Building Campus Community: The Role of a Resident Assistant
Building Campus Community: The Role of a Resident Assistant
Ryan Petrus is a junior in the College of Engineering and Computing studying Cyber Security Engineering. He spends most of his free time engaging with his professional engineering fraternity and working as a Resident Assistant. He is originally from Lorton, Virginia.
Living on campus for the first time away from your home, whether it be a few miles away or thousands of miles away, can be a scary experience. My job as a Resident Assistant, or RA, is to make that transition as easy, seamless, and the least nerve-racking experience possible. We as RAs, have a few things that we do to try to build a community within the residence halls.
1 – Mason Meetups
I’ve been an RA for a little over a year, and arguably the most important part about being an RA are the mason meetups. These are all the events that are hosted to build camaraderie between residents. Sometimes it can be as simple as a game night, or movie night. Other times it can be a more extravagant event, like a late-night cooking in the shared kitchen or even making your own tie-dye shirt.
2 – Mason Mingles
Mason mingles is a way for an RA to get to know their residents better. The goal of the Mason Mingles is to check up on you, see how your classes are going, and to overall make a connection between the RA and the residents. I always use this time to talk to them about how their personal lives are going. You learn about residents more and then if you realize that two residents have the same interest, or the same major, you can connect them and it’ll help them build a connection.
3 – Being a smiley, helpful resource, and overall an welcoming presence within the community
I think one of the most important things for RAs to do is to be present in the community, but that doesn’t have to be a physical presence. On top of being an RA, I’m in my junior year of college, and part of three other organizations, so I’m always running around on campus. Because I’m so busy, I’m not always reachable physically, but I’m very active in our community group chat, and I have let them know if they have any questions, they can either reach out to me directly or if they post it in the general group chat, I answer it as soon as I can.
4 – Bulletin Boards
The fourth thing has to do more with helpful information that you may not be familiar with on campus. Bulletin boards are a great opportunity to let your creativity shine. On the board, some requirements have to be there, like a campus map and resources that we have on campus, but that is usually the extent of the requirements. This is another one of my favorite parts of being an RA. I try to have a different theme every time that I change my boards. Last year, I had a space theme and put planets and spaceships all over the hall, which was fun to decorate.
Overall, deciding to become an RA was one of the best things I think I could’ve done on campus. The skills that I’ve gained like time management, communication, and interpersonal skills have been invaluable. I love this job and the effect that I have; whether it be in the overall environment of the residence hall or the way I affect the individual residents is a huge reason I would come back and do this job again.