The dormitories at Waynesburg University are provided to students as housing for the school year. However, they are not left unsupervised. The dorms are attended by a Resident Director and several Resident Assistants.

Martin Hall, one of the male dorms on campus, is also home to five RA’s.

The second floor is attended by junior business management major Josh Sneeringer.

The life of an RA can be very time consuming and comes with a fair share of challenges.

For Sneeringer, it can be even more challenging because of his athletic activities as a member of the wrestling team.

“I wanted to try and be an RA my sophomore year, but with wrestling and school work, I didn’t know how I was going to be able to handle it,” said Sneeringer. “Coming into my junior year, I decided I was going to push myself in all aspects and see if I could do it.”

Several different aspects go into being an RA, and according to Sneeringer, making connections in the community is one of them.

“I really want to be involved in this community more, like being more prevalent in [Martin Hall],” said Sneeringer. “Making these new connections, friendships and relationships has been amazing for me, and I want to continue that and help others make those.”

Other aspects of the RA lifestyle increased expectations compared to other residents of the building.

“Every day, we are kind of held to a higher standard and are supposed to set examples for those around us,” said Sneeringer.

As far as responsibilities inside Martin, RA’s are tasked with duty nights. Duty nights rotate throughout the RA’s in the building and are essentially there to make sure residents are safe and following the building rules.

“We have our duty night, which we are on duty from nine until 12,” said Sneeringer. “We have to make three rounds and talk to multiple people, and we have to report any incidents that happen.”

The RA’s must also have staff meetings and one-on-one meetings with their RD, according to Sneeringer.

When it comes to school work, being an RA has had a positive outcome for Sneeringer’s classroom performance.

“Honestly, it’s helped me a lot,” Sneeringer said. “It has really made me bunker down and realize when I have time, I need to be doing work. It has helped me really recreate my schedule, so during the day, it’s class, then, when I get back, it’s homework, so if I have to do something for being an RA, I can just go. It kind of forces me to be a little more diligent with my work.”

What has given Sneerigner some trouble is the fact that he has to balance his duties as an RA with the time he spends with the wrestling team.

“It has been a strain, honestly,” said Sneeringer. “There are some long nights when its rough to wake up for morning practices because, if stuff happens at night, I have to take care of it,” said Sneeringer.

In another way, wrestling has pushed Sneeringer to excel even more.

“It’s kind of motivating because more of my residents are like, ‘I want to come watch you wrestle,’ so it has pushed me to get more starting time so my guys can come and watch,” said Sneeringer.

For Sneeringer, his time as an RA has helped him socially and has helped him be a leader.

“Being an RA has really opened up a lot of different opportunities,” Sneeringer said. “It put me in a different leadership aspect that I wasn’t really expecting but I’m glad I’m in it now,” said Sneeringer. “It has forced me to be a little bit more outgoing and make connections with some of these residents.”