A lot of people have been asking me how they can become Resident Assistant at College Village, and since the RA hiring process is coming up, I thought I’d write a blog about it!

Step 1: Apply

Fill out the RA application. It will be located in College Village’s Main Office.There are 16 – 20 questions that you have to answer about yourself. The answers to these questions are your opportunities to tell College Village who you are and why you’ve got what it takes to do the job. Be honest. Some of these questions may ask you about your weaknesses as well as your strengths. It’s okay to have weaknesses, just include how you plan to improve on them while your an RA. Include your resume and a letter of recommendation (preferably by college staff). Applications are due on November 16th.

Step 2: Go to the Interviews

Once you apply, you will receive an e-mail letting you know of your group, and solo interview dates. For the group interview, come confident. Open up, have fun, and be prepared to speak your mind. It’s really not that bad. For the solo interviews remember what you wrote on your RA application. Be honest, be yourself, be consistent, take a deep breath, and again, be confident. Your being asked questions about you, answering them should not be hard. Let the interviewers see why you have potential.

Step 3: Take a Self Check

Honestly ask yourself why you want to be an RA. Find out if this reason is big enough to keep you in the job when times get hard, and if it is worth the sacrifices. RAs spend a lot of time juggling school, work, and being supportive for residents. They also have to be careful about what they do socially because they represent their team and College Village.

Step 4: Do It 

Being an RA is one of the best, if not the best, ways to grow your leadership while your at College. It’s why I became an RA. It’s challenging, but it’s supposed to be. It’s also very fun. You develop friendships with your teammates, and with residents you come into contact with. Your will interact with people you never thought you could have. Sometimes you are put into situations where hurting people need your help, and that changes you. You learn how to put personal feelings aside, and help people you thought you didn’t like.  You get to make people feel welcome and help them get situated into the college life. There is a lot to gain from and to give to by being an RA.

I was really nervous about applying to be an RA toward end of my first semester. But I was encouraged by friends, particularly RA friends, who saw good qualities in me. Many of the people who approached me about being an RA have leadership qualities that they may or may not see in themselves. Just do it, when you get the job done, you’ll enjoy looking back at some of the things you were able to accomplish on the journey, and be surprised at how much you’ve grown.

Until next time.

The month of October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Students and staff from G.C.C. and other SUNY colleges have been wearing purple and setting up educational demonstrations this month in effort to break the silence of Domestic Violence at their schools.

Today, at Genesee Community College, students are in the Forum painting nails, selling purple Domestic Violence Tees, cupcakes, and chocolate bars, giving students the opportunity to write messages  about why Love Should Not Hurt, and giving out prizes to “spin the wheel” game participants.

The price of a Tee is $7, and the price of purple socks are $5. Cupcakes, purple necklaces, and the chance to win a prize by spinning a wheel are all just 25 cents each. 100% of the proceeds goes to the local Domestic Violence Shelter.

If you are being abused, whether mental, physical, or emotional,  by anyone, whether by a friend, acquaintance, family member, or stranger, please speak up and tell someone. Get help for yourself. You are not someone who deserves to be mistreated.

If you know someone who is being abused in anyway (read above) please get help for that person. Respect their right to privacy, but at the very least be a supportive person in their life by reminding them that they are unique, special, and that they don’t deserve to get hurt.

When I asked one of the students why she volunteered to help out with Domestic Violence they said, “Well, no one asked us to get up here and do this, but I want to be a voice that encourages people to speak out about Domestic Violence, and let them know they don’t need to be ashamed.”

The students will be out there until 4pm today, so please go and support! In doing so, your doing your part in stopping domestic violence.

Sometimes, life is hard, other times it’s awesome. It’s easy to keep your hopes held high and a positive attitude when things are going smoothly. But what do you do when you feel down and out for the count? One of the things I like to do is listen to music that picks up my spirit, gets me dancing, and keeps me motivated. Here are a few of my favorite albums:

Daft Punk, Discovery & Homework

Andy Mineo, Uncomfortable

Stevie Wonder, The Secret Life of Plants

Jesus Culture: Reconstructed… that’s right Christian Techno. Boom!

Janelle Monae, Metropolis & Archandriod

Lecrae, Rehab

Britt Nicole, Gold

Danny Gokey, Hope in Front of Me

I hope you get a chance to listen to some of these songs, and I hope you are keeping your head held high, as the semester continues to roll on. Peace.

The weather is changing and soon it will become less convenient for me to go outside for a bike ride, which is one of my favorite forms of exercise. I have already begun to spend more time indoors, and soon, all I will desire is to be warm, cozy, and full ; hibernating in my free time. That is what I usually do during the winter, but this season has to be different for me. I am not interested in gaining any of the weight back that I lost by being a sweaty busy summer bee. So here are Practical & Simple things I will be doing for the remainder of fall and duration of winter in order to stay healthy and continue my weight loss project.

1. Avoid getting sick by staying warm – Wear hats to protect your head, wear a scarf to cover your neck and nose, and avoid the freeze by covering your ears.
2. Join a Gym – I was told that working out in the winter is better than working out in the summer, because it warms you up when your body really appreciates it. If you live at College Village, go to the Fitness Center!
3. Drink Tea! – Drinking green tea is great for loosing weight. But avoid sugary products and brew your own. Try drinking it without any sweeteners, but if it’s just too bland add a little bit of honey.
4. Sleep – Sleep is essential to keep you immune system functioning properly.
5. Drink Water – Most people think you only need to worry about your water intake during the summer but you need to worry about it during the winter too. We tend not to be as thirsty in the winter, and dehydrate much easier. So drink up! Buy bottled water or keep a water bottle with you at all times.
6. Last but certainly not least, Don’t over eat – This can be hard during the winter because some people associate being cozy with being full and that’s an association that needs to break. Over eating sometimes makes you fall asleep because your body need to use most of it’s energy to digest that big portion of food. Eating is smaller portions is healthier and
   snacking on healthy foods is better for you. I will be drinking green tea and sometimes hot coco, and snacking on dried fruits and nuts. I treat myself by eating ice cream for dessert, but I limit myself to 1/2 a cup per serving, and I try to buy a low calorie or sugar-free Ice cream.

Keep up the good work everyone and I hope you are all blessed with good health this season!!! Until next time!

At G.C.C., this is about the time when teachers start evaluating how well students understand the material by giving them their first exam. I took my math exam last week, and I’ve got biology, and history exams this week. (Psst…I think they’re watching us…and talking to each other.)

What does it feel like? Well, my math exam went excellent and I think my history exam will go the same. As far as biology is concerned, I know I need to devote a lot of study time to that subject in order to feel confident and ready for the exam. That’s often how it goes for me with BIO, and we’re all different. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. You may achieve an A on one exam with 1-2 hours’ worth of studying, and get the same grade on a different subject’s exam with 5-7 hours of review. It’s crazy! Why do our brains work that way? It can feel downright unfair to get a grade lower that what was striven for when a lot of effort is put into studying. But on the other hand, remembering answers easily simply because you sat in lecture feels amazing. It’s different for each subject, and for each of us. What information you retain may not be the same type I do. That’s what makes studying with other people so beneficial and us, as a student body, so beautiful.

Lately I’ve been feeling like the old myth is really true. It’s impossible to study well, sleep well, and keep a healthy social life. Sacrifices do need to be made. Since I’ve come to G.C.C., I’ve always been the type of person to give my studies the first priority, then sleep, then socializing. But this semester I’ve noticed that I’ve throw sleep on the chopping block more times than social activities. It’s happens because I put a social activity above homework, and then stay up all night trying to finish the assignment. I end up being social, academically successful, but sleepy and drained.

This isn’t good for me because I feel more optimistic and alert when I’ve had 7-8 hours of sleep. But there is hope and it’s good to notice bad habits early in the semester.  If I adjust now, the rest of the semester should go much smoother. I know I talked a lot about myself in this blog, but I hope that I talked about you as well. We are all college students and sometimes we go through similar things. Its first exams time but don’t fret, study well, study according to your needs, study with friends, and don’t forget to sleep. Catch you guys next time and I hope you all enjoyed the homecoming weekend!

Habitat for Humanity is an international non-profit organization that builds homes for and with people in need. So far the organization has built homes for more than 1 millions families around the world. This past rainy Saturday, College Village residents volunteered with the Habitat for Humanity crew in Batavia! We worked on a home that was being built for Sheila Rolle and her daughter Jada. Sheila was right there at the construction site getting muddy with us! We arrived on site at 9:30 a.m., had lunch around noon, and continued to work until 3:30 p.m. Some of us flattened soil, helped to build stairs, used machinery to cut wooden planks, hammered, cleaned out the basement and did a bunch of other cool things too!

Mrs. Ellen Brokaw! Assistant Director of College Village.

Ms. Sheila Rolle! (center)

It felt good to work with your team mates and even better to do so on a selfless mission. 

Ms. Sheila Rolle (center)

College Village residents hope to return another weekend to help Habitat for Humanity and Sheila again!

My favorite quality of G.C.C. is it’s diversity. We have a wide range of student demographics represented at our college. Students from Batavia, NYC, France, Japan, East Timor, Chicago, Bangladesh, and so many different places all come here to study. Hearing other languages, tasting different foods, and finding new things to appreciate about another culture can become “The Norm” for any student here.  

This past Friday evening, I went to the International Student Organization’s Conversation Buddies program. The room was filled with people, games, and buzzing conversations. I smiled because I already knew a lot of people there from College Village. Minori, a Japanese girl who wants to be a videographer, was assigned to me as a conversation buddy. We sat at a table with a large group of people and played Monopoly. Sabrina from Bangladesh, Jessica from South Carolina, and Kevin from Curacao, and Arion from New York City, were just some of the people we played with.
Some people were afraid  to get to know someone new. One of my friends told me how nervous she was about possibly having a guy as her conversation buddy. “I hope it’s another girl” she said. A few seconds later Mrs. Klaiber (a co-adviser of the ISO club) walked up to us and said to her “Your buddy is running a bit late but he will be here soon”. I felt bad for at first, but as the night went on I noticed that she and her buddy were talking and laughing together. They looked like they were getting along great and he was a nice guy. The event went amazingly well.

After the program, I managed to speak with Mrs. Klaiber, known by the students as Mrs. K. According to her, the purpose of the International Student Organization is to help new international students assimilate into American culture. The club provides opportunities for them to get off campus and see American landmarks local to the Upstate New York region. They meet and relate with other international students and they make American friends as well.
The club has been around for over 5 years, and it’s members represent all of the worlds continents save Australia and Antarctica. Mrs. K says that she loves helping students from different places get together and discover how similar they are.She has studied abroad during her college career and has spent over 7 years in a another country. She can also speak many different languages.

Why does Mrs. K help international students? “Whenever I went to a new place, there was always someone who took care of me and showed me around. I just want to do the same thing for these guys because it was done for me, and it helped me a lot.”  

It was nice talking to you guys. Thanks for taking the time to read my blogs, and thank you to everyone who left an encouraging comment. Come back in a few days to see what else I did over the weekend! ~_^