What does your personality mean to you and your community?
My sisters and I were recently sitting in a cafe, and I was discussing potential educational icebreakers that I could organize for the group of resident assistants that I will supervise this upcoming year. A bunch of different icebreakers were brought up, but the two that stood out to me involved discovering the different personalities […]
Ways To Have An Adventurous Summer Within A New Community
As summer is approaching, I have had multiple conversations with my various groups of friends regarding their summer plans. A few of my friends within my cohort or graduate school class are attending summer internships in a different state. One of my undergraduate friends is also experiencing a similar change in scenery by moving to Pittsburgh […]
It’s The Little Things That Matter Within Communities
A few days ago I went to the store to find one of my undergraduate friends her graduation present. Since my friend’s graduation is a big milestone in her life, I decided that I had to find her the perfect, meaningful graduation gift. Fast forward a few days, today I get a text message from […]
When You Want to Scream Remember Me
Last night, I knocked over my coat rack as I was heading out the door to handle a problem. It had already been such a rough Monday that just this simple event almost led me to tears. Shortly after I received a text message from one of my classmates who told me that she just […]
Handling Goodbyes: Make your Community Last Even After Members Leave
So it’s coming to that point of the year again…after all the stress of the spring semester classes and finals are over. My Res-Life Staff is leaving me! How can I possibly say goodbye to six unique individuals who have been a big part of my life as a first time res-life supervisor? Well, I […]
Know That You Are Not Alone – Seeing Support That is Already There
“Only 30 more days, I can do it!” My fellow cohort members and I are on the home-stretch for the last official month of our first semester of graduate school, and at first I had no idea how I was going to push through it. First I went with a count-down, but I found myself […]
Sleep is Neat (And Makes Your Community Better)
Recently, I was averaging going to bed at 2:00am and then waking up at 8:00am. That’s what about 6 hours of sleep every day of the week. Ahhh, not good! In fact, it was so “not good” that I was sick over the entire Easter weekend while I was supposed to be relaxing and enjoying […]
Learning Can Be Spontaneous and Unexpected
Spontaneous learning recently occurred for one of my resident assistants when she had to deal with a tough situation. When everyone was freaking out, she remained calmed and handled the situation by calling who she needed to call to get the individuals the help they needed. While she had been previously trained through mock situations […]
Noticing Types of Encouragement for Success in Your Environment
“When I get older I want to be an astronaut.” When we were younger, our main source of support rested on our parents telling us that if we really wanted to be an astronaut we could achieve that goal. As we got older, not only did our goal for our future career change and become […]
Do you want to build a snowman? Getting People Involved is Sometimes the Hardest Part
This past week, thanks to a random snow storm, both the school I work for and the school I attend had snow days. While this sadly did not stop the massive amount of work that needed to be done for the day, after a successful morning of work, I ran into two of my lovely […]