Phuong Vu, a graduate student from Hanoi, Vietnam, is a resident of the Community Engagement House. She and two other residents are researching ways to improve the neighborhood. CHRIS WILSON/HERALD

Some students go beyond volunteering in the community for just a few hours. Instead, they live it.

Western graduate students Phuong Vu and Thang Le, both from Hanoi, Vietnam, and Lexington senior Greg Capillo live in the Community Engagement House, where they are trying to make a difference in the surrounding neighborhood.

The house, on East 11th St., used to be the site of illicit activity, said Leah Ashwill, the Alive Center’s community engagement coordinator.

The students are ‘mapping’ the neighborhood by assessing its resources and needs, she said.

Bowling Green resident Bob Basham said he became concerned about the house about four years ago after police visited it while he was renovating his mother’s house on the same street.

The Bowling Green police department told Basham that there were about 96 calls to police about things including drugs and domestic violence disturbances at the house between 2000 and 2005, he said. He decided to buy the house and spent four years renovating it.

“At some point, I began thinking about a way to use the house to enhance the community that we happily call home,” he said.

Basham contacted the ALIVE Center, at 1818 U.S. 31W, to look for responsible tenants that wanted to help the community.

“The ALIVE Center took the ball and ran with it, pulling together the necessary resources to create a community engagement project we’re calling The Hill House,” Basham said.

Vu and Le use their academic concentrations to help research certain aspects of the neighborhood.

Vu, who is working on her masters in communication, said she studies the neighborhood’s communication styles and tries to improve neighbors’ connections to one another by hosting events.

Le is working towards his MBA and is researching the property values in the area, he said.

The students hosted a picnic for the neighborhood to let the residents get to know each other, Vu said. They also have Sunday dinners so the neighbors can voice concerns. The students then convey those concerns to the city. The concerns sometimes include taking care of personal property, the traffic speed or the living environment.

“We are helping the neighborhood to be aware of these problems and improve the overall picture of the neighborhood,” she said.

The Community Engagement House participants won two awards from the city for their work with the house. In November, the tenants received the Neighborhood Builders Award, and Basham received the Operation PRIDE award this month.

Vu said she was proud to be recognized by the city.

“The award is a great motivation for all of the project members to keep moving on and devote more to the neighborhood,” she said.

The tenants are working with the ALIVE Center to try to find sponsors that will help with the cost of living in the house. After rent and utilities, Vu and Le pay about $480 a month, Vu said. Capillo is sponsored by Basham and pays a reduced rent as a trade for his community service.

The current tenants of the house will move out at the end of next semester, so the project is looking for four graduate students to participate in the project.

Vu said she hopes future tenants will use the neighborhood research to better the community.

For more information, call graduate studies at 270.745.2446 or go to www.cehouse.blogspot.com.