Your Resident Assistant is as important to your freshmen year as the friends you make during those first few weeks on campus.  The RA is not just big brother listening at the door for shenanigans, they are also a friend and mentor.  I have been an RA for the past two years and I can honestly say that if I had to go back and do it all again, I would still choose to be an RA.  I have gained an overabundance of leadership experience and I have also gotten to meet and build relationships with some pretty amazing people.

Among those great people are the Resident Director Brett Greene, Residential Life Coordinators Kevin Turner and Jason Francey, our Director Tasia White and Penny Hooper-Conway.  First, Penny is a saint.  She is our Associate Director of Reslife and she is the glue that holds the office together.  She has been there the longest and her experience shows (and is much appreciated) during times of high stress, like Room Draw.  Tasia, the Director of Reslife is new to her position but not new to Juniata.  I spoke with her last semester when she was applying for the job and her passion for Reslife and her love for Juniata are the main reasons that I recommended her for the position (though as a lowly RA my input probably had little to do with her hiring).

As freshmen, the RLC you’ll encounter most Is Kevin Turner.  As the Senior RA of Sherwood Hall, it has been my pleasure to work alongside Kevin this past year to develop the freshmen community in that building and across all our first-year buildings.  Next year he’ll be working with Senior RAs Becca and Ellie, in Sunderland and Sherwood respectively, to continue to grow the communities in those buildings and improve upon the programming that we offer.

The most exciting thing about next year is the staff.  We have biochemists and zoologists, an expert bowler (with his own perfectly white bowling shoes) and a lacrosse player, a member of the Juniata Concert Choir and a kid who likes to ride bikes a little too much (though I can’t talk because I run a lot so…).  We have a diverse staff and we all have very diverse interests and personalities.  What we do have in common is a love for Juniata and the drive to make others feel as welcome here as our RA’s made us feel when we were freshmen.