Door Dec Contest Winner!!

Hello RA staff!

We have a winner folks!

Judging from this hand writing I can see that this is ZACH MUENCH! Stop by Jessica's Office and get your prize!

Congrats Zach! If you see him around give him a high five!

Thanks all!
Jessica

iACEs in August and September

There are so many events on campus the first six weeks! Here are some suggestions for events and how to make it an i part of the iACE.

August 26 Grocery Bingo RAD Event at 9pm in the Pub. This one is self explanatory. But the interactive part could that before you go to the event your floor gets together and you all paint black lines under your eyes and wear matching clothes. You are going to WIN and you need to look the part.

August 27 Casino Royale RAD Event at 9pm in the Pub. Come play some poker in the Pub to walk away with the RipVegas bragging rights. The interactive part of this event could be some poker education- what is Black Jack, Texas Hold Um, etc so that your residents are PREPARED.

August 28 A JUGGLER! Are you serious!? That is pretty cool. It is in Great Hall at 7pm. The interactive part of this one should be you and your residents trying their hands at some juggling after the event. If you come with materials to try and juggle and you plan on doing in the back of the room after the show you might even get him to come back and give you all some pointers!

August 29 Avengers the Age of Ultron! This is a fab movie I think. I have heard that anyway. The interactive part of this one could be giggling through some Avenger Memes that you find on the internets. Like these:

September 2 Be Cool with BSU. This is a cookout and lawn games with BSU on Memorial Lawn at 5:15pm. Who doesn't love food. Well- the interactive part of this program could be many things, here are two examples: You could watch the movie Be Cool with John Travolta, it is pretty good. Or you could get together to take photos as a floor of your first cook out together and post those in the bathroom or on a floor facebook page to start your 2015-2016 memory book!

September 4 The Launch of 314. This event happens down town at 314 Watson Street and it is a new art, performance and overall cool place for students down town. It starts at 8pm. Reslife is hosting a trivia competition there later in the semester. But it will probably be pretty awesome. The interactive part of this program can be a field trip to Mugs on your way there!

September 12 KD Colors at 2pm. This is an event that Kappa Delta hosts as their philanthropy to benefit Prevent Child Abuse in America. Your residents can help benefit a great cause and support the Kappa Deltas. The interactive part of this program could be to make door decs for each other that commemorate the occasion.

September 15 Hazing: the Fall Out at 7pm. This is an event that is part of Hazing Prevention Week. Hazing happens all over the place, not just in marching bands and Greek organizations. The interactive part of this program can be getting together for dinner before hand.

Jessica is planning two events that do not have dates yet that you can use as iACES :)
September 28 starts HOMECOMING Week and so many activities :)

Keep your eyes open for the Calendar of Events from Cindy Hutter in an email each Thursday to plan events.
Thanks
Jessica

Do you want an Internship?

Residence Life offers a couple different internships to help with the department operations each year. These are the two internships available for Fall 2015. Read through both descriptions and if you are interested in spending time with either of these internships, send Jessica an email with a paragraph why you want this position.

Decisions will be made for positions to start Monday August 31.

Ripon College Residence Life RA Intern: Social Media and Image

Description: This RA Intern will work with the professional staff to supplement the image of the department of Residence Life on social media.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Post on the @RiponResLife twitter and Snapchat (reslife2015) handle for events and important info
• Use the Ripon ResLife Reader to alert the RA staff to trends and social media that can be helpful to the RA role
• Teach the pro staff the tools of social media that would be helpful in the ways they engage with students
• Investigate new ways for the department to connect with students and to use social media tools to work with the RA staff.
• Examine the RA page of the myRipon portal and identify areas for improvement
• Spend at least 2 hours/ week or as needed to keep things up-to-date
• You are responsible with knowing the passwords and accounts
• Will teach next intern how things run--next intern should be a junior (gives others that want to be part of it a chance)  
• MUST: need to have a snapchat to take pictures!
• Attend at least 1 all areas, 1 super six event, 2 RAD events and 3 RA events- doesn’t matter whos (taking pictures of events make us look good) can go to more if you would like
• No foul and/or degrading captions and/or tweets on either account!!!! (again need to look good)
• No inappropriate pictures (make sure they are relevant to ResLife--so don’t make ResLife snapchat your personal one)!!!
• Make sure to keep Jessica up-to-date on things- if she asks

Ripon College Residence Life RA Intern: Operations

Description: This RA Intern will work with the director of Residence Life to assist in the operations of the Residence Life department. This position will work 2-5 hours a week on various projects.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Maintain and collate applications/petitions related to Housing Plan Forms
• Organize Theme Floor and Apartment Applications
• At Fall and Spring breaks type and organize RA Programming in google doc
• Assist in filing budget documents
• Create and hang marketing for various Residence Life programs
• Maintain confidentiality as related to FERPA and student rights
• Work with Director on Room Lottery, Room Deposits
• Maintain the Residence LIfe bulletin board in Bartlett Hall (2ftx3ft)
• Other duties as assigned by the Director
• Solicit RA feedback through evaluations of different programs
• Organize and analyze data from RA feedback to improve Residence Life programming

RAs have some smarts!

Hello RA staffers!

This summer the Dean of Students hosted a retreat for all of the departments in our division. In that retreat we learn about student groups and how they performed academically in the last semester. 

Did you know that the RA staff had a group GPA for the Spring 2015 semester of:

3.35!!

When you look at that compared to the All School GPA of 3.13 that makes us pretty smart cookies. Well smarter than the average bear when you look at GPA as a predictor of intelligence. Which I personally do not... but whatever it was posted for other departments to see so I thought I would share it with you!

Thanks for being students that attend class. :) You are the best staff a girl could ask for!

RA Love,
Jessica

Case Study Winners!

Hello RA Staff!

Here it is! The Case Study winners for the 2015 Fall Training Case Study Competition. All of the RHDs and I were impressed with the amount of training knowledge and shout out to the folks who quotes Listen, Hold, Mirror back to me! But seriously as an entire staff you were all very impressive this week and it makes us as a Pro Staff feel great.

We all agree that you are awesome and trust all of you with the job you have been charged to do.


Now without further ado....

Congratulations to

Michaela Myers and Megan Marema

and

Danae Chaltry and Drew Hetz!

Thanks for participating and taking the time it was clear that you did to present these cases to us. In case you were curious here are the two cases for you to read.

Thanks everyone!

Jessica 

Door Dec Challenge!

Hey y'all!

Don't forget that I am still hosting a door dec challenge for my office door in Bartlett Hall. This is the door as of tonight-

This is not many to choose from and I have a found a winner among these fine door decs- but you have until 5pm on Friday August 21 to put them on my door.

If you have a great door dec- get it on my door! I want my door to be beautiful again with door decs galore! Jason is the housekeeper in Bartlett and he even things my door is looking kind of sad.

Thanks for making Bartlett and our residence halls beautiful and very homey with your decorations!
Jessica

Do you ACT or REACT?

Hello friends,
I have had this article saved on the computer for a long time. It's author is named at the top. I thought it would be a great article to read and put all of us in a great mental frame of mind to start RA Training next week. 

I am pretty excited to see all of you! Travel safe to campus!

DO YOU ACT OR REACT?

Condensed from the Chicago Daily News

by Sidney L. Harr

I walked with my friend, a Quaker, to the newsstand the other night, and he bought a paper, thanking the newsboy politely. The newsboy didn’t even acknowledge it.

“A sullen fellow isn’t he?” I commented.

“Oh, he’s that way every night,” shrugged my friend.

“Then why do you continue to be so polite to him?” I asked.

“Why not?” inquired my friend. “Why should I let him decide how I’m going to act?”

As I thought about this incident later it occurred to me that the important word was “ACT.”

My friend acts toward people; most of us react toward them. He has a sense of inner balance which is lacking in most of us; he knows who he is, what he stands for, how he should behave. He refuses to return incivility, because then he would no longer be in command of his own conduct.

Nobody is unhappier than the perpetual reactor. His center of emotional gravity is not rooted within himself, where it belongs, but in the world outside him. His temperature is always being raised or lowered by the social climate around him, and he is a mere creature at the mercy of those elements.

Praise gives him a feeling of euphoria, which is false, because it does not last and it does not come from self-approval. Criticism depresses him more than it should, because it confirms his own secretly shaken opinion of himself. Snubs hurt him, and the merest suspicious of unpopularity in any quarter rouses him in bitterness.

Serenity cannot be achieved until we become master of our own actions and attitudes. To let another determine whether we shall be rude or gracious, elated or depressed, is to relinquish control over our own personalities, which is ultimately all we possess. The only true possession is self-possession.

As I sat down to decide what to write for the RA newsletter this month, I was reminded of this short story. It is something that I used to share with RAs during training each fall, and for whatever reason, stopped doing about two years back. As I re-read it again just this week, however, I was reminded of how poignant the story, some 75 years old, still is today.

In the residence halls, we have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of each Ripon student every day. How we go about doing that, however, is up to us. With each situation we encounter we can either be positive, outgoing, and listen to what a student has to say, or like the friend in this story, can be discouraged and want to return incivility for incivility. When we encounter someone having a rough day, we can (and should) see that as an opportunity to extend appropriate care and concern. Even if our empathy is rudely ignored or refused, the student who is having the bad day is likely to remember someone was there for him at a later date.

Being an RA can sometimes be a rough job. Once the luster from the start of the year wears off, you can find yourself in the midst of roommate conflicts, loud parties, and people who are disrespectful to others or our facilities. Striving to find an inner sense of peace – and helping others to find it, too – may help strengthen your community. Acting toward others versus reacting can help you stay centered, maintain a calm demeanor, and experience less stress. It will also help you in providing counsel to your peers and in confronting any incident you might encounter in your area.

When faced with a rough situation next time, remember the story of the newsboy. How will you act – or will you react? Will you take the time to step outside a challenging situation in order to best assess how to proceed, or will you let the behaviors of another dictate how you behave?

We have the wonderful opportunity to create powerful communities where out students are known and valued. Use your time as an RA to develop your leadership skills, center yourself, and develop skills that will last your for a lifetime as someone who acts to bring out the best in others and in every situation.