With the spring semester just a few weeks along, Waynesburg University Student Development is in the process of hiring resident mentors for the 2025 fall semester. 

When talking about the requirements, Assistant Dean of Students, Aaron Sielski said, “Resident mentors need to be full-time students they need to be a resident student, and there is a GPA requirement that we look for and that is a minimum of a 2.5 GPA, as well as we also look at to see if students who apply have any kind of major disciplinary issues or anything like that, like a lot of policy violations or something. Doesn’t necessarily mean a single policy violation will disqualify anyone, but it’s something we do look at as well.” 

A group interview is set for this weekend, and individual interviews will follow next week, according to Sielski. 

Describing the perks of being a resident mentor, Sielski said, “So I think the biggest perk is the professional development. Right now, right? You get to work with a staff within a team of other resident mentors, as well as one-on-one with your resident director. So, there’s a lot of personal and professional development with the job.”

He said a stipend towards room and board is available at $2,100 a semester, or $4,200 a year. 

Resident mentors are like the “guardians of the dorms,” Sielski explained, while also adding that they do regular rounds on the weekends and weekdays. 

“Obviously, they’re there for building safety and if there’s any issues that come up, but the main thing they’re doing is just building community within the halls. They’re going around knocking on residents’ doors, talking to them, learning about their residents, knowing who they are, letting their residents know who they are so that way, if they have any questions or looking for resources or anything, they know who their Resident Mentors are and that they can go to them if they need help with anything,” Sielski said. “Obviously, they help enforce school policies as well.” 

 Sielski said hiring new Resident Mentors is “a really fun process,” which he explained starts at the beginning of spring with an interest meeting and applications. 

“So, like it starts off, we’ll do some icebreakers and stuff, let everyone get a little warmed up. Then, we do some different scenarios and ask them questions, and they’ll do things in kind of group settings, and we’ll evaluate them,” he said.

Sielski explained individual interviews will be conducted next week and may conclude soon after.

“Then we’ll send people letters to let them know if they received the position or not,” he said. 

Resident mentors are expected to be in that position for the entire school year.