It is definitely memorable to be the first eleven resident assistants (RA) in the Summit which are the first dorms for Queens College. The memories from the Summit will carry on with me and the responsibilities I have taken. I have met lots of friendly residents and kind RAs that made my stay in the Summit so much better. Resident Assistant applications are now ready and are due February 19th. I hope this blog will help future RAs and will give future RAs a glimpse of a RA’s life.
I had just finished my class for the 2nd summer session in 2009 and I had just a week to relax before I go on my training to be a RA. Training started on the Monday, August 17th, but we met on Sunday night to introduce each other. David Barriga, one of the RAs I have seen all summer long while taking my summer session class, came to my house to pick me up for training. David was working in the old office during the summer to prepare residents for their move in. The Summit has not been completed so the Summit team was working in the office in the Dining Hall cafeteria, next to the OCT help desk.
I met all the Legend RAs that evening. The RAs named themselves “the Legend” because we are the first RAs for the Summit. The first set of RAs will have to show the future set of new RAs how the position has to be handled. We will never be forgotten. We also came together to celebrate Thomas Szlezak birthday. Since the Summit was not yet completed, all the RAs and the staff of the Summit stayed in a hotel for over eight days. This is a onetime occurrence, new RAs will not have the luxury of staying in a hotel for 8 days. Staying in a hotel wasn’t all fun and games. We trained about 8 hours a day for our positions and were too tired to enjoy the hot tub and pool that were available to us.
The first document that all RAs received was a copy of the Resident Handbook. This listed all the guidelines that a resident should oblige by. We were supposed to read the whole handbook before the opening of the Summit. Some of these guidelines included guest policy, room condition reports, alcohol policy, maintenance and care and sexual harassment. We also received a “Being a Good Roommate” document in which it states that roommates should be able to communicate with each other and how to prevent roommate issues.
Everyday on training we started off with an agenda. Since the 17th of August was our first day on training, Melynda congratulated us on getting this far. Melynda is the RA supervisor. The itinerary of the day was to learn how to work together and respect each other. Our senior RA spoke and told us what he/she expected out of us. Melynda also told us that we are students first, RAs second and everything else third. We must maintain our grades and show great leadership at the same time.
