Resident Assistant of the Block: Caitlin Baran & Rachel Schlabach
Program of the Block: "Dalai Lama and Bridging the Gap: Coffee House," hosted by the resident assistants in Emerson Hall
Bulletin Board of the Block: Bree Bendix & Brittany Bookman
Community of the Block: Lendy Krantz & the Residents of Vecinos
Door Tag of the Block: Don Spacht
Interested in nominating a Resident Assistant for an upcoming "Of the Block" Award? Contact [mailto:gevers@ithaca.edu] for a nomination form!
RA of the Block: Caitlin Baran, Circles
Nominated by: Brandon Barile, Circles
This RA deserves RA of the Block for her consistent effort in all aspects of her position. Being an apartment RA, this RA could set into the "this is my last year" mindset, yet does the opposite. This RA reached out to me (as a new RD) before the school year began, meeting me over the summer, and sharing her thoughts and aspirations for the position even before other RAs arrived. This RA also has no problem pushing RAs beyond minimal expectations. For programming, she was adamant in having more than just "social" programs to cater to "already privileged" residents by just providing them food. Thus, for our first program, she sought out the Advocacy Center on her own, and coordinated a hygiene donation drive to complement our first BBQ. Residents who donated items were entered into a raffle for prizes. This project collected a box full of items. For our most recent program, she was assigned to create goody bags for our program, yet she insisted on helping others with their tasks, such as operating the popcorn machine. For this, she holds the title "Best Popcorn Bag Opener Ever!" This was not her delegated task, yet she operated the machine always with a smile. In actuality, she consistently asks "what more she can be doing" for resident outreach, programming endeavors, and even her committee work, in addition to tasks she's already delegated. She encourages, motivates, and lifts her teams above minimal expectations to a league of their own.
RA of the Block: Rachel Schlabach, BRT
Nominated by: Ericka Smith, Joe Fraioli, Chelsea Dobson, Heather Fields, Francesca Sherman, and Kim Pinglora, BRT
This RA is a super-devoted RA. She has been instrumental in organizing programming efforts staff-wide as well as in her building. She often jump starts our staff to get moving on an idea or issue and has been very supportive of all programming efforts in the area. She knows her residents very well and works hard to address their concerns and needs. She has done programs nearly every week of the semester and is creating strong community on her floor. Her ongoing study break programs have done a great job of connecting her residents and providing positive breaks from studying. She also has a committee assignment, which is above and beyond her job requirements. This staff is not required to have committee assignments and this RA volunteered anyway. She has been a fabulous mentor to her fellow staff members. She is always available to answer questions, come to an incident and provide backup and assistance and just be a positive support to her coworkers. I am personally appreciative of all her hard work. She makes supervising her a blessing -- she is prepared for our meetings and always has information for me. I am so proud of her for doing above and beyond everyday. She is super-deserving of this recognition.
Program of the Block: "Dalai Lama and Bridging the Gap: Coffee House," Emerson Staff
Nominated by: Fred Chandra, EmGar
I am nominating this Staff for Program of the Block: "Dalai Lama and Bridging the Gap: Coffee House." The RAs have started this concept of having late-night discussions over coffee and snacks so that they can tackle large issues, especially those around culture and diversity. This was the first in their series. It was held the night of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's speech. Many of the residents were unable to attend, so the RAs screened a 30-minute clip of the speech to give people a flavor of HHDL's message. Jason Freitag of the history department was invited to come and speak about Buddhism and to help break down the message of the Dalai Lama's "dharma talk." It turns out that a lot of us were confused about what HHDL was trying to say -- the ultimate message was that to suffer is understand life, which is to be Buddhists. There were many "oohs" and " ... oh, I get it" moments. The program was only to be one hour long, but people stayed until 10:30 to keep discussing the topic, and to stay and talk with Professor Freitag. Our RD even stopped the conversation at times to remind folks about the time, but the group decided to stay and keep talking. About 25 people came through the program, and the evaluations all said that they loved or enjoyed it. Staff also did some creative marketing.
Bulletin Board of the Block: Bree Bendix, T9-12
Nominated by: Shanique Edwards and Gina Evers, T9-12
This RA took hours of her time during training working on this wonderful board to give her residents a piece of art to look at in the hallway. She used scraps of paper and using a mosaic approach, as well as using some paint, she created a striking replica of a popular Van Gogh painting. This board truly shows that this RA cares about her job and is dedicated to her work, and is an artistic enhancement to her floor community.
Bulletin Board of the Block: Brittany Bookman, T1-4
Nominated by: Pranay Bhatla, T1-4
This RA has been amazing at keeping the whole floor thematically based with the board game Monopoly. Her door tags are created to look like property deeds -- for example, "Ryan's place," "Lindsay Lane," etc. Her bathrooms are labeled as "Railroad" deeds. Her bulletin board is titled "Ithaca Monopoly Board." The "Ithaca Monopoly Board" has half the board labeled with offices/departments on campus that you can visit (Office of multicultural Affairs, fitness center) and the remaining half labels different places off campus (Waterfalls, Farmer's Market, etc.) The property deeds posted on the side of the board have more information about these places (location, phone numbers, etc.). Her floor this year is predominantly first-year students. I believe this board is most appropriate bulletin board for them to familiarize themselves with the campus and the attractions in the town of Ithaca. Based on my conversation with her, the bulletin board took seven hours to complete and is much worthy of this nomination.
Community of the Block: Vecinos, Melendy Krantz, T9-12
Nominated by: Shanique Edwards, T9-12
This RA has done a lot of work this semester to build an excellent floor community. Since her floor is built around a theme, she made sure to allow her residents to really voice their opinions and expectations of the floor, and see them happen. Many of her residents have followed her example of keeping their doors open so as to allow members of the community to walk in and out of each other's rooms. In addition, it is not uncommon to see a small group of residents in the hallway doing homework together or chatting, or someone in the kitchen fixing a snack, really making the residence hall feel like a home. Furthermore, this RA has maintained a positive and interactive space on her floor by not only getting her residents' input on floor programs and projects, but following through to make sure these things happen, giving her residents a good feeling about how the floor community develops, and making her residents as comfortable as possible in their home away from home. In all, she has a very positive and open aura about her floor, making even a visitor to the floor comfortable and at home.
Door Tag of the Block: Don Spacht, BRT
Nominated by: Ericka Smith, Thomas Murphy, Rachel Schlabach, Amanda Schlenker, and Matt Zeitler, BRT
I nominate this RA for Door Tag of the Block because he created a unique, effective, aesthetically pleasing, yet cost-efficient door tag to fit into a building-wide theme of Harry Potter. He created floating broomsticks out of real twigs, colorful yarn, and fishing line. The names of his residents also floated from the broomstick.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20071109090638553