HOUSE PARTY: Students dug in for a weekend at Conner's home. Courtesy Steve Stenstrom

human biology majors don’t typically learn how to lay tile. But that new skill was just one of the takeaways for junior Katie Smartt after she and other students helped renovate the home of Dorothy Conner, an elderly East Palo Alto resident who recently lost both legs to diabetes.

Smartt was one of about 150 students, friends and family who descended upon Conner’s house for one weekend in February à la Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Former 49ers quarterback Steve Stenstrom, ’94, and his wife, Lori (Heisick, ’93), came up with the idea and took it to Mosaic, a partnership of evangelical and church organizations Stenstrom advises on campus.

After five days of donated contractor work, students arrived for five shifts of four hours each. Many of the improvements were designed to make Conner’s home and yard wheelchair accessible: sliding glass doors to a new backyard deck, raised flower beds, widened hallways and a low kitchen sink.

Conner and her children were clearly touched when the crew revealed the home improvements on February 20. Stenstrom hopes to repeat the project.