Regional Winner |
Month: March 2012 |
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Residential Community of the Month |
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| School: |
UNC Chapel Hill |
Region: |
SAACURH |
| Nominee: |
Hinton James Community |
Nominator: |
Gregory Downing |
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| On-Campus Population: 9000 |
Chapter Size: 30 |
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| Please explain the outstanding contributions of the nominee during the month of nomination |
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As the largest community at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, I can say that beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Hinton James
community staff is the best. A staff consisting of 17 Resident Advisors,
1 Resident Advisor Mentor, and 1 Community Manager this is the "dream
team" when it comes to working with a medium sized group of people in
the Department of Housing and Residential Education.
The month of March is always a trying time because the coveted Spring
Break is close in the distance. Between people making last minute plans
and teachers springing midterms on eager students the day before the
break begins, clearing a building of nearly 1000 residents is an arduous
task. A lot of work is done at the very beginning in March (even before)
to make sure the building can close smoothly. With each Resident Advisor
(RA) having around 50 residents, they must post to each door a list of
things that residents need to do, in order for them to pass their health
and safety room inspections. When RAs get sick or are intensely studying
for an exam, sometimes things slip their minds. This is the only staff I
know where people will constantly check up on one another and see how
they're doing. One day before the break, one of the RAs went around to
each room just to check and see how everyone was doing.
We only see each other about once a week when we have our weekly staff
meetings on Monday, but when they're cancelled this opportunity is gone.
Multiple days, the staff will send a message to each other wanting to
see everyone and scheduling dates and times to have a late night dinner
(the only time the majority of 19 people are free). We also see all of
us when one of us has a birthday. For instance, one day in March, one of
us had a birthday. The night before (around 11:55ish) we get together
and secretly make out way to that person’s room to sing ‘Happy Birthday’
to them.
If I could think of one term that best encompasses what this staff
stands for, that term would be: love. There is an abundance of love on
this staff and we constantly go out of our way to make sure that each
and every person feels loved. I’m sure everyone can individually tell
countless stories of how this staff had made them feel special, but one
that really sticks out to me is when I received my acceptance into
graduate school on Thursday March 1, 2012 at approximately 4:45pm (a
date and time I will not soon forget). I went into my office to check my
admission status online, and I emerged from my office in triumph and
there was no other group of people I was more excited to share this
information with first than them. They made me feel even more on top of
the world than I already was. They wrote me sweet notes congratulating
me (even when we got back from spring break) and I greatly appreciated that.
There’s so much that could be said about the Hinton James Community
Staff2011-2012 that 600 words is entirely too restricting, but this is
just a little blurb about us. We’re more than just a staff of workers;
we’ve grown to become a family. It will be entirely too sad when 3 of us
graduate, 5 of us move to a new staff, and 4 won’t return. Even though
our family will not be together, we’ll never grow apart. Word Count: 599
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