West Side RA of the Month for March - Brittany Williams

Congratulations to Humes RA, Brittany Williams, on being West Area RA of the Month for March!

Let's hear what Brittany's nominator, Humes Hall Director Ashley Williams-Bond, had to say about her:

Brittany is one of the first year RAs on the Humes staff but she is definitely one of the more vocal ones. She has really stepped up during the month of March in helping take the lead on some of the larger building wide initiatives. She was instrumental in helping with the RAs alcohol/drug program of the semester “Club Humes Presents: Thirsty Thursday.” Because of the success of this program she has already began planning for an end of the year building wide event for the residents. Brittany has also taken the lead on setting up the intramural softball team for this season. She gathered all the info and within a week had enough people signed up to have 2 separate teams. She kept pushing and reminding people and actual got them excited to play. Brittany has also stepped up on her staff committee and is working on community service opportunities for our staff and residents to close out the end of the year fueled further by her participation in the ASB trip 2011.

Brittany has an easy-going personality that her residents and staff love but she is also a person they know they can depend on to get things done and remain calm under pressure. Brittany is a good role model for her residents and continuing to do great things in her RA position.

One of Brittany's bulletin boards.

One of Brittany's door decs.

Awesome publicity Brittany created for Thirsty Thursday program.

The other awesome RA nominated in March was Courtney Luna of South Carrick!

Way to go, Brittany and Courtney!

West Side RA of the Month for February - Dadrien Barnes

Congratulations to Hess Hall RA, Dadrien Barnes, for being selected as the West Side RA of the Month for February!

Dadrien Barnes - Hess Hall RA

Let's hear what the Hess Hall Head Staff had to say about how great Dadrien is:

As a head staff we have elected to nominate Dadrien Barnes as RA of the month for February for his exceptional performance in programming for the month of February. Dadrien is by far one of the best programmers we have had the opportunity to work with. He consistently comes up with great ideas that bring not only his floor, but the entire Hess Hall community together.



On February 9th, under the leadership of Dadrien, the staff held the second annual Hess Hall Globetrotters event. The purpose of this event was to educate the residents of Hess Hall on different areas around the country and most importantly to give them information about studying abroad. The Study Abroad office was present at the program and was afforded the opportunity to talk with many residents about their program. The RAs took different regions from around the country and made boards with information about those regions and cooked food from those regions. The program was a success and once again made an impact on our hall community.


At the end of the month Dadrien began working with Hess Hall Council to plan Caribbean Week for the March 7th through March 10th. I mention this because while the program is happening in March, much of the leg work for the program took place in February. Dadrien put together several proposals and presented them to HHC originally just wanting to have one main program, the Caribbean Cook-off. Once HHC saw what Dadrien wanted to do, they got so excited and asked if they could expand the program to a week. Dadrien talked through several ideas with the group and eventually came up with the Caribbean Week lineup. Dadrien came up with all the posters and advertisements and worked with UCopy to get them printed. His organization and creative talent has added a lot to the Hess community.


Finally Dadrien has been a great advocate to HHC. He noticed that the council needed for more items for checkout. Dadrien without being promoted approached the president of HHC and let her know his ideas for purchasing items. He got approval from the president to purchase the items, went and got the items with his own money, brought the items back to Hess and cataloged them all. Dadrien has done great things for Hess in the month of February and for that reason we recommend him for Area RA of the Month.

Other awesome RAs nominated in February include:
Carrie Underwood - Humes
Kelsey McCoy - Morrill
Austin Dillon - North Carrick
Drew Griggs - Reese
Julie Nabors - South Carrick
 
Congratulations to Dadrien, Carrie, Kelsey, Austin, Drew, & Julie!  :)

West Side RA of the Month for January - Lindsey Marlin!

Congratulations to the West Side RA of the Month, Lindsey Marlin!

Let's hear what Lindsey's nominator, South Carrick Hall Director Amanda Koch, had to say about her:

I would like to nominate Lindsey Marlin for West Area RA of the Month for the month of January. For the month of January, Lindsey has gone above and beyond in many of her job duties. Seeing as we have 4 new RAs on the South Carrick Staff, Lindsey has done an exceptional job helping those new RAs transition into the new position, new staff, and new responsibilities. She puts in extra time behind the desk showing them procedures, going on hallwalks with them, and helping them when they have questions.

She has also gone above requirements in door decorations and bulletin boards. For January, she cut snowmen and individually hand colored each snowman for each resident, giving each resident their own unique snowman. She also hand-cut several components of her bulletin board.

Finally, Lindsey has been available to her residents, especially in one particular case of solving a semester-long roommate conflict. She met with each resident countless times, trying several solutions, and once a solution was determined, she went beyond her duties to make sure the residents were okay with the solution, even when one resident was no longer a resident of her floor.

Here are some photos of Lindsey's creative efforts on her floor:

Super cute snowmen door decs.

Very creative Tennessee snowflakes made out of coffee filters!

Great welcome back bulletin board!

Cute new year bulletin board.

Other awesome RAs nominated in January include:

Sara Knoll, Morrill
Jonathan Leach, North Carrick
Chris Porter, Reese

Congratulations to Lindsey, Sara, Jonathan, and Chris!

West Side RA of the Month for November - Vincent Charlow

Congratulations to RA Vincent Charlow of Hess Hall for being selected as the West Side RA of the Month for November!

Let's here what Vincent's nominators, the Hess Hall Head Staff, had to say about why Vincent is deserving of this honor:

As a head staff we have decided to nominate Vincent Charlow as RA of the Month for October. Vincent has done an excellent job all year, but he really showed us why he was such a great choice for our staff in October. The month of October started off with the flood on K 4. Vincent was one of the first RAs to report to the floor and made one of the first attempts at plugging the sprinkler. Due to an equipment malfunction he was unsuccessful; however he knew exactly what to do and responded accordingly. Once he completed his attempts at plugging the sprinkler, Vincent was very instrumental in clear the 4th and 3rd floors of the K section. Finally, Vincent was the one who identified the two students that were responsible for the flood which allowed us as a head staff to hold those students responsible.



For some reason Vincent has been called to respond to several very sensitive student situations. In October he responded to a situation that required the utmost care, and he handled it with grace and maturity. Especially considering that the student that was involved was in serious need of help and attention. Vincent stepped in, made the right calls, and got the student the necessary help and kept a cool head through it all.


Finally what was most notable about Vincent in the month of October was his organization of the program “Two Hands, One Sandwich”. Vincent organized this program to help Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries. Vincent petitioned URHC for funding to get enough bread, meat, cheese, peanut butter, and jelly to make over 400 sandwiches to feed the homeless here in Knoxville through KARM. He set up a table in the lobby, provided hand sanitizer and gloves, and encouraged residents to stop and make one sandwich. Vincent set up the program to last from 10 am to 3 pm, but due to the overwhelming response all the sandwiches were completed by 1:45pm. “Two Hands, One Sandwich” was an amazing program that made a difference not only in the lives of our residents but 400 homeless people around the city of Knoxville.

For these reasons, and many more, we feel that Vincent is more than deserving of this honor and we nominate him without reservation for Area RA of the Month!

Here are the other awesome West Side RAs nominated for RA of the Month in November:
Beka Patton - South Carrick
Megan Cusick - Humes
Tyrone Beach - Morrill

Way to go Vincent, Beka, Megan, and Tyrone!!!! 

West Side RA of the Month for October - Kate Whitehead!

Congratulations to Morrill RA, Kate Whitehead, on being selected as the West Side RA of the Month for October!

Here's what Kate's nominator, Morrill Hall HD Sam Whalen, had to say about her:

Kate has done a tremendous job as an R.A. this year. The month of September was no different. Here are some examples.

- Flag Football Team – Kate organized a flag football team for her floor. They are named the 12th Floor Twisters. They made tie-died uniforms. They won their last game 45-0. Kate was super excited about that. Here is what Kate had to say about her flag football team: We had a flag football game on every Tuesday this month, four games in total, on September 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. Although we lost the first three games, we won the last game 45-0. The last game in particular promoted good sportsmanship, to find the balance between being excited about winning but gracious to the other team. There were 20 residents on my roster, but usually we had 12 or 13 play per game. These games encouraged floor unity, but also made sure that the girls got some exercise in the process.

- Open Door Nights – Kate has started rewarding her girls for keeping their doors open. She walks around her floor on random nights of the week and gives candy to the girls who have their door open.

- Good Grades Program – Kate has started a program to encourage her girls to have good grades. She has them write good grades that they get on a notepad outside her door. She created door tags that say “A Smart Girl Sleeps Here” Each girl gets one of these door tags after posting good grades. So far 11 girls have posted good grades

- Here is Kate’s Description of program she did: On Wednesday, September 15th, I co-hosted a program with Michael Henry on the 11th floor called "We're Wild About Friends: Speed-Friending" in order to encourage our residents to meet new people on their own floor and on the buddy floor. With the help of URHC funding, we bought 200 Buffalo Wild Wings and had a total of about 40 residents show up (roughly 20 residents from each floor). Although the program was slightly awkward at first, we provided 15 sample questions in case our residents couldn't think of topics to discuss. By the end, there was lively conversation, and many of my residents have since told me that they enjoyed the program.

Pictures of what Kate has been doing on her floor:

Congratulations, Kate! 

Here are the other awesome West Side RAs that were also nominated as RA of the Month for October:

Hess - Alexia Greene
Humes - Brook Beasley
North Carrick - Josh Lynn
Reese - Michael Brewington
South Carrick - Kristen Knight

In staff meeting, the West Side HDs and Anna discuss the nominees and select the RA of the Month. Each month, the RA of the Month is featured on the bulletin board outside the West Area Office!

West Side RA of the Month for September - Elijah Lightfoot!

Congratulations to North Carrick RA, Elijah Lightfoot, on being selected as the West Side RA of the Month for September!

Here's what Elijah's nominators, North Carrick HD Matt Varga and North Carrick AHD Alex Merchant, had to say about him:

There are multiple reasons why Elijah should be the RA of the Month. First, Elijah is a first year RA on a staff comprised primarily of first year RA’s; however, not once has he let his inexperience hold him back. He has been a leader on the staff by stepping up and asking questions. He consistently takes everything to the next level. For example, his Bulletin Board was arguably the best bulletin board in the building; it may not be comparable to other buildings, but he certainly went above and beyond what any of his fellow staff members did. Please see the attached pictures. Additionally, during the hectic time of move in and the construction, Elijah found the time to create a door dec for himself that clearly took time and effort (see picture). Next, never have officially completed a program before, Elijah hosted his first program last night titled Late Night Rumble. It was a joint program with South Carrick and over forty people attended the program (both sides provided a comparable number of people). Furthermore, I believe this says something about the type of community Elijah has had on his floor. Finally, I ask my RA’s to submit a weekly report (see attached) and as you can see he has also submitted quality weekly reports in addition to his program planning form and community development log. Elijah is going strong and I believe this type of behavior of a first year RA should be strongly rewarded!

Captions for these photos by Matt and Alex from their completed RA of the Month Nomination Form:

This is a nice clean, crisp bulletin board.

This is his information board. He spent a lot of time making sure his residents have the information they need to be successful!

Elijah went with the simple yet creative avenue for his bulletin board and door decs.

Elijah took it upon himself to create a door dec beyond any door dec I have seen.

His door decs are centered around the move 300, which are about Spartans.

A simple trash room sign made into something fun and relevant to guys. Again going above and beyond!

Here are the other awesome West Side RAs that were also nominated as RA of the Month for September:
Hess - Angela Frantz
Humes - Taylor Staley
Morrill - Sarah Gregory
Reese - Chris Porter

At the last area meeting of each month, the West Side HDs and Anna discuss the nominees and select the RA of the Month.  Each month, the RA of the Month is featured on the bulletin board outside the West Area Office!

Way to go, Elijah!