The Residential Life and Housing Resident Assistant selection will begin interviewing candidates in upcoming weeks.
The Recruitment Committee is looking for “students who have the desire to connect with the residents and also serve as resources for them” in potential resident assistants, said Jamica Johnson, area coordinator for Cougar Village.
The selection process entails a written or typed application, a group interview and an individual interview, Johnson said.
Betsy Galicia, a psychology pre-med senior, has been an RA since her sophomore year.
“As a senior RA, I guide the RAs in their responsibilities to get to know the residents. I can work with their skills, and I like that when they have a problem they actually come to me,” Galicia said.
She said the most rewarding part of being an RA is the leadership skills she has acquired and getting to know her fellow students better.
“It’s one of the jobs where I’ve had to really get to know people and not just casually. You actually live with these people,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like a job — it just feels like a social thing.”
Freshman Catherine Martin says her RAs have helped ease her into college life.
“They definitely pep up people by giving out cookies on rainy days or just asking how your day went,” she said.
Armando Hernandez, an architecture junior, said the RA job is much more than just desk hours and on-call shifts.
“I’m responsible for a male floor that consists of a little over 30 students,” he said. “I respond to issues they might have with school, roommates, relationships and pretty much anything they come to me with, positive or negative.”
Although every RA is required to work a certain number of hours at the desk per week and be available to assist the students living in their dorm, they are compensated with free housing and a meal plan.
Hernandez said he loves the people he has met — the residents as well as his RA team.
“I’m taking so much from this RA job, and I’m very thankful I was given the opportunity to become a part of RL&H on campus,” he said.
Applications are due Friday for the 2012-13 academic year, and must be turned in at the area coordinator’s office in Cougar Village. Students can find the application at housing.uh.edu/res-life.
