SEPT 2009 |
VOL 5 ISSUE 4
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Freshman Profiles About Staying Connected |
Your Student’s Experience in their New Home Away from Home Updates from Housing and Residential Life By Jennifer Casady, Community Director for East and West Hall About two weeks ago, you came to Webster to move your student into their home away from home. At some point during the weekend you made one last trip to the store and said your last goodbyes and left your student to start school. For some of you, this is student number three or four and you are a pro at what happens next. For others this experience is new. Maybe this is the first child you have had come to college or maybe you are new to Webster and have noticed that Webster is different than other schools. No matter where you fit in that spectrum, you are probably curious about what is going on in the life of your student now that they are living on campus. I would like to offer you some resources and some insights into what is going on in the halls where your students are living. First, I would like to introduce to you one of the most important people your son or daughter has as a resource. That person is their Resident Assistant (RA). As you might have seen during move-in, we have an RA on each floor/wing. The RA is a trained student staff member who is there to support your student socially, academically, and to provide a safe environment for your student to succeed. The RA’s are there to help the floor community grow and develop through face-to-face interaction, social activities, educational events, and supporting other on-campus programs. RAs are connected with all the resources across campus and can help get your student to the resources they need. Over the next two weeks, the RA on your student’s floor will be busy helping all the students on the floor do a number of things. They are providing opportunities in their communities for each other to come out of their room and get to know each other; they are helping to answer questions about where classes are; and trying to get students plugged into the many events and activities that we have at Webster. I recently walked through the halls and noticed that on just about every floor there was a group of students in the lounge talking, watching movies, and playing games. Additionally, other students were found to have their doors propped open and people walking in and out, introducing themselves. Additionally, during the first week of school, about 200 students came out to watch a movie on the quad and eat free food sponsored by Campus Activities. If you as a parent have questions, you might wonder who do you call or contact. My first resource to offer you is our webpage. Our page has many resources to help you stay connected to major events happening within Residential Life. Included in on this website is a parent blog. The parent blog is a blog where members of the Professional Staff Team will blog about once a week providing you information about what is going on in the halls and in our department. In future editions of this newsletter we will have articles from different RA’s highlighting what is going on in the different residential communities. So keep a look out for those articles in the future. In the mean time, stay connected with us, send your student some mail, and encourage your student to get involved. |
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