Tayla Genereux (left) and Sabrina Zaczek (right) say the most challenging thing about being a resident assistant is balancing school and the job. Photo by Graham Whittaker, QNet News
By Graham Whittaker [1]
BELLEVILLE – Loyalist College housing services [2] is accepting applications for 12 resident assistants (RA) positions for the 2020 school year until March 6.
As an essential part of student life on campus, an RA is always responsible for the well-being of students in their area of concentration and must be prepared to support their students whenever they’re needed.
Resident life coordinator Dave Templar oversees the hiring process and the training of new RA’s. He says that he is looking to hire upper-year students who show great leadership skills so that they can effectively balance their own academics with the responsibilities of being an RA.
“First and foremost they’re students,” he said. “We look for certain qualities through the interview. We’d like to see a solid mix of personality traits on our team.”
Students who are interested in being an RA are asked to prepare a cover letter, resume, event proposal and a copy of their transcript to show that they are in good academic standing.
Applicants who are hired will be trained to respond to a variety of situations, including CPR certification and crisis intervention, over the course of one week leading up to the school year so that they are well prepared, he says.
“They’re sort of the eyes and ears of safety and security across residence,” Templar said. “They can be there as a resource person for a student who isn’t quite sure where to go for a certain problem They work closely with the security staff to highlight any potential issues and try to deescalate them.”
Sabrina Zaczek is currently a third-year animation student currently working as an RA and she says that while the job may be challenging at times, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives.
“There’s a lot of good stuff,” she said. “You get to really be involved with residence life so you get to know everything that’s going on. But you deal with a lot of heavy stuff with students. You always get hit with that one situation that you never expected to have to deal with.”
Her advice to anyone applying next year is that every group of students is going to be different and that there is no perfect way to be an RA.
“Sometimes you’re going to help someone and they’re going to get mad at you for helping them,” she said. “And other times you’re going to barely do anything for someone and it’ll be like the saving grace for them. Take it one day and one hour at a time.”
Tayla Genereux is also working as an RA this year and her advice is to remember that, while it may be your job to supervise your group; your students are still your peers.
“The advice that I was given before I got hired was not to let it get to your head,” Genereux said. “A lot of people do and it becomes a power trip for them and that’s how you downslide and things start to go bad. And sometimes you can’t fix everything.”
Anyone looking to apply needs to do so before the March 6 deadline by emailing their application to Dave Templar [3].