The Southern Scholarship Foundation, which has eight houses in Gainesville to lodge scholarship recipients, is opening a ninth house.
The new house, which provides 21 housing scholarships and has several female spots available for the spring semester, is located on Southwest Ninth Street, near other SSF houses.
Jamie Chute is looking forward to the annual Christmas morning re-enactment Thursday at Badcock Scholarship House, one of the nine houses.
"I love Christmas with Badcock," said Chute, 19, an English sophomore. "We do Secret Santa, put gifts under our tree, and we're gonna open them all together. It's a tradition."
At the houses, each resident pays, on average, a $950 food and services bill. This provides food, utilities, cable, Internet and activities for one semester. Each scholarship is valued at more than $7,000 each year.
In a SSF house, each resident has a roommate and shares a bathroom with four to six housemates. Chores are shared.
"For a few hours each week of cooking or cleaning, you get a warm, cozy place to live," said Teresa Turner, director of student affairs.
Applications can be found at southernscholarship.org.
