Resident Assistant Reflective Essay
I am currently a Resident Assistant on Colonial Quad. Primarily, I serve as a resource to sophomores, my peers, but I do also service residents of junior and senior standing. I am positioned on Colonial Quad and as a resident assistant my duties include serving as a resource, as a source of information, and as a health and safety aid. I was a late hire and was faced with some challenges adjusting to the new position being that my training was taking place at an expedited pace. It was at this time that I learned about StrengthsQuest. After taking StrengthsQuest I learned that my strengths, in order, include: Developer, Achiever, Input, Intellection, Individualization. What does this mean? The developer strength can be described as “people
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Another problem I found with StrengthsQuest was first getting my residents to take the test. I mentioned StrengthsQuest to my residents several times and stressed the positive aspects of taking the test. My residents began to feel pestered and become frustrated with me when I continued to talk about it. When I finally had residents that were interested in participating in taking the test, I gave them access codes that expired within a week. I understand that codes must have expiration dates so that codes and not sitting dormant but I do think that extending the time that the codes are active would result in increased participation. Overall I did not find StrengthsQuest to be a worthy endeavor or investment. I feel that it hindered my leadership skills in that it weakened the relationships that I formed with my residents. Focusing time on StrengthsQuest took time away from creating an inviting environment with and for my residents. When including strengths in our programs was a program requirement, residents were uneager to come to programs and often did not come even when I “dorm-stormed” and remained persistent. I think removing this requirement was a positive change that was made to our syllabus and positively affected program
Another problem I found with StrengthsQuest was first getting my residents to take the test. I mentioned StrengthsQuest to my residents several times and stressed the positive aspects of taking the test. My residents began to feel pestered and become frustrated with me when I continued to talk about it. When I finally had residents that were interested in participating in taking the test, I gave them access codes that expired within a week. I understand that codes must have expiration dates so that codes and not sitting dormant but I do think that extending the time that the codes are active would result in increased participation. Overall I did not find StrengthsQuest to be a worthy endeavor or investment. I feel that it hindered my leadership skills in that it weakened the relationships that I formed with my residents. Focusing time on StrengthsQuest took time away from creating an inviting environment with and for my residents. When including strengths in our programs was a program requirement, residents were uneager to come to programs and often did not come even when I “dorm-stormed” and remained persistent. I think removing this requirement was a positive change that was made to our syllabus and positively affected program