New resident assistants expected to be part of bigger community

In both the female and male dorms, there are a lot of new faces; whether they are part of the new freshmen class or first year Resident Assistant’s (RA’s). With this year’s freshmen class being the largest in Waynesburg University’s history, Resident Director (RD), Anthony Jarrell had some concerns about his group of mostly sophomore RA’s. But so far, those concerns have been proven to be incorrect.

“I think that we are off to a great start this year, I think our program has built up and is in a really healthy place,” said Jarrell. “I had some concerns about the two traditional halls staffs this year, just because the guys seemed very young and there is some kind of normal concerns about people’s confidence and maturity. We have a lot of sophomores this year, but at least from Martin and what I have heard from Thayer I have really been pleasantly surprised with how well everyone has done. They have been eager to learn and we had great training where I think that everyone took [the training] seriously.”

Jarrell does not just credit the RA training prior to the semester, but he also credits the freshman class for the transition.

“I think that part of it is because we have a great group of freshmen, but my guys have been very present and are doing their jobs well,” said Jarrell. “The biggest thing that we ask is to be present, I expect my guys to consistently physically be in every room on pretty much a weekly basis and to go beyond just shallow conversation, but to find out what people do and genuinely care and ask about what is going on in their lives other than just asking how’s class. I don’t expect them to be best friends with everybody, but I just expect every floor to know that their RA cares about them, there is no grey area there, that is my biggest expectation because I think that helps everything else an RA has to do is far as just kind of the normal job duties and the program and events we put on.”

If a student is interested in becoming an RA the process to become one has somewhat already begun for the RD’s.

“It is kind of a year-long process that we do,” Jarrell said. “We are already on our end trying to identify people that we would like to invite to join the process, but anyone is welcome to.” Jarrell.

Jarrell said that there will be an interest meeting at the end of the semester to help the process of coming back from Christmas break run smoothly. “

According to Jarrell, there is an application process that will be due towards the end of January, which will set up an interview process that will begin in the first weekend of February.

“[The interview process] is usually Super Bowl weekend,” Jarrell said. “We bring people in for a group interview and then we have an individual interview process where people sign up for a time and we sit down and ask everyone the same questions. We have them turn in a resume, answer a couple of essay questions before hand and once that happens the RD’s essentially do a draft and we will make trades and kind of argue out picks, but there is a science to that madness too.”

Jarrell said that each building has different needs, and the easiest way to describe it is it is a draft then by the middle of February they will know if they are hired or if they are put on an alternate list.

“We usually have them sign contracts usually by the start of March.” Jarrell said.

Jarrell added that becoming an RA is a great opportunity to become a better leader and it will also improve your college experience.

“We always want to communicate to interested students that being an RA is first and foremost a leadership development opportunity, that it is an opportunity to have a bigger perspective on college, on learning, on your development as a leader and you learn more about the importance of your peer relationships and how everyone influences each other,” said Jarrell. “I think that it is so important in that whatever you do, whether you go to work somewhere, or if go to college, if you are starting your first job or if you are playing a sport employers really want to see that how soon and how consistent in laces that you have been have you tried to be a leader. Have you tried to take responsibility to grow? What is the effort you put in? I think that it really helps a lot of students, it is a great thing for resumes, but it’s also really great for your own growth, to grow as a person and to be a better leader.”

Jarrell sees these things as more than just ideas.

“My life changed because I became an RA and I think it happens for so many people, Jarrell said. It doesn’t happen for everybody, but I think that is an opportunity to grow as a person, have a better resume and have a better overall college experience,” said Jarrell.