect to - and help contribute to! - the Latiné community here on campus.  Through participation in campus events celebrating Latiné life and culture to monthly Faculty Dinners in which residents of Casa Madríz in which Latiné faculty members across campus who will share their educational journeys with residents of Casa Madríz, we are always looking for ways to connect, build and celebrate who we are as a community.

Live Together

Casa Madríz students will live together in Toler Hall on the USF Campus. Students will live on mixed-gender floors in double rooms with one roommate in an intentional community of Latina/o/x, first-year scholars at USF.

Fulfill Your Core Requirements

All students in Casa Madríz will fulfill three (3) core requirements: Cultural Diversity, RHET 110, and RHET 120. 

questions? contact us!