Community Building Rotation #2: Humes Hall

I had the pleasure of attending the Pinterest Night community builder hosted by Stef Powers of Humes Hall for her residents of Humes 5 West.

I was greeted with "slutty brownies"..and it couldn't have been a nicer welcome to the community builder! For those of you who don't know, "slutty brownies" are a cookie base, Oreos in the middle, and brownies on top. So. Delicious.

Next, Stef provided supplies and her sewing expertise to her residents and assisted them in making a variety of crafts, mostly made from old t-shirts. A few of the creations are displayed below!

Stef and her residents bonding over sweet treats!

Slutty brownies!

Converting t-shirts into tank tops.

Humes RA Molly Kate Benson showed up to support Stef and shows off her new t-shirt tank!

One of Stef's residents, Meghan, and myself modeling our t-shirt headbands!

Awesome job, Stef!

Until next time,
Chelsea Oliver
WAGA

RA of the Month, September 2012

Congratulations to Drew Nash of Morrill Hall's 7th floor for being selected as the West Area RA of the Month! See what Drew's nominators said about him below:

During the month of September, Drew Nash has been instrumental in his role as a returning RA for Morrill Hall. Morrill houses many of the university’s living and learning communities (LLC), and Drew is responsible for the 62 freshman males in the Chancellor’s Honors Program LLC on his floor. Drew has taken it upon himself to see that both his residents and other honors residents in the hall have the opportunity to work with the student-run Honors Community Board. This board serves as the primary programming body for the Honors students, and this past month Drew has given his time to make sure that meeting locations are secured, and that body members are readily notified of Honors Community Board events and meetings. Drew’s involvement with his LLC does not stop there. In mid-September he attended an interdepartmental meeting between University Housing and the LLC advisers, to give and get feedback on how all of the LLCs in Morrill Hall can be improved.

Drew set the bar high for community development in September. In mid-September, every RA is required to take a resident name test that demonstrates their knowledge of resident names and room numbers. Drew had a perfect score for his floor, and only missed 2 names for his buddy RA’s floor out of 124 total residents. It is clear that he has taken initiative to personally know the individuals on these floors. Additionally, he attended the LLC whitewater rafting trip and insisted that he go down the river with a raft full of his residents.

Also, Drew centered the focus of his September bulletin board on roommate agreement contracts. He took a survey from all of his residents asking how they want to approach issues of the trash getting taken out, study time in the room, and other preferences for how to resolve conflicts. He posted the anonymous results on his bulletin board to display how many of the residents have similar preferences when it comes to different situations. Though Drew planned and led 4 community builder programs in the month of September, his trivia night, had over 30 residents from his floor and his buddy floor attend. What was more impressive was that everyone who attended stayed for the entire duration of the program.

One of the biggest strengths that Drew has brought to the hall staff in September is his set of technology skills. In September, many staff members were still struggling with how to effectively use the newly distributed iPads for work use. To ease our frustrations, Drew became our personal technology guru, and developed applications that made housing forms readily available for all staff members. He has also been the mastermind behind our hall website, designing a calendar for our RAs, head staff, and hall association to advertise hall events! The website also includes a suggestions for hall improvement section, where residents can submit their ideas. Without Drew, this site would not have been not be up and running at all, let alone in the first full month of school.

Last, but certainly not least, Drew’s composure in responding to incidents in the hall has been phenomenal. He has been instrumental in assisting first year RAs with their first incidents and hall situations and has responded to his own situations in the most professional of manners. He has consistently made sure that all of his facts and necessary resident information were ready for campus police and head staff when they arrived to help with an incident. He has been instrumental in seeing that hall operations run smoothly and community development is a priority. His entire staff is thankful for his work.

Keep up the excellent work, Drew!

Chelsea Oliver
WAGA

Community Building Rotation 1: North Carrick Hall

Little known fact about Chelsea: I was an engineering major for three whole semesters in undergrad (up until we covered things about electricity and magnetism...then I ran away...fast). But, there is a little bit of an engineering nerd in me. So, I was very excited to attend Mitchell Shope's program in North Carrick called "Capitalism and Entrepreneurship." It sounds a little bit like an economics lesson...but it's more. Promise.

Mitchell has a very unique floor community in North Carrick, in that he is an RA for the Riser LLC (a community sponsored by the College of Engineering with a strong focus in math) as well as the Crescendo LLC (a community for any student in the School of Music or the Pride of the Southland Marching Band), as well as traditional residents. It would seem that programming for these demographics jointly would be a challenge, but Mitchell certainly succeeded with this program, which had an appeal of technology and engineering for the Riser students, but the appeal of entrepreneurship that reached to all residents.

Mitchell invited a guest speaker, Clinical Professor and head of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program Dr. Harry (Lee) Martin. Dr. Martin was a very enthusiastic presenter that engaged the students in open dialogue, but really walked students through the evolution of technology in recent years, what that may ultimately mean for them as they enter the job market, and the value of an entrepreneurial spirit. Dr. Martin knows engineering very well because he himself founded and grew a successful start up in robotics, but he spoke in terms that related to the entire audience, not just segmenting the Riser students.

I really enjoyed the speaker, and learned a lot about technology. [I really don't have a lot of knowledge of the subject...I just know that I don't like it when I don't have it.] One of the points that I really found fascinating was the impact of Moore's Law. Did you know that there is more technology in your cell phone than it took to put the first rover on the moon? Fascinating stuff! That's just a snippet of what we covered.

Very unique and successful community builder, Mitchell, and thank you for letting me crash! I really enjoyed it!

Until next time,

Chelsea Oliver
WAGA