The Office of Residence Life has begun accepting applications for Fall 2022 and will continue until Oct. 11.
Residence Life is responsible for all on-campus living and its core beliefs are that every person is created in the image of God and that they deserve a safe home where they can grow and belong.
Emily Berry, assistant director of residence life, oversees the hiring process and coordinates with resident directors around their candidate selection. Berry also helps create and facilitate the application and interview processes.
“We want our applicants to be students who are passionate about community development, peer mentorship and advocacy,” Berry said. “Our RAs serve in the residence halls to establish relationships with residents and support them in their interpersonal, communal and spiritual development, and ultimately, we want to hire students who deeply care for others and are committed to building meaningful relationships with the students that live in their community.”
ResLife typically begins the hiring process in the spring but for the first time, it now is seeking resident assistants and community assistants in the fall semester.
ResLife began the hiring process a semester early because it is now requiring their hired student staff members to take PSYC 211, a Human Development and Leadership in Residential Communities course, in the upcoming spring semester. All of the SRA and RA candidates must be selected during the fall semester so that they can enroll in the class for the spring 2022 semester.
This course is the taking place of a training week that hired staff members must go through in order to prepare for the job but after much consideration, ResLife decided to make a change.
“Our department did extensive benchmarking work to see how other universities conduct training for Residence Life student staff and after lots of research, our department determined that an academic course would be the best avenue to effectively equip our student staff for Christian leadership within residential communities,” said Berry. “This course will cover aspects of human development, community facilitation and engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, mental health and crisis response, as well as leadership and self-discovery.”
According to Berry, the class will feature a large group lecture one day per week and small group cohorts on the other day during the week. This format will allow for students to gain valuable knowledge, as well as develop early bonds with their residential team.
“This is a big change for our department but we are excited to see how our residential communities can be positively impacted by this new model,” said Berry.
