RA deadline Jan. 21
Resident assistants' lives include connecting, building relationships
3:12 p.m., Jan. 16, 2015--With the University of Delaware resident assistant application closing Wednesday, Jan. 21, prospective RAs are encouraged to consider the importance of connecting students and building relationships across campus.
For Melissa Cabrero, a sophomore communication interest major in her first year as a resident assistant on Floor 7 of the Christiana East Tower, the lessons learned apply both to her work as an RA and to her involvement in the Harrington Theatre Arts Company (HTAC).
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“Residence Life and theatre really go hand in hand, because a lot of people are very interested [in what they’re doing],” Cabrero said. “It’s all about communicating and talking to other people, wanting to make connections, looking at things in new perspectives -- things you might not have seen before.”
Cabrero serves on the student theatre organization’s executive board and explained that she has been able to work well with Robert Achorn, an RA from the Central Complex, in their roles with HTAC. Working cooperatively, they have been able to help improve the company’s functionality.
“Being in the RA role has helped me on the board of HTAC,” she said, because it has allowed her to “reach out to people that are not in theatre-interest groups” and better understand why they might or might not have an interest in attending HTAC productions.
As HTAC co-student directors, Cabrero and Achorn were able to work together to improve the organization.
“We knew where we’re going and if we ever had a disagreement, we knew how to handle it (talking in private), without having a tension build up that the production and the staff would feel,” Cabrero explained.
Gregory Zeltt, a senior psychology major in his second year as an RA on Floor 14 of the Christiana West Tower, serves as the vice president of the Active Minds registered student organization (RSO). He said that the RA role has provided him time management skills and ways to help him in “making sure to get things done.”
“Plus,” he continued, “being an RA has given me a chance to put my organizations that are smaller out there.”
While the position has helped these RAs in pursuing their passions, it has also affected how they go about simple things like getting ready in the morning.
Cabrero said she starts her day in a systematic, organized fashion and prepares the night before by putting aside necessary items to avoid scrambling.
“As I complete things throughout the day, like academics, I’ll cross it off in the planner. But if it’s personal, outside of academics, I have my journal,” she said. “So as I’m getting ready, making breakfast, I can check to see what I wasn’t able to get done yesterday and what I need to do today.”
A returning RA and active student on campus, Zeltt has turned into someone who now checks his email “at almost an addictive level.”
When it comes to the RA role, however, Zeltt said he feels that emails only work “half and half -- half of people check them, half of them don’t,” and that he usually prefers door-knocking.
Having a large-scale flyer on the floor, along with smaller ones on residents’ doors, are more noticeable than emails, he said.
Zeltt also makes it a personal goal to knock on everyone’s doors at least once a week.
Throughout the day, some students find it strange to see their RA outside the residence hall. Both Cabrero and Zeltt have accidentally taken classes with their residents that turned out well for both of them.
Cabrero didn’t know her residents were in the same class for weeks because it was a big lecture hall. She only found out when they came up and asked for notes.
Zeltt had a similar experience.
“I had a couple of residents in my class last semester. We would see each other, greet each other and then I would see them walking around on campus on The Green and say, ‘Oh, how’s your day?’”
All of this is just one part of a UD RA’s life, a representative of the program said, adding that they continuously build relationships and inspire their residents to think beyond themselves and to consider one day becoming resident assistants themselves.
The RA application closes on Wednesday, Jan. 21. For more information or to download the application, visit the Residence Life website.
Article by Daniel Carr, Residence Life and Housing intern