RA 101 - Becoming an R.A. Can Really Pay! by Stuart Burton Longwood University, Longwood, Virginia My name is Stuart Burton, and I am currently a sophomore at Longwood University. College life is what you make it, and so far, mine has been pretty awesome. Last year, as a freshman, I thought about becoming an RA, a Resident Assistant. How hard could that be? And you get free room and board! Well, I am here to tell you that it IS hard work, but it is also worth all the time and dedication. Where else can you get on-the-job-training for life skills that will look great on your resume? To start, at Longwood, you have to take an actual academic class - Resident Assistant. And get graded. (And yes, I did get an A!) It's just like all my other classes- lots of papers, tests, but then you have to "shadow" other RAs, as well as interview with the big wigs of the university. And after all that, you still are not sure if you have the job as RA. It helps if you have a pretty good personality with a sense of humor, and are able to get along with all types of people. I guess all my summers as a camp counselor and being an Eagle Scout helped me a lot in obtaining my RA position at Longwood. As an RA, I am assigned to one floor in the dorm where I am responsible for about 46 students. My job is not to police the other residents, but to develop a sense of community within my hall. I work with the residents by supporting them and helping advise them. For example, I try to motivate them by holding hall meetings where I come up with fun ideas--well, I think they're fun--like having a pizza night and "luring" my residents to come and discuss things that might need taken care of. Oh, I have calls all hours of the night ranging from roommate conflicts to hey, can I tell the guys down the hall to turn down their music! I have learned it's how you say things to people to get them to cooperate with you. My particular dorm has 10 floors. Each floor has an RA. Each RA has to make a bulletin board each month, and let me tell you, that is time consuming. But you learn to delegate, and most of all, learn how to use your time wisely. Actually, the bulletin boards are fun, and we have competitions. Each month you try to come up with new ideas or events for that month, plus you always want to have important numbers and names for the residents ­ like Dominos Pizza and the nearest Wal-Mart! RA's have a lot of paperwork and hold several monthly events ­ like a group cookout for example. We all report to our boss, the REC (Residential Education Coordinator) with monthly reports and each week have our weekly staff meetings. And once in a while, we have even been on great weekend retreats. This job - and it IS a full time job, has taught me how to better manage my time. Unfortunately, I cannot be everywhere; in fact, I am writing this article at the same time of the NSHSS program at Harvard! Man, I finally got the chance to attend Harvard, and I had to turn it down--my Longwood residents need me! Being an RA really is a great job. It's certainly not the same as back in the days when my parents were in college. RA's today have lots of responsibility and time demands on us, but it is absolutely rewarding at the same time. We have a great sense of pride in what we do. A recent nationally recognized Resident Satisfaction Survey showed that "94% of Longwood students surveyed expressed satisfaction with their Resident Assistants as role models." I think this best sums up best what it's like to be an RA. This is a quote from Dr.Will Klein: "Instead of simply telling someone you are an RA or on staff- try this: "Responsible for a 40+ person floor, the educational, recreational, social, and cultural programming, as well as policy enforcement, conflict resolution, and diversity issues, in a 4.7 million dollar facility." Sounds pretty impressive doesn't it? Imagine that on a resume. Hey, I will be looking for internships soon!