October RA of the month: Sarah Beth Cantrell

Humes Hall's Sarah Beth Cantrell is our winner for west area October RA of the month! Congratulations! Check out her nomination from Humes hall director Kristen Krapfl.

We are honored to nominate Sarah Beth Cantrell for West Area RA of the Month for October!  Sarah Beth has done an incredible job this past month modeling great work within her RA position for staff, while also supporting residents in and outside of the classroom in all that she does. In the month of October, Sarah Beth has been a great staff buddy to her floor buddy, Olivia Monroe (6^th floor love). From the encouraging words to quality time spent together, she has done an incredible job supporting Olivia in and outside of her RA role, and their connection is very apparent to fellow staff.  She truly embodies the vision we had for staff buddies, and we are excited with how well she has done guiding new staff while also challenging herself to be better each day.  

When it comes to her ladies, Sarah Beth is always trying to find new, fun ways to connect the floor and to get them involved and invested in Humes and on campus.  In support of the P.O.W.E.R. Challenge in October, Sarah Beth was one of the staff members who wanted to make sure her ladies were aware of the challenge and of the importance of sustainable living and having an environmental consciousness.  She partnered with the Office of Sustainability and held a passive Spooky Recyclage program, where she encouraged her ladies to sign the sustainability pledge, and they would then receive an “I Took the Pledge Ghost” for a door decoration and recognition of their commitment.  To encourage participation, she added in a competition and prize for whichever entire suite all pledged first, knocked on doors to discuss the initiative, and is planning to have a pizza party when all have participated (it is still happening into November).  In October she also held her Halloween Partay, and went above and beyond in creating foods with a Halloween theme (banana ghosts with little candy eyes, tangerines decorated like little pumpkins, pretzel and string cheese broom sticks, etc.), had pumpkin painting, and played Hocus Pocus. Her ladies loved it and it was a great study break!  She constantly seeks to provide a great experience and fun, educational community building for her ladies.

To round out a great month, Sarah Beth was eager to help head up the RA side of working with HHRA for Trunk-or-treat, and she did a fabulous job.  After settling on a Monsters University theme, she spent a lot of time helping create the decorations and making cute little candy-shaped bean bags for the activity we planned for the trunk.  The bean bag toss was a huge hit, and the ladies of HHRA really appreciated the support and guidance that Sarah Beth provided.

Overall, Sarah Beth has done a great job supporting and providing community building opportunities for her ladies, guiding and helping HHRA, and being a great role model to fellow staff. All of this was done while she pushed through some really tough weeks academically, and we are really proud of her. She is more than deserving of the West Area RA of the Month for October!

September RA of the Month: Taylor Irwin

Congratulations to Taylor Irwin from Humes Hall on winning west area September RA of the month! Below is her nomination from Humes Assistant Hall Director Laura Reasor:

        Taylor Irwin is a second year RA in Humes Hall and has really become a leader among our staff. Taylor has continued to bring new and exciting ideas to her floor to grow the community as a whole while creating an environment that feels like home to her residents. For example, Taylor has implemented a continuous Suite of the Week program that is currently in its fourth week. Taylor picked one suite of residents to be the Suite of the Week by making a sign that hangs over the door. Those residents were then tasked with the job of picking a new suite to be the Suite of the Week and then the process continues. One suite of residents even interviewed other suites to see why they believed they should be the winners that week!
         Taylor also began a weekly community builder in which she lets her residents come to her room every Sunday night to de-stress. Taylor has found a way to incorporate her passion for early education into her RA job by having a read-a-loud every Sunday. Taylor picks one of her favorite Children’s books to read to her residents, which allows them to relax and enjoy being a kid again, even for just a short amount of time. The residents, along with many staff members, have enjoyed having this time to relax before the start of their busy weeks.
           Taylor has also been instrumental in helping train new staff members as they continue to learn the ropes of being an RA by being an excellent role model. In general, the RAs in Humes are very involved individuals in their academics, RA job, and other student organizations, so many of the new staff members were having to work hard to find a balance between all of their commitments. Taylor is someone who is currently involved in organizations like National Residence Hall Honorary, acting as the floor representative for Humes Hall Residents’ Association, taking graduate level courses that require going to some Knox County schools, all while excelling in her RA role. By being an example of someone who is involved in various activities and is remaining calm in stressful and hectic times, the other staff members are able to follow her example and work to create a plan that works for them like Taylor already has.
              Taylor deserves to be the West Area RA of the Month for September for her dedication to her floor and Humes, creativity, and leadership. Humes Hall and the Humes staff would not be the same without Taylor on our team and are honored to nominate her as the West Area RA of the Month!

August RA of the Month: Josh Maner

Congratulations to the West Area RA of the month for August 2014: Josh Maner from Reese Hall!

Hall director Terrance Jagrup had this to say about Josh: 

Josh is a first-year RA and has been a GREAT addition to the staff and hall.  He’s really passionate about his job and cares about the needs and wants of his residents, and he shows it in many ways. He’s always willing to volunteer on building related projects without hesitation, and is also a great team player!  Josh recently chaired a Smash Brothers tournament, where over 55 residents participated and everyone enjoyed themselves.  It is literally the talk of the hall. Residents exchanged numbers and it was obvious that they were all bonding.  He carefully planned the event and used the fellow staff members for assistance.  He’s not afraid to ask questions, and he’s learning more and more about the position as the days go by. I’m very happy to have him!

Many congratulations to Josh Maner! 

the First Annual West Area Block Party

On Thursday, September 18, the wolves of the west side came together for our first area-wide program, the Block Party!

                                      

The RAs in Morrill Hall created some awesome chalk advertisements for the block party. They also provided the music!

RAs in North Carrick Hall set up some carnival-style games for residents to enjoy. They had balloon darts, a ring toss, and a milk-bottle game. 

The lovely ladies of South Carrick Hall manned the food table. We had popcorn, nachos, cotton candy, and drinks! 

Humes Hall got creative by setting up a photo booth and a face-painting table which was very successful! 

Reese Hall set up four-square, corn-hole, and can jam for residents to play. The four-square crew stayed busy until almost midnight. 

We finished up the night by enjoying an outdoor movie (Jurassic
Park) in the Brown Hall ampitheater.

Our first annual West Side Block Party was a huge success. A special thanks to all the halls for working together to make an awesome program!! 

Brown Hall: Manis & Mocktails

The wonderful ladies of Brown Hall hosted a program for their residents called Manis & Mocktails (or manicures and mock-cocktails). While residents painted their nails and talked, the RAs served some delicious drinks and educated the residents on sexual assaults. 

Rebecca, Rebekah, Hannah, and Kennedy prepared the delicious mocktails.

They had strawberry, lime, and my personal favorite the "Fred. D.-licious".

While the residents enjoyed themselves, some of the RAs placed tic-tacs into residents' drinks to show how easy it is to lose awareness of your surroundings and how important it is to keep your eyes on your drink in a public setting. 

They had a great turnout! 

RA Emily and HD Stephanie spoke to the residents on how to remain safe when going out with friends. 

Great job ladies of Brown! Thank you for having me!

*special thanks to Austin Deal for helping me with the photos* 

Humes Hall: Girl's Night Out (GNO)

                The wonderful ladies of Humes Hall hosted a building wide bash for their residents: Girl's Night Out. They had elevator trivia, jello shots (non-alcoholic of course), and tip sheets for their residents on how to stay safe when they go out with friends. 

Maria, Kristen, Allison, Kara, Basha, and Amber set up the table with jello shots and tip sheets.

Above: some residents enjoyed their jello. Below: a photo of the tip sheets and jello shots (peach was the best!) 

Heather, Sarai, Taylor, and Molly Kate quizzed the residents in the elevator trivia contest. 
                               Great program ladies of Humes Hall! Thanks for having me!

West Area Programming Wrap Up - Hess, Reese, and Acousti-Carrick (N. Carrick)

As the semester began to wind down, the Wolf Pack programming began to get busy!

 The Hess crew spared no expense on this fantastic building-wide program. The RAs worked in conjunction with Hess Hall Council to provide a Carnival to celebrate the end of classes.

The Hess Carnival included many games, my favorite was the "drunk" water balloon toss (where a willing participant dawned a pair of "drunk" simulation goggles and tried to toss water balloons to a target). Each game had tickets to win and tickets could be traded in for some awesome prizes. Also, the food was cooked outside and on the grill -- one of my favorite summer pastimes.

Reese Hall also joined in on the end-of-semester kickoff. The RAs purchased flowers to hand out to willing participants. Each flower handed out was to help relieve stress going into finals. It was certainly a beautiful day for those May Flowers!

Lastly, but certainly not the least, was the annual Acousti-Carrick gig. The RAs and North Carrick Residents took to the stage to show their talents. URHC's Justin Lawrence even took the stage to sing! The whole program was a huge success and they gave out free pizza! Who doesn't enjoy a FREE dinner and show?

West Area RA OTM - March

The west area wolf pack is pleased to announce the West Area RA of the Month recipient for the month of March:

Cody "Lee" Thornburgh

Below is Josh Boehm's nomination letter:

"Cody has done a great job this past month as an RA. His month started out rough when one on the program he co-organized needed to rescheduled by the guest speakers. He worked with them to reschedule the program for March 30th and then with his co-organizer they began advertising the new time. This then happen to Cody a second time this month for their star gazing trip when they found out the weather would not cooperate. Throughout out all of this adversity Cody has kept his head up and has worked diligently to reschedule this event as well."

Congratulations Cody! Please join us in congratulating Cody by giving this guy some well-deserved kudos!!

Time to Recognize!

Time to Recognize!

The west area is pleased to announce the RAs Of The Month for January and February!

Paige Scrivener (January)

Here's her nomination letter from Kristen Krapfl:

The start of the spring semester in the residence halls is a time to welcome back the lovely residents and to have a clean slate in the new year. The Resident Assistants play such a critical role in reopening the halls and making sure they are ready for a new semester, and Paige Scrivener has done an outstanding job in this regard in Humes Hall in the month of January!

To kick off the spring semester, Paige was plotting and planning her programs and floor décor well before returning from break, submitting ideas and getting prepared for all of the amazing things she had in store. Paige went with a Chinese New Years theme for January, decorating her bulletin board with great graphics and information about the Chinese zodiac, and her residents and fellow staff surely enjoyed stopping to read all of the educational information. She also hung hand-made Chinese lanterns up and down the hall outside of the resident rooms, and it truly made the floor come to life with vibrant yellows and reds. Paige also created hand-drawn door decs with Chinese characters for each resident and staff, and tied her passion for the language and culture into the floor. One could easily see the time and energy put into transforming her floor into education about the Chinese culture.

Paige also jumped right into her community building on the floor, kicking off a January passive program called “Wishing You Good Fortune this Semester.” For this passive program, tied right into the floor theme, she created a giant paper fortune cookie she hung on the wall in addition to a fortune paper (equipped with lucky numbers) where residents could write semester goals and resolutions to share with one another. With it she posted study tips and ways to start the semester off in a strong fashion to get them on track. Ladies are still adding their goals and it has become a visual display to help them hold one another accountable. On January 12th, days after classes began, she held a spontaneous program surrounding the Golden Globes, and provided a space for them to have a night to hang out and to eat some yummy snacks. On January 16th, she collaborated with several others staff members and a campus partner to put on a hall-wide program surrounding sexual health and healthy relationships called “The Ugly Truth.” It was a fun and interactive event, with a good number of ladies attending to gain valuable knowledge!

While Paige has as busy schedule balancing the RA role with her academics and many other areas of campus involvement, she never hesitates to be a wonderful resource for her ladies, never gives less than her best, and always supports and communicates with staff. She helped a couple residents transition out of her hall (some to other halls and others out of UT), and showed them great care and concern, letting them know how much she appreciated her time with them. She encourages her residents to get involved and helps foster their growth and development with each interaction she has. Paige went above and beyond to create a floor that felt like home for the start of the semester, and all of her ladies have appreciated her creativity and time devoted. She has also been a continual role model on staff, and her care, listening ear, and dedicated are inspiring. Paige has truly shined in her efforts and interactions in the month of January, and that is while she is well-deserving of the RA OTM!

Congrats, Paige!!!

Zeruiah Buchanan (February)

Here's her nomination letter from Amy Clinton:

Zeruiah is new to the South Carrick staff this semester.  Her transition onto the staff and into the hall have been seamless!  Her vibrant personality and positive attitude make her a great addition the the staff.  Zeruiah truly cares about her floor and has gone out of her way to get to know the ladies on her floor.  She has been able to incorporate her previous experience with hall associations and as an office assistant to really bring her floor a great experience. Her head staff is very proud of all she has accomplished so far!

Congrats, Zeruiah!!!

Humes and N. Carrick Program Highlights!

Wednesday afternoon was jam-packed with 

some amazing programming in the West Area!

Humes Hall hosted their annual "Baloon Bust"
which was anything but a "bust."

Students lined up to hand over their hard-earned cash at a chance to win big!

Each student was given one balloon for every $5 donation to Habitat.

Most people easily made their money back, and then some! This resident won a $15 gift certificate!!

This resident won an Apple TV! WHAT?! What a great fund raiser for Habitat and a great way to engage the community. The residents couldn't have been happier. Great job, ladies of Humes!

Now over to North Carrick for some "friendly" competition!

That's right, it's time to put down those text books and time to
relax with some free pizza and some video gaming with your friends!

The competition started to heat up when Brian Samble stepped up to the controller!

 What's better with video games than FREE pizza? Great job, Justin and the N. Carrick Gents!