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!