Residence Hall Association

During my four years at Arizona State I was involved in an on-campus housing group named RHA. Through RHA I implemented campus-wide events and smaller dorm-based events that focused on building community, exploring culture, understanding diversity and promoting safe collegiate practices regarding sex and alcohol. In this position I advocated to campus officials on behalf of residents for affordable meal plans, campus safety and hall improvements. I learned how to prioritize spending while working with limited budgets in a strained economy. Above all else, I had the opportunity to mentor a group of incoming freshman each year and help them succeed academically and professionally. Personally, RHA helped me develop my public speaking skills and the ability to clearly convey ideas to others through weekly board meetings. RHA showed me that even on the intermittent days when lab experiments may fall short, it is possible to have a daily impact on the community.

Leadership and Mentorship

I began my time in RHA as an event planner for the Ocotillo Hall Council. When we started, we were the smallest council with very low attendance at campus events. Throughout my year and a half as the event planner I worked hand in hand with our other council leader to build up our council attendance. By the end of my time in this council we had build up a great community and set of resources for the residents. During my third year, I became the leader of a larger hall council. During this time I began expanding our reach to a wider campus audience. I also began mentoring multiple freshman and sophomores to become leaders of their own hall councils. In my final year, I was elected the Director of Programming for the entire campus, where I led the other Hall Council event planners. It was through this roll that I was able to make a large amount of changes throughout the program, hosting larger events, and growing our numbers even further.

Event Planning

Over the course of my multiple years in the organization I hosted many events and started many traditions that are still happening today. Planning campus events for college students is a huge challenge. We constantly had to balance fun/entertainment with education and social progress. By combining fun events, such as carnivals and competitions, with themes and causes I was able to create events that had incredible turnout and great impact.

Arizona State Homecoming

The creative element of event planning was one of the best portions of this experience. Creating props and games for the events was both an engineering and organizational challenge. This was most exemplified during ASU Homecomings. Each Hall Council was responsible for building a float that represented ASU, the Residence Halls, and the Homecoming theme. I led the idea development, construction, and volunteer scheduling for three different homecomings. Each year we won the internal RHA competition, and one year we won the campus wide competition. Building complex yet sturdy floats with a team of student voluteers was an incredibly rewarding experience.