Everyone looks at the possibility of being an R.A. differently. To some, it’s a great opportunity to meet girls, take on a leadership, and receive make bank with free room and board, with a nice salary, too. To others, the free room and board is not worth the sacrifice of having to being a glorified freshman babysitter. Being an R.A. for girls is arguably more difficult than being one for guys, since confining mass amounts of girls to one hall with one bathroom sounds like the perfect recipe for emotional chaos. Some girls are able to rise above all the frosh drama and really connect with their residents. I could never be an R.A. Not in a million years — my room is a mess, I procrastinate into the wee hours of the a.m., and honestly my emotions hit high highs and low lows. Not so level headed. But kudos to Claire Sheehan, who is applying to be an R.A. for next year. She’s got it more together than me! So here’s what I’m trying to figure out: how would a girl handle busting a pregame, comforting a younger girl going through the difficult first-year adjustment, and how in the world do you solve hall-wide d-r-a-m-a? Let’s get the deets from Claire.
Her Campus: So Claire, why do you want to be an R.A.?
Claire: I work at a camp that I’ve gone to for seven years, and this summer will be my first summer as a counselor. I want to help girls click as a hall, because that was something that my hall struggled with the first few weeks of school.
HC: How would you compare yourself to your R.A now? And if you become an R.A., what would you do differently?
Claire: I would love to be like the R.A. I have now, but bonding at the beginning of the semester wasn’t as involved as I would have liked. We tried speed dating with the boys on our hall, which was a great way to get to meet guys, but it didn’t help make any connections with the girls. A few weeks into school, my R.A. threw stress release parties to encourage hall bonding, but hardly anyone showed up. The bonding activities have to happen right away so that girls click quicker.
HC: What background experiences have prepped you for being an R.A.?
Claire: I was born in New Jersey, then moved to Minnesota for a little bit, and then ended up in London in second grade. At my school people came in from all over the world, so when I was a student adviser, I was not only helping people settle into high school but also into the British culture. I had a group of 16 freshmen each year that I helped confront topics like drinking, city living, and adjusting to London.
HC: How would you handle the infamous underage drinking issue with which all R.A.s are faced?
Claire: I would hope to set a boundary before that happened. I would say that my responsibilities come first, but I would ask for their respect from the very beginning so that I wouldn’t be put in that sticky situation any more than necessary.
HC: Last question: if your R.A. persona were an animal, what would it be?
Claire: A kangaroo, so that girls on my hall could nuzzle and be safe in my pouch.