In this blog post, Reese Townsend details his time as an RA on campus. While his experience started off rocky, Townsend developed lasting relationships with his residents and achieve the best grades he had ever received in college. Keep reading to learn more!
From August of 2023-May of 2024, I was a resident assistant (RA), a position I will return to in the fall. There are umpteen things that this job entails, but some of the more prominent things are building quality relationships between myself and the residents, building a floor community where everyone is comfortable interacting with each other, building trust with the residents so they can confide/report things to me, and educating myself on resources on campus and in the community.
For me, easily the highlight of the experience was the relationships I built with my residents. By second semester, I got to the point where I knew my residents well and loved walking with them to dinner or classes and chatting with them. First semester was a challenge as everyone was more uneasy and uncomfortable. This was most likely due to most of my residents being freshmen and getting acclimated to the University out of high school while I was a first-time resident assistant. By second semester it was mostly smooth sailing with fewer incidents coming up and a lot more time for personal connection.
This experience helped me improve personally and academically. Personally, one of my favorite things I got better at is small talk. I have never been much of a talker but with this job I obviously felt obliged to chat with my residents as I wanted to ensure they were doing well and wanted to make sure I was doing anything I could to help them feel comfortable. This led to me feeling a lot more comfortable talking to many people, which is a skill that will translate to every area of my life.
Academically, I got better at time management, and really learned what study strategies work best for me. In fall 2023, I was a first time RA, and was also taking a full class schedule, featuring a hard biology class and my first organic chemistry course.
Organic chemistry has a reputation for not being easy, and this was certainly proven true throughout the semester. As an RA, there is a lot less free time as there are many responsibilities that come with the job such as logging student interactions, planning floor meals, floor events, floor meetings, and setting up hawk talks and roommate agreements. Along with these new obligations, I needed more time to study for classes that were harder than anything I had taken before. This forced me to find ways to be more efficient with my time. It forced me to stop procrastinating, implement systems that helped me get everything done more efficiently, and study more effectively. I know time management is a cliche topic, but the resident assistant role has played a huge role in improving my studying as Spring 2024 was my best semester for grades.
One of the goals I wanted to accomplish through this experience was to learn how to handle crisis situations as an individual in a leadership position. During the fall semester, I was on Thursday duty night, and I was able to gain a lot of knowledge in handling crisis situations. More crazy things happen on Thursday night than any other day of the week, and I handled some pretty tough situations such as roommate conflicts and a medical emergency. Although I still have a lot to learn in managing these situations perfectly, I feel more confident in my ability to handle these situations in the future.
Another goal I had was to learn how to de-fuse or find creative solutions to conflict. While some situations were certainly more complex than others, each conflict needed a quality, creative solution, and I strived to do my best to provide this for my residents. Conflicts may differ in severity, but one does not necessarily have a simpler solution than another. Similar to crisis situations, I got a lot better in this area but still have a lot of room to improve.
Overall, in serving as a resident assistant I learned a ton about myself and was able to improve on essential skills that will help me for the rest of my life. I would recommend the experience to anyone looking to improve themselves and develop some great relationships!
Author Bio:
Reese is a pre-medicine student pursuing a major in human physiology and a minor in chemistry. Outside the classroom, Reese is a Resident Assistant, an EMT at Care Ambulance, and a volunteer for Special Olympics Iowa. In his free time, Reese enjoys hanging out with family and friends and following his favorite sports teams, the KC Chiefs, KC Royals, and OKC Thunder. Reese also loves a good meal of teriyaki chicken stir fry.
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