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Being a fourth year resident assistant is a challenging task: keeping
yourself motivated and constantly challenging yourself to higher
quality work each time. Katie Vogel went over and above her job
expectations in the month of February. She has really mentored
several of her students who are leaders, executed the Illinois State
Resident Assistant Association 2005 Conference (as a co-chair), helped
in the planning and advising of 3 major programs, and worked to
recognize SIUE through her nomination of outstanding leaders and
writing of Program of the Year and School of the Year bids. Katie Vogel is already an impressive resident assistant. During
February, her educational bulletin boards further proved her
commitment to educational activities that challenge her residents.
Her bulletin board of slavery, in celebration of black history month,
challenged her residents to step into the role of a slave and realize
they were a commodity. The board was excellent placed and expertly
researched (Katie is a former history major). While educational
bulletin boards are a part of Katie’s job responsibilities, the level
of quality exhibited in this board went far beyond the expectations of
undergraduate staff. Katie has mentored and advised several hall council leaders. Hall
Council implemented its Superbowl Party and began planning “Tunnel of
Oppression” and solidifying its “New Orleans Trip.” Katie has been a
behind-the-scenes player in the planning of each of these events. She
has helped tremendously with advertising. She is also strong in area
of helping the residents reflect through tough questions about the
planning process. Katie really helps our developing leaders work step-
by-step through the program planning process. She is a huge asset to
me as an advisor and a mentor to our leaders. Katie has helped two of
the three groups write co-sponsorship applications for our Residence
Housing Association. She also advocated in RHA for these proposals. Katie is also the RA liaison to RHA, a position she voluntarily
holds. Throughout the month of February, Katie has been instrumental
in helping our RHA and hall council leaders edit their Program of the
Year bid. Katie worked for several hours editing and re-working parts
of the winning IRHA 2005 Program of the Year bid for Box City 2004. I
can safely say that Katie’s effort probably pushed the bid from
possible contender to winning effort with her additional help. She
really helped Ankur, one of our first year leaders, sell and refine
his message about the program. Amazingly, Katie also spearheaded the hosting of the ISRAA 2005
conference at SIUE. Over 130 delegates attended strong programming
sessions that Katie put together. She organized most of the program
tracks and helped judge the top 10 programs. Katie was the motivator
and coach of the team and really helped the conference host team be
cohesive and excited throughout the conference. Katie also helped to
write several Most Outstanding Leader and Most Outstanding Program
nominations for SIUE. She helped several resident assistants efforts
get recognized as SIUE took him about 8 individual awards in these
categories! Katie also spearheaded the winning ISRAA School of the
Year bid for SIUE in the week previous to the conference. During the
conference, Katie and her co-chair, Kara, were also recognized with
Most Outstanding Leader awards. During the month of February, Katie was a huge asset to the SIUE
leadership community. Her efforts benefited her residents, hall
council, RHA, and the Illinois RA community. For all her efforts
beyond the job description of an RA, Katie is definitely deserving of
February 2005 RA of the Month!
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