Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Sept. 27, 2017, edition 1 / Page 6
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Resident Assistants juggle job, personal feelings Resident Assistants struggle to balance their opinions, emotions and residence life work Victoria Traxler and Jake Lennet Contributors | @elonnewsnetwork After settling into life at Elon University, students on the second floor of Sloan residence hall foster their community over a table of Chi nese take-out. Sophomore Olivia “Livi” Murray, SGA class president of her grade and second floor Sloans Residential As sistant (RA), organized this gather ing as a way for her hall to take time and talk about their days. Though they may primarily work behind the scenes, RAs do in fact face unique challenges within the residence halls, primarily balancing ii I LOOK FORWARD TO COMING HOME TO [MY RESIDENTS] EVERYDAY ANNALIESEJAFFE RESIDENT ASSISTANT “ i.>, V . their roles as mentors and friends. Before she set foot on campus, Murray knew she wanted to be an RA — in hopes ofacting as an older sister figure to her residents. “Having that experience is some thing I had planned on,” Murray said. “I’ve always loved talking to people ... I just wanted to give back to the community.” Senior Annaliese Jaffe, RA for the International LLC on the second floor of Global D, expressed similar mo tives in becoming an RA for the third year m a row. “I look forward to coming home to [my residents] every day,” Jaffe said. Having experienced a close rela tionship with her RA her freshman year, Jaffe focused on establishing a similar sense of family throughout her residence halls during her time as an RA. Being an RA for groups of stu dents coming from many different backgrounds can be challenging in ways one wouldn’t expect. Sophomore Aileen Bell, the RA for the College Fellows LLC locat ed in the Isabella Cannon Pavil ion, said, “I constantly feel like I’m carrying the emotional baggage of nineteen people who haven’t actu ally unloaded their emotional bag gage on me. I just want to make sure they’re happy.” While Bell faces the emotional diffi culties of being an RA, there are aspects of her identity she finds advantageous. “My race is an advantage for me,” Bell said. “There are some people in my staff who respond better to me and my white coworkers.” Sophomore Abi Mathews high lighted different challenges she faced as both an RA and a person of color (POC). Mathews, who encounters microag gressions in her hall, believes it is due to some of her residents “having only grown up seeing the world one way’’ As their RA and a POC, she’s learning to “graciously correct them,” but sometimes feels her “voice is drowned out” in the process. Similarly, Murray discussed con cerns present in her POC communi ty of RAs about potential residents with outspoken ideals that could make other students uncomfortable. Murray feels being an RA has enhanced her leadership skills and ability in learning how to deal with different viewpoints. “I wouldn’t necessarily treat them any way, it’s just making sure that they don’t make anyone else uncom fortable by spreading their views” Murray said. Jaffe expressed similar concerns primarily focused on the issue of her inability to fully relate to students of color who are dealing with issues of microaggressions. “During the past election I went back to West where I was the RA, and I had two of my residents who were black come up to me and we were just sobbing together ... I wanted to be there for them,” Jaffe said. “I don’t ever want to overstep my empathizing.” CAROLINEBRFHMANlPHOlOtai Annaliese Jaffe is the current RA for the International LLC located on the second floor oi Giohai D. Prospective tour guides face competition, high stakes A rigorous application process required to become the face of Elon University Oliver Fischer Contributor | @FischerWithC Though more than 200 people apply, only 20 get accepted. A 10 percent acceptance rate indicates the students most fit to represent the school as a tour guide. Elon University junior and tour guide Andrew McGann admits that the application process can be chal lenging. “It’s somewhat of an inten sive process,” he said. “There were a lot of different curveballs that went with it that I wasn’t expecting.” A tour guide is responsible for introducing themselves to families and, according to McGann, giving them a 60-90 minute walking tour around campus after their initial in formation session. “A lot of people consider us kind of the first face that students and their families see when they come to visit campus,” he said. Students applying to be tour guides must attend at least one of three interest meetings and provide their contact information. They then receive a Google form to fill out. Based on these, someone from the hiring staff in the admissions depart ment picks a number of students to participate in a group interview pro C, . c L- n .. . ABBY GIBBS I STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Senior Sophie Bellemare speaks to a prospective family about Elon’s campus in the Historic Neighborhood Monday Sept. 25. cess. Applicants who pass the group interview round must hold a mock tour in front of the group at a ran domly assigned location on campus. Important qualities of tour guides include a passion for Elon, a sense of responsibility and ethics and the willingness to constantly learn. “We seek students who can pas sionately convey accurate Elon in formation in the context of their personal Elon experience,” Gsaid reg Zaiser, vice president for enrollment, in an e-mail. To McGann, tour guides must be personable, knowledgable and adapt able to make the best impression. “We throw so much at students and families because there’s so much to talk about on campus,” McGann said. “There are some days where you are taking five, six, seven families on tour, so you have to be able to cater to all interests of students and families.” Tour guides can personalize their tours to a certain extent because they are not required to give any specific knowledge. General knowl edge about buildings and traditions is enough, though specific facts are still helpful. There’s not necessarily a check list you have to cover on every tour,” McGann said. “You can give as many statistics as you think are important.” According to the tour guide in terest meeting, tour guides start as a guide event staff members and are required to work at all event week ends, though they may miss one Sat urday event. They receive paid train ing in January or February and are required to participate in continued training and attend meetings on a monthly basis. Tour guides also need to be flexible and be available during busy seasons, such as spring break. Only after a successful spring se mester win a guide event staff mem ber be offered a promotion to be a university guide, who have more control over their working hours and may work regular Monday to Satur day tours. The online application is due Sept. 30 at 5 p.m. The final decisions will be released Nov. 14. A minimum GPA of 2.5 is expected, as well as a clean student conduct record. For students interested in be coming tour guides, McGann rec ommends to be ready for uncom fortable questions. Political climate is a really big one ^at I’ve gotten a lot on tour,” he said. Sometimes also questions about parties, drug use, sexual assault. “You don’t really talk about them as much on tour, and so when a par ent asks you sometimes it can throw you off a little bit,” McGann said. ‘You have to figure out how to give them the information their looking for and be honest.” TOUR GUIDES BY THE NUMBERS 88 tour guides currently active 200 students typically apply for every hiring round 20-25 Available spots this semester
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Sept. 27, 2017, edition 1
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