A new women’s dormitory will open this fall just south of the Ohio State University campus in time for the 2026-27 school year.
Located near Ohio’s largest university, the dormitory is separate from the institution. Instead of resident advisers walking the halls, young female students will have consecrated religious sisters next door.
The Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception will be renting rooms in the Immaculata House, a unique dormitory adjoining their convent, to students starting this fall.
The sisters, who minister primarily in early childhood education, acquired in September 2024 a three-story triplex on Michigan Avenue in Columbus’ Dennison Place neighborhood to convert into a residence for young women and a convent. The housing units are a 10-minute walk from Ohio State University Hospital.
A few of the sisters reside in a convent downtown at St. John Paul II Early Childhood Education Center, which the sisters opened upon their arrival in Columbus. Two now live on Michigan Avenue.
The order was founded by Blessed Edmund Bojanowski, a layman in 1850s Poland who served abandoned children, the sick and needy. The Little Servant Sisters came to Columbus in 2016.
In the United States, religious sisters in the order also reside in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; and Delray Beach, Florida.
Proceeds from the sale of a house in New Jersey near the world-famous Atlantic City boardwalk, which was donated to the sisters 80 years ago that required extensive repairs and was no longer used by the order, covered the cost of three units in Columbus.
“You have no idea how many dreams I had,” Sister Bozena said of expanding the convent to young women. “Really, it was over and over and over.
“Then I started expressing myself more often to my sisters, and even to my superiors, but at the very beginning, they laughed,” she recalled. “‘No, this is not going to happen. I know you love Ohio; you love Columbus, but this too far. There’s no way.’”
Sisters Bozena and Magdalena currently live in one of the units. The other two units, which have a connecting door in the basement, will be rented to female students seeking an intentional living space while studying at Ohio State.
The two units for female students will house six each. The main floor in the middle unit will be converted to a private chapel with the Blessed Sacrament present.
Sister Bozena, who teaches at the St. John Paul II preschool and Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes at Columbus Holy Family Church, noted that students in the Immaculata House will not live with the religious sisters.
“It’s under one roof but separate,” she said. “We’re not living together. The building is actually separated; the chapel is for themselves.
“If they need any spiritual help, if they need any support, we are here for them.”
The Little Servant Sisters can offer spiritual guidance and community to their neighboring students.
Students do not have to be discerning a religious vocation to rent the dormitory. The space is intended for young women seeking a place to grow in faith, regardless of their vocational call.
Some prospective student renters, Sister Bozena noted, might be hesitant, thinking they will need to enter religious life.
“Our intention is not to make the young girls become sisters. That’s not the main idea,” she said of the Immaculata House. “We want to support them with our faith, support them in their struggle, in school – but definitely, that’s not the intention for us to make them sisters.”
Both properties consist of three bedrooms with two students per room and three bathrooms.
The central unit has three full bathrooms; the end unit includes two full bathrooms and a half bath. The adjoining homes each have a basement (which will offer study spaces), rear deck and backyard.
The dorms are designed to be comfortable and a call to holiness.
“We want the girls to feel the presence of the Lord no matter where they look,” Sister Bozena said, “so there will be Exposition of the Lord.
“The girls, I’m not going to push them. They will not … have to do things in order to be part of the house.
“I don’t want to do that; I want to give them space. I want them to be close to the Lord, but on their own time.”
She added that the Little Servant Sisters would welcome monthly dinners with the young women, or more often if there is interest. The sisters are also open to inviting priests for Lenten or Advent retreats, or to come and give talks for the young women.
She noted that the women can invite their friends as well.
“This definitely will be a house, for the people who live here, that they can be close to the Lord,” she said, “but at the same time, to see how they can become what God wants them to become – to follow their vocation.”
The Little Servant Sisters take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception, is the order’s patroness and model. The community strives to emulate her virtues, seeking the Immaculata’s intercession and making her known to the faithful.
The sisters participate daily in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Eucharistic Adoration. They have three prayer times each day: morning, noon and evening.
Applications for the women’s dormitory are open for 2026-27 school year. To learn more, individuals interested can visit www.ImmaculataHouse.org, call 856-874-6096 or e-mail ImmaculataHouse25@gmail.com.
