Talking Stick - January/February 2017 - 25

not everyone is intentional about
helping students connect their skills
and experience to the jobs they apply
for after graduation.
In order to support the
employment of RAs, supervisors need
to identify the overlap areas between
RA roles, skills, and competencies
and the top attributes that employers
are seeking from recent college
graduates; then they must deliberately
and intentionally communicate this
information to RAs during training
and especially as they are preparing
for the job market. At the University
of Washington in Seattle, staff are
committed to the philosophy that
the RA role is a real job with real
expectations and accountability.
During ongoing one-on-one meetings,
resident directors who supervise RAs
log responses to conversations about
how the RA role is intersecting with
what they identify as the four elements
that define the student experience at
UW: "identity, choices, relationships,
and trajectories." Part of this approach
includes the RAs completing a
self-evaluation during the appraisal
process that considers progress on
competencies. The self-evaluation
also includes answering the question
"How might you use what you have
experienced and learned as an RA in
your long-term plans and goals?"
Understanding and addressing
competencies at different times in the
employment cycle is key to designing
training for students in the RA
position and helping them transition
to employment after graduation.
Staff at the University of Florida
in Gainesville have implemented
a special training program - the
Staff Leadership and Development
(SLED) program - which requires
RAs to participate in two sessions
each semester that are aimed at
developing professional skills
like writing résumés, recognizing
transferable skills, and interviewing.

Staff at the University of WisconsinMadison have also created a special
program to address this need: WiGrow,
an ongoing series of intentional
conversations between supervisors
and house fellows (RAs) about how
their future career goals align with the
skills and experiences they are gaining
on the job. According to their website,
the program encourages supervisors
to "provide neutral feedback to
student employees through one
structured conversation each semester.
Conversations encourage student
employees to reflect-in-action while
working, which helps them to make
connections between their job,
coursework, and future endeavors."
The College of New Jersey in
Ewing has taken the concept of
preparing staff for the real work
world one step further. Each year an
alumni networking panel is scheduled
during winter retreat. Three to five
residence life alumni from a variety
of backgrounds return to campus
to talk about their experiences and
how the community assistant (RA)
job served them as they entered their
careers. All student staff attend, and
graduating seniors are also invited to a
special dinner with alumni to network
and talk one on one. Tina Tormey,
director of residential education,
credits former assistant director Luke
LaCroix, who is now associate director
of residential life at the University
of San Diego in California, with this
program. How successful is this
approach? Two College of New Jersey
alumni report back. "I recall especially
a time when I interviewed for my
first management role at Barnes
& Noble and the district manager
asked whether (because of my age)
I felt I was able to be a leader of the
staff and handle crisis situations,"
remembers Casey Goldstein. "I
replied with confidence that I was
used to having access to master keys
to the residence halls on a campus
of 6,000 undergraduate students

and had served on a duty rotation
that received calls about everything
from suicide intervention to medical
transports." Ryan Moriarty, who is
now an assistant public defender, also
attributes his CA experience at the
College of New Jersey for both getting
into law school and obtaining his first
professional position. "Law schools are
inundated with applicants every year.
My experience as an RA allowed me to
differentiate myself on paper."

RA Gains
Housing administrators are not the
only stakeholders in this process
of training RAs and watching them
thrive. What do RAs report gaining
from their experience? Of the
housing student staff members
who participated in the 2014-2015
Skyfactor Student Staff in Housing
Assessment, most revealed that
their work experience enhanced
their communication skills (75
percent), their problem-solving skills
(71 percent), their general level of
self-confidence (65 percent), and
their "confidence to assume greater
responsibility in the future" (73
percent).

Many programs encourage RAs to
visit the career and placement offices
on their campuses and conduct mock
placement exchanges in the spring to
help them prepare for the interview
process. No matter what steps are
taken, each RA training experience
should clearly present not only the
specific goals and learning outcomes
of the training but also the transferable
skills and competencies developed by
the experience. For example, though

JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2017

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Talking Stick - January/February 2017

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