The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2 - 61

Leadership and Alumni

also talked about how they learned these teamoriented skills when they experienced failure as a student leader—either in the form of a program they planned being poorly organized due to their lack of time commitment or poorly attended due to their lack of word-of-mouth advertising. One participant who was at one point responsible for coordinating an annual campus-wide social program remarked, “I learned that I couldn’t do it all myself—there were just too many things that had to be done. I had to rely on others to help make such a large program a success.” A number of the students reflected upon how experiencing failure during their involvement in hall government was valuable because it allowed them to learn and grow in a supportive environment, unlike that of a professional position where they would have had to answer to a job supervisor. Each participant spoke fondly of the personal relationships they built with student and staff colleagues by holding a leadership position in residence life. Moreover, they asserted how these relationships helped them learn how to balance the types of professional and personal relationships that often occur in the workforce. One female participant, now working in a large daycare organization, stated, Building relationships really through [my hall government organization], I think just [helped me] recognize that there is often a separation between being friends and then working together. And that’s a really important balance to have as well as a level of communication. Like to be able to communicate “this is work time, it’s not play time, we need to work together” is very important and sometimes that can be really challenging with some of your closest friends.

A male participant mentioned how his practice of holding his peers accountable within his hall government helped him do the same with his team colleagues in the environmental center where he currently works. The special education alumna described how she learned how to navigate the politics of socializing with her fellow educators from her experiences in developing friendships with the other executive board members in her hall government organization.

Reflection skills. By being a part of hall governments, these participants were able to learn the importance of reflection. Students talked about how their advisors assisted with the process of reflection after events and programs. One male participant had this to say:
There is a direct correlation between what I do now [in my role as Marketing Director] and the reflective process that we did after programs. I learned that taking the time to think back, rather than just forging forward to the next project, not only makes the next project better, but helps us be a better organization. Another participant talked about how he incorporated reflection into his current position as director of a small environmental center when he implemented a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, something he had learned from his experiences as president of his hall government: “I first probably got laughed at . . . but it proved to be very effective in helping us plan what we’re going to do for next year.”

Problem solving and openness to ideas.
The ability to solve complex problems was talked about in four of the six alumni interviews. A female participant now serving as a

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2