Learning Outcomes:
Identifies own strengths and areas for personal growth
Demonstrates having taken on significant challenges and learned new skills
Shows planning and execution of an initiative, project or campaign
Being an RA may be one of the best things that could happen to me during my second year. More specifically, having a partner like Anika gave me confidence in my actions and what I could do to support my people. The picture and video above were when we have our weekly meeting on Sunday and Nanette gave us a gift for our hallway. Yup, it was pads and tampons! This semester, many sudden and abrupt things happen especially at the end of the year. Dishes and dayroom problems yet to be solved but we have to keep moving on and cleaned our personal room to leave campus immediately due to the virus. Before these unexpected changes occurring, we have successfully implemented some great ideas and projects for dorm times in order to provide the students with support and entertainment. One of the most memorable ones was the time where we recreate the US-American show called Chopped. We did the copped challenge where basically each group was given a random basket filled with random ingredients. They have to make any dish possibly using ALL ingredients from the basket. Necessities such as spices, salt, oil, and other ingredients were available for communal uses. Our Residential Coordinator, Nanette spend a lot of money in making this happen and the whole dorm was super excited about this as well! I feel like my team was doing a great job in order to make this happen.
We divided 50 people in the dorm into 5 groups lead by the best cook in the dorm (I'm one of them :)). These footages below show the evidence of our work. I was pretty surprised with our team as we come up with a great dish out of very concerning ingredients. We ended up making dumplings and have frozen strawberries dipped in chocolate. We thought we would win but apparently not. The cooking time that we have was only 30 minutes so it's all chaos in the student center. In the end, it turns out well. Everyone was looking happy and satisfied with their food. The fact that the group was randomly assigned makes it more fun to connect people who usually don't talk to each other. This was actually a very good idea to engage with everyone in the dorm. I'm glad we did this.
I was not part of Denali last year. I was part of Chumonglungma. I still have a very good relationship with the people in Chum including their RC, Lizzie. One time, I was free as Denali does not have dorm time for a reason so I decided to stop by dorm time in chum. I was surprised that they were celebrating birthdays like always. I had my birthday in February and they have kindly invited me and congratulate me as well. This feeling feels nice. The sisterhood that we have and support from each other have always been the one that I am grateful for. The video and picture below captured that little precious moment. As an RA, I've learned how to nonstop support the member of the community even though they were not part of your small community anymore.
Crowned as the mom of the dorm makes me happy. I've learned to share space, thought, worries, food, community, with all the people in the dorm. These feelings of belonging and being able to interact with each other may seem like a norm but while writing this, on a self-quarantine due to the virus, I've realized how precious it was to have that privileged. It was devastating with the fact that I can't help my people till the end. However, my endless support and listening session would always extend even we were not in the same space anymore. Great memories, great learning experience, and great people. Thank you, for everything.
Sincerely,
Your RA.
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