Ohio Christian Prepares for Students Return

With just three days before athletes move in to the dorms and the remainder of students coming a week later, resident assistants (RA) had an active first day on campus. The RA’s moved back into the dorms on Aug 7 and immediately got to know one another through team building activities.

For the male RAs this began with a “Wild West” name learning game complete with finger six-shooters. After demonstrating who had the fastest name learning skills in the west, Resident Director Kasey Summerer led them to the disc golf course for a friendly game. The group of guys bonded as they “brushed” up their skill while trimming some lower branches with discs.

The team building activities not only help the RAs get to know one another but also help them have fun as a team. According to Summerer, teams that have fun together stick together longer and work together better.

Fortunately, Summerer doesn’t need to work hard unifying his team. “We have a phenomenal team coming back this year,” he said. “We have five returning RAs – a couple of them have three years’ experience.”

For the next week as Residence Life prepares for the return of students, the RAs will be attending multiple training events. Summerer says they are taking a wholistic approach to student development and are training both “hard” skills, such as learning policies, and “soft” skills involving the human element of relationships with people. This training will hopefully prepare RAs to have a positive impact on student’s lives.

“Student Development, particularly Residence Life, has the highest contact level with our students and possibly even the most over their entire experience here,” Summerer said. “So, our hope is to work really well interdepartmentally to help students be able to thrive. A big part of our success is going to be driven by that unity and having a common vision.”