For the last six weeks, I have gone through RALI--Resident Assistant Leadership Institute. Basically it's a six-week long group interview process that Residential Education has all RA (Resident Assistant) applicants go through as part of the selection process. An RA is a staff member in Residential Education. One or two RAs live on each floor of the residence halls and serve multiple roles--staff member, programmer, administrator, policy enforcer, resource, role model, mediator, counselor, crisis responder, community builder, and advocate.
Each week in RALI a different issue is discussed that relates to the position. We talked about things such as diversity, community, communication, discrimination and prejudice, values and morals, identity, as well as ethics and decision making. The group is comprised of about 15 applicants, 4 current RAs and one Community Development Educator (CDE) who is the overarching facilitator.
It is a really intense but interesting experience. It provides you the opportunity to learn a lot about yourself and the time to get a better understanding of your viewpoints and how they relate to others'. You have the chance to interact with people, some of whom are very different from yourself, and it really opens up your eyes to things you may never have even thought about before. Some activities do prove to be a little challenging or nerve-racking but they are certainly beneficial. I think that the RALI experience as a whole is a very valuable tool for any (campus) leader because it touches upon so many topics that are crucial to effective unification and development.
For the sixth week, each applicant has to create and present their own SLP (Significant Learning Project). It is a 5-minute presentation that can take any form and incorporate virtually anything your creativity comes up with. Everyone's ideas are so different yet so interesting. Seeing the multiple approaches people took was great--many baked, some wrote poems, and some acted or created some form of art. I made a mandala about myself based on the roles of an RA (in the first paragraph). I learned about mandalas last semester in class and thought it would be a lot of fun to create and I thought that since mandalas are found in many different areas of the world, it would also be a great way to tie into diversity.
Basically I selected the four roles that I felt described me the best (community builder, resource, counselor, and role model) and I found pictures of myself in each role. I then arranged them symmetrically across 4 concentric circles. I also gave everyone else in the group a chance to make their own and then I explained how RAs could use this to get to better know their residents and even use it to create programs.
Steps to create a mandala: (for any of you interested...if you're not too bored by my explanation already)
1. Hold a piece of paper horizontally.
2. Draw 4 concentric circles.
3. Based on the topic, select 4 words that correspond to it and relate to you, and write those in each of the 4 corners of the paper (i.e. I did Roles of RA so I chose Community Builder, Counselor, Resource, and Role Model and put those in my corners)
4. Underneath each word, draw a picture for each that corresponds to the specific word.
5. Select the most important word/picture and draw that picture in the center.
6. Fill in the rest of the circles in a symmetrical fashion keeping those things most important to you closest to the center (you can have multiple drawings in each circle as long as it is symmetrical).
Just thought I'd share that fun activity and forewarn anyone interested in becoming an RA that it is a long, intense, but very informative and helpful and educational, process! Good luck!