RESIDENTIAL ADVISOR

As a Residential Advisor for the Business Living Learning Community, I have the responsibility to uphold the policies of the UW Housing & Food Services, support my residents’ Husky Experience, and create a safe and flourishing living environment. In my role specifically, I cater to my programming and floor theme around business and I partner with the Michael G. Foster School of Business on this task. As an RA, my goal has always been to create a great on-campus living experience for my residents and support them with their needs. This experience has been valuable to me because I am able to connect with underclassmen and relate to them my own personal first-year experience.

My first year as an RA truly supported my passion for learning about others and finding ways to better support them. As an RA in Madrona Hall last year, I was still very new to the experience and had trouble working around the RA to the resident relationship; I felt like I was in a position which made me distant from these students and honestly felt like I was not qualified enough to support them. But as I got to know my residents, I showed them my genuine leading style and was honest with them, they all opened up to me. It was such an eye-opening experience because even though I was nervous, all my residents needed was to know that I cared about them and was willing to support their experience at UW.

Other Perspectives

Because my residents all come from different places and different backgrounds, I was able to gain a lot of insight into their perspectives on things and their life. When there is an issue or a misunderstanding, I like to put myself in their shoes and position myself so I am able to understand where my residents are coming from. There was a time where I had a resident constantly bug me about the noise level in the hall, even if it was not quiet hours. At first, I did not truly understand why they were so bothered, but then I learned that they worked 40 hours a week and really needed the sleep. By gaining that insight, I was able to see the problem in their position and I was able to solve the issue more effectively.

Problem Solving

As an RA, I am often in a position where I have to problem solve very quickly, especially if I am on call and a problem emerges. UW HFS does a great job of preparing us for this job by training us over the summer and constantly showing support through Residential Directors. Even though we are well prepared, there are problems that do come up and as an RA I have quickly thought through and solve. One night I was on call, I had to resolve an issue where a resident was crying because her boyfriend broke up with her; there is nothing in our training that prepared me for this. I had to quickly think on my feet and comfort her while also maintaining my professionalism. When I encountered problems I did not know the direct answer to, I aligned my action as close to similar protocols that we were educated on during RA training or consulted with the Residential Director.

Receiving Feedback

Towards the end of the fall quarter, all the residential halls receive a link for an Autumn Resident Survey which allows residents to voice their opinions about their living experience so far. The ARS is a lengthy survey that asks residents questions regarding their living experience, their hallway, their RA, etc. I have received feedback from the ARS twice so far in my RA experience and was able to get an understanding of what my residents thought about me. A vast majority of them were all positive, which is great, but there were concerning comments. By receiving this feedback, I was able to understand my strengths and weaknesses and learn about the hindrances that my residents experience. I was able to learn from the feedback and work towards bettering my residents’ living experience within HFS. When I did receive feedback, I made sure I came in with a growth mindset and asked how I could improve myself and ask my Residential Director to guide me through that process as the quarter continued.

Appropriate Interaction

As an RA and a student, it is important to have appropriate interactions with my residents. Although I am a student myself, I am in a position where I have duties to report on my residents if I needed to; this was a very difficult thing for me to grasp because I truly just wanted to be my residents’ friends, but that was not possible. I learned through the job how I am supposed to interact with them and realize that this dynamic is currently not a friendship and I needed to treat it with professionalism. One example that comes to mind was when my residents asked to follow me on social media, even though most RAs allow their residents to follow them, I felt like I needed distance from my residents on a personal level in order to my job.

Empathy

Empathy was definitely very relevant in my job as an RA. Like I have mentioned before, even though I am in this position, I am still a student and I am going through the same things my residents are. So whenever they came to me with a problem, I really liked to let them know that I have or am currently experiencing their same experiences; this allowed me to connect with my residents on a whole other level because they knew they were not alone. A few of my residents disclosed to me that they were dealing with mental health issues and I was able to relate to them my experience and the things that helped me.

Supervision

As an RA, I have to do a lot of supervision when it comes to my residents' behavior. Because they are living in HFS housing, there are rules and policies they must follow in order to continue living in the hall. As a supervisor, I have to ensure that my residents are following policy and if they are not, I must report them to upper leadership for them to have a more thorough understanding of what is allowed and not allowed. As a supervisor, I have to educate my residents on the policies and work with them to ensure they are not breaking their contract with HFS.

Reflection & Application

Like mentioned above in Receiving Feedback, as an RA, I receive a lot of feedback from residents and my supervisors. After every quarter, I have to sit down and gauge how my relationships are with my residents and reflect on how I performed my job responsibilities for the respective quarter. A big part of this job is reflecting on your own performance, brainstorming how to improve yourself, and applying it to your living community. The reflection and application aspect is very important for me in this role because I am constantly trying to keep a positive and productive business living community.

Resiliency

As an RA, I experience a lot of stress when it comes to putting on successful events and interacting with my residents in the most effective way. I often experience a lot of failure when no residents come to my thoroughly planned event; or if my residents choose not to speak to me for a week. I became more resilient because I know that I still should do my best and understand that I will not always have successes in my position.

Scope of Competence

To ensure I am giving my residents the best residential hall experience, I need to make sure I am fully trained and capable to take on the RA role. After completing the RA role my first year, I learned a lot about my skills and talents in the role. I gained a lot of knowledge about the role during my fall training and through hands-on experience. In my second year, I completed training again and refined my skillset to ensure that my second year as a RA, I was still giving my residents the best experience. I learned from the mistakes I made my first year and continued to ask questions so I can keep on broadening my scope of competence.

This job has definitely created a foundation for what I want to do in the future. As a future HR professional, I have learned a lot through this job and its emphasis on problem-solving, appropriate interaction, others’ perspective, and supervision. Although I do not want to work with students, as an HR I have to continue to utilize these competencies when I am working employees. After these past two years of being an RA, I feel like my capabilities within these subjects have grown stronger as I continue to practice them. I hope to continue to build on these competencies and even acquire more as I complete my last and final year as an RA.