Campus Involvement

Campus Involvement

Campus Involvement Once again, as the fall semester rolled around this school year, I was busier than the previous year. I have always been involved in student life, and each semester since I have attended Lee, my involvement seems to grow, as do I. My first semester, I was a senate member in the Student Leadership Council (SLC), and I played intramurals. The next year, I was a cabinet member of the SLC. I was stretched beyond belief compared to my previous leadership experiences, but I was very happy. This year, once again I am involved more than ever and being stretched more than ever as I am the Residence Director (RD) at Tharp Hall as well as a senate member on the SLC. My job is more than a student job. The job is a staff job with staff benefits. Being a RD is hard to define because the job is always changing, as am I. Being a RD includes everything from reporting maintenance requests, enforcing school rules, promoting spiritually enriching activities, to providing social activities, creating an academic but yet fun living environment, working through conflicts, coping with emergencies, doing reports for Marchese, Tilley, McClung, and others, doing my “special duty, etc. The list grows every day. I got involved in Residential Life for several reasons. The first is that someone asked me to apply. The benefits were good so I tried it. The second reason is that I knew I wanted to be involved, but I did not know in what at the end of last year. I did not want to continue my position as Secretary for Community Service, but I did want to continue to be involved and challenged somehow.

The third reason is because I was hired to encourage community service in the dorms. I really enjoy working with groups of girls, but until now I have never had the opportunity to do so formally. I feel the Lord has definitely placed me here for a reason. Since I have been a part of Residential Life as well as other leadership positions, I have learned many important leadership lessons. Before I came to Lee, I had not thought much about my leadership style, my philosophy, or anything of the sort. This year, I have thought more about it than ever. Before I even started this position, I wrote out my leadership philosophy the best I could. My leadership philosophy majors on issues like integrity, trust, and honesty. I believe in being a servant first. People must serve those so called “below” them. I believe in having a clear sense of vision and a mission. Without a vision, where would a leader be leading his/her followers to? I believe a leader must know where they are going. Since I actually started the job my leadership style and philosophy has been tweaked continually. I am always trying to be constantly aware of leadership lessons. I now try to major on things like celebrating victories and making people feel appreciated, setting clear expectations for both my RA’s and my residents, modeling the way, building relationships, etc. For instance, to set clear expectations for my RA’s, I developed a RA handbook personalized to Tharp Hall and my leadership style to let them know how exactly I lead and precisely what is expected of them. I have learned many great leadership lessons this year. Depending on whether great means the hardest or if great means the most important, one of the greatest leadership lessons I have learned is the value of building relationships. I started the semester off with a RA retreat with just the staff from Tharp Hall.