by Maddie Kracov (mkracov@gwu.edu)
The Residential Engagement Team completed its selection process for the '18-'19 Resident Advisor Team! Thanks to the help of Center for Student Engagement and volunteers from the Division of Student Affairs, we interviewed over 180 new RA candidates, ultimately selecting 63 new RAs to join the 51 returning RAs.
A major goal of the selection team included ensuring that candidates gained professional skills from the process regardless of whether they were selected. As a result, we altered our application to require both a cover letter and résumé. Working with the Center for Career Services, we provided opportunities for résumé review and cover letter writing workshops. Professional development opportunities are a hallmark of the Resident Advisor program and we believe including this in our process provided a unique foundation for this goal.
Another significant change included improvements to the Group Process scoring. In past years, scoring the group process potentially provided an advantage to those that are more extroverted. Evaluators also tended to focus on the candidates’ knowledge of the role and policies rather than their strengths and skills. However, we were hesitant to remove the current Group Process altogether, as the information gathered during the activity about a candidate’s personality and communication style was valuable when placing onto teams.
To solve these issues, the selection team decided to implement two changes. First, the activity was modified to be strictly team building. All policy components were removed. Second, the Group Process evaluations were refocused to obtain more qualitative information rather than quantitative. The outcome resulted in the collection of information about candidates in three categories: leadership and role modeling skills, communication skills, and ability to work in a team. This method ultimately provided the information needed to best place selected candidates and identify red flags, without compromising the overall score of students who do not naturally excel in the former group interview format.
These changes, combined with more targeted marketing to a variety of student groups, led us to have our most diverse and experienced class of Resident Advisors yet. Our 2018-2019 RAs represent 5 schools and 29 different majors, with an average GPA of 3.53. Nearly 55% of RAs are students of color, compared to 46.4% from the previous academic year. The Residential Engagement Team had the opportunity to bring this impressive group of students together at the RA orientation in March, and cannot wait to start fully with the next academic year!
Maddie Kracov is an Area Coordinator in the Center for Student Engagement overseeing Resident Advisor selection, training, and ongoing development.
