Fourk Love!!

Hey Fourks!! I miss you all and I hope everyone is having a great summer!! Love, Krystal

Black Belt Ceremony

Staff!!! I've been working hard on our black belt ceremony to make it really legit and awesome! I hope you are doing your part to make the points! Other than the black belt ceremonies in taekwondo, I was also the rituals keeper in AOII so I know a bit about ceremonies, symbolism, and meanings so I'm going to incorporate all of the above.... I may even wear my uniform if you guys are good ;) anyway, just updating you on my excitement and hoping to pass on a last push of motivation for the year!

Fourks, I apologize for being on the blog lately – you all know how much stuff was going in the last few weeks!

Regardless I want to share an article I found with you! We’ve talked several times on servant leadership during the years staff meetings.. Well you may have also heard of situational leadership. This essentially allows you to be a specific type of leader based on the situation at hand. This is why you may or may not see taking charge because I typically step up when I feel I will be most helpful.

I want to introduce you to another type of leadership – strategic leadership. Strategic in the sense of being able to use critical thinking to determine what will happen and use your leadership guidance to steer a group in a direction of hopeful success! This may not come easily to everyone. Perhaps you are the one to stay focused on the here and now and (since most of you are future teachers I will use a classroom analogy) focus only on your current students in the classroom. While it is very important to pay attention to those students you need to keep your eyes open and think regarding how your actions may be affecting something else or if you are even doing all you can for those students to be successful later in life. It’s a major task and by all means not easy. The article discusses strategic leadership and how to create this strategic thinking for yourself.

I do want to add – leadership, though some qualities may be more natural to some, can be learned. It takes a lot of time and practice to gain these skills. However, if you are truly seeking to better yourself they will only come to you that much quicker.

Here’s a link to the website

http://www.inc.com/paul-schoemaker/6-Habits-of-Strategic-Thinkers.html

Trust Challenge

This week's staff meeting regarding trust seemed to suit the situation if you know what I mean.. The challenge this week is to go out of your way to have faith in someone this week whether on staff, a friend, or someone else. This should be a practice for everything in life! Not to say that you should let you guard down completely, but especially those you work with - they may surprise you.

It's funny to think, there are some student assistants that I trust more than others to get things done, to the point I may save a project for a couple days until that student is in the office. Well I stepped out of the comfort zone. I gave the student assistant today one of the tasks that I hold on to and to my surprise it was done efficiently and quickly (and right for that matter!) You don't need to trust the person with your life but start with something small and build up that relationship.

Meeting

I felt unsettled with today's staff meeting and the overall tension with our staff for various reasons. I just want you all to know my door is always open to you and I'll be here to support you in any way I can. I intend to follow up with a few of you but regardless I hope you know I am still here for you all..

Orange Belt

I know this is coming a little late, especially because tonight we are progressing to yellow (hint, hint!).. but here is the meaning of orange belt!

"The sun is beginning to rise"

As with the morning's dawn, only the beauty of the sunrise is seen rather than the immense power. The RA sees the beauty of Residence Life but has yet experienced the power of the position of an RA.

To me, this is symbolic of the amount of potential you have and how capable you are of being the best. Being orange, this is the time you are building your skills and harnessing that power to be the most effective. I think you all are beyond asking why we are here - we've probably beat that question with a dead horse, but maybe you ask yourself that subconsciously when putting up bulletin boards or fill out your forms - why is this important? It's all part of something so much greater, every little thing we do benefits residents in some form or fashion. Think about that when you are putting up your next board, filling out a funding request, or completing advocate.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello All

This will be a short post. And even though it is very cliche' and I'm not sure if I agree with the holiday, Happy Valentine's day everyone. You really are loved.

P.S. I'm giving out free hugs today. So if you see me, get one!

Offer valid for a limited time only. (That means just today...-_- )

Yours Truly

Mind Boggling

Talk about a lot of things on your mind.. you know we all have those days when everything seems to be going wrong and it feels like the world may just end. You need to remember that you aren't the only one that goes through those days.

Today I had a plan to wake up early, go to the doctor at 8am and be at work by 9. Well here's what happened. I get a call at 7:15am from a fellow RA who smells marijuana. Of course, duty calls and I jump out of bed to attend the call. When I get there the police take an extra 15 minutes longer to arrive. At this point I start to worry about my doctors appointment. So When 7:53am came around and the student was being arrested I left the RA's to race to my doctor's appointment. I made it around 8:10am and of course they just happened to let someone go ahead of me. I did not get into the patients room until almost 8:40 (mind you I was supposed to work at 9!). I finally get out at 9:40am to receive a call from Scott telling me he is sick. So I spent a bit more time going to Walgreens for some meds. When All is said and done I got to work at 10:30 to hopefully start my day.

Guess again, during a one on one with Kevin I received a call from my dad telling me that my puppy was going to the vet. As I went to lunch I kept communication with him. Mallie had to get x-rays and essentially has the equivalent of a human's torn ACL on her back leg. Surgery is still up in the air but could cost $1500 if she has to do - bad timing before a wedding.

But back to the original point of stuff happens to everyone. I won't sit here and say yeah I'm so happy and lie to your face, however remember too that currently I am on a balance beam - to one side I can go completely negative thinking Mallie wont make it because we cant pay for surgery and my day is just going to continue to suck AND I will probably get a million calls, OR I can go positive and pray that she may not even need surgery or God will somehow provide the means of taking care of her AND the rest of the week will be productive and great. I choose to be the second.

What will you do on your day of havoc?

Goal-Within-A-Goal

My birthday is this Saturday, and I'll be 20 years old. I have such a perfect picture in my mind of how I want my life to be when I'm 30, and suddenly I'm realizing that those 10 years could fly by. It's time to get serious about what little steps I can start taking now to achieve those huge goals later. Krystal's challenge about goals has got me finally sitting down and planning out. I'm normally a go-with-the-flow kind of girl, and I believe in fate, and right-place-right-time, etc so this idea of "planning" my life isn't really my cup of tea. But, sitting around waiting for my dream life to fall into my lap isn't realistic, so it's time to get a grip.

On the ResLife note, I have this really vague goal to "get to know my residents better and better each day." I had an idea to do alliteration door decs, like Creative Cameron or Jammin' Joel (I know it's nerdy, but I'm an English major and I love words) but I realized that while I can easily think of an alliterative descriptor for some residents, I'm at a total loss for others. So, my goal-within-a-goal for ResLife is to get to know my residents better so that by mid-April, I can bust out my alliteration door decs.

In regards to my long-term-big-girl-life-goals, I dream about living in a big city, doing something people-oriented involving journalism or creative writing. In my dreams, that big city is NYC. Last night, I realized that if I don't find a way to live in New York -- even for just a few months -- within the next few years, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I'm about to be 20 years old! Now is the time to take those risks, travel recklessly, and truly chase dreams. I figure the best way to make-it-or-break-it in the Big Apple is to: A) Find an internship, or B) Bum it as a waitress and write freelance until I get my big break. Option A is obviously the more sturdy of those two options....so my goal-within-a-goal is to start aggressively scouting internships in New York City, ideally for this up-coming summer. That gives me three months to get on the ball. Whew. It's worth it for your dreams, right? You guys know I'm such a ridiculous optimist, but I'm about to kick it into an obnoxiously high gear.

Goals checklist:
-Come up with one alliteration adjective for each resident
-Apply for summer internships in NYC

Favorite Super Bowl Commercial

So I figured everyone has a favorite super bowl commercial. Here's mine!

The Voice Commercial!

Message for the Fourks!

Vince Lombardi once said, "It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up." As most of you could probably tell, last semester Reslife was my life (it must be if I'm still doing this job after the number of incidents that I've had). Then something happened, my life started taking over my Reslife. God, friends, a girl, and just life in general began to be a bigger part of my life. As my residents needed me less, my programs finished and my duties ended, and we settled into a rhythm, I began to focus on my life and boy have I had a blast so far! Life was great I felt like I was on cloud nine. Then life knocked me down. Ironically it began with a girl. Her name is Chelsea, she's a good friend of mine, she got me listening to country music, brought me closer to God, and got me hyped the way only a crush can. This semester, I finally manned up and asked her out. She said that she just wanted to be friends. Ironically, it was the day before GRASS (Tracey remember during our duty from hell I said that I was distracted, well this was why) and it took every once of my willpower to focus during GRASS. Ask me about her I'd love to talk about her. Kelsey, Jessie, Tracey, Nadia, Dawn, Keshia, and Danielle I'd love to hear your feedback on what happened and where I go from here. Cameron, Joel, and Femi anytime you guys want to talk about failed crushes or ex-girlfriends I'm all ears. After Chelsea the semester was in full swing. So I was balancing getting over her (btw I'm still not) school, friends, Reslife and just life in general. Since Chelsea, everything has pretty much gone downhill. As you all know all too well, we have our friends and we have our Reslife friends. Well my circle of friends doesn't get together as often as we used to and you guys know how tough it is to keep your focus on Reslife when your around Reslife every minute of everyday. These times with my friends are my release from Reslife and with RA Selection weekend and duty I haven't gotten to see anyone in a little while. Sometimes it may seem that I am apathetic towards something Reslife related (Krystal now you know why I was a week late on my monthly summary- and Cameron now you know why I wasn't my usual get everything done self during our programs this last month) please understand that it has nothing to do with the program or the RA or the topic. I have just simply haven't had a release from this job yet (God knows you'd need one too if you had Reid for a resident lol). If you have hung with me till now you are probably wondering why I am telling you all this. I am not telling you guys this because I want sympathy or concern. I am not writing this as an excuse for being on autopilot  the last month. I am writing it because I have to get it all off my chest. I am writing this because it took Krystal finally asking me if something was going on for me to realize that I have not been on my A-game this semester (Krystal this is the dollar answer to your ten cent question). Krystal's question gave me the jolt I needed to get back up. I am writing this because you guys need to know that I up until this point I have been knocked down, but I have resolved to get back up and no matter what life throws at me I am going to keep getting back up. Starting right now I am off autopilot and back on my A-game. I have found the passion and motivation that got lost in life's shuffle.  Ideally I would like to go back to the RA I was first semester (minus all the incidents) but I know that can't because I'm different, my residents are different, and you guys are different. That being said I have regained my enthusiasm and I have a new philosophy, based on that TED talk that Alex loves so much, and I'm ready to tackle this semester with you guys. I know that I'm not the only one with problems and certainly what I've been through over the last month is nothing compared to what some of you guys have been through. There's a quote that most of you probably know that goes "20% of people don't care about your problems and the other 80% are glad you have them." I don't know where I fit into that because I actually care about helping people. Know that I got your backs if you guys ever need someone to talk to, someone to sniff suspected weed lol or just need company, my door is almost always propped if I'm home and I always welcome visitors (not to mention I always keep a well stocked candy bowl). Thanks for bearing with me through this, what is turning into an essay, and know that I'm back to myself.

An Introvert's Guide to Networking

I subscribe to LinkedIn weekly updates on articles related to student affairs and high education. This week I found an article that caught my attention for obvious reasons.. The article, entitled as above (An Introvert's Guide to Networking) discusses that introverts have a more difficult time networking because they do not know how to go about it while doing so comfortably. That we, as introverts, feel that being introverted is a negative thing and that we must become extroverts to be successful. The author writes about tips that she found helped her get ahead in the game to become as successful as her comrades.

I plan to purchase her book and see where it takes me, but this is a lesson on not giving up and not letting one thing about you stand in the way of your success. You all know I am quiet and reserved compared to all the other pro staff but I've been able to find ways to shine on my own without being that one person in the front talking the most :)

Here's a link to the article if you are interested!
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/the_introverts_guide_to_networ.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

So Many Thanks!

I know I responded to some of your texts giving my your approval to go be an extra, but I just wanted to post it here in the blog as well!

THANKS SO MUCH!

It was such an awesome experience, and I was able to experience being starstruck just a bit :)

But really, I had a ton of fun, and I owe that to you all for sounding enthusiastic about this opportunity.

So thanks again :)

Cameron



*If you would like a detailed recap of what happened and you don't want to sit through me get all excited over it again, I've posted on my own personal blog, cyarbs2010.blogspot.com. Enjoy!*

Somethin' to look at!

Oh yeah and here is our dear friend chillin' with yours truly.

Hi!

Hello Fourks,

This is my first post. :) I am currently studying for my Finance test. I just thought I'd like to share that with you. Are we allowed to post funny videos on here? What is acceptable? HA. I plan on posting something interesting in the near future...wait for it... ahh ahh!!

This is Keshia...signing off. Literally

Why Reslife?

Kevin shared this Ted Talks video with me that sort of makes you think about why we do things. If you don't know what Ted Talks is, it's essentially a site made up of inspirational videos on every subject possible. Anyway, so this video I shared with Alex in regards to how we market ourselves as residence life and why we are here. To say the least he has essentially adopted the way of thinking, AND passed it along to the rest of the pro staff. With that said, if you can spare 17 minutes of your life to watch this video you may learn something new that could in turn change how you view things :)

http://blog.ted.com/2010/05/04/how_great_leade/

Meaning of White Belt

"Pure and without knowledge of the worth of a Resident Assistant."
This is when the seed is planted and nourished by the RA and RD to develop strong roots.

This semester has marked a fresh beginning for a lot of us. Many of you have made new years resolutions (and have hopefully kept up with them!), set new goals for yourself, and have taken on new challenges that will hopefully make you into a better person! This phrase above is essentially part of this new ideal of not only being an RA but truly understanding what it is and why you do it, why we are here as reslife in general. This semester in one on ones and during staff meetings I want to push you to step out of your comfort zone, to try new things, to really challenge yourself. Remember this is a safe space. I am here to help and support you and so is your staff! Take a chance and lead the program, believe in yourself when you present your word and theme for the week, speak up in discussions. We're here to catch you if you fall and help fix the mistakes!

"this is when the seed is planted and nourished by the RA and RD to develop strong roots"
What does this mean to you?

The Announcement

I don't know how many of you have thought any more about what I announced in staff meeting tonight but I will tell you it is very much bittersweet for me. I have come to love this job and I am deeply attached to everyone of you (regardless of whether or not you think so!). I've dreaded telling you all since I found out partly because I hate feeling like I am giving up on you all. But like I mentioned to I want to finish the semester strong with all of you and I hope you will do the same for me in return. It's been an amazing 4 yrs in Residence Life, and it has taught me so much... You have all taught me so much both about myself and about others..
I will do my best but I cannot promise I won't cry at Black and Gold!! :P

St. Patrick's Day Community Program!

St. Patrick's Day Program: Drunk and Lucky!

• March 13th
• Alcohol Awareness
• Beer Goggles --> drinking games (flip cup, beer pong, stations, etc)
• Beer Goggle Olympics
• Mocktails (Free bartender)
• Scavenger Hunt for Pot O' Gold
• Irish Music
• Lucky Charms Eating Contest (Dry Cereal)
• Irish Education (St. Patrick's Day history)
• Promo: Luck of the Irish video clips

Honorable Compliment

I asked you guys to go outside of your comfort zone to give a compliment to someone you aren't close to or someone you normally wouldn't give it to. My compliment this week was given to someone who I don't give enough credit towards. I personally have a lot of trouble giving out compliments (unless I really mean it) usually because I am always thinking about how things can be improved. I don't stop to think about the many things people all ready do and what they do well.

This week I gave a compliment to Natalie and thanked her for being an awesome boss. I want to elaborate on this... When I originally applied for this job, I wanted nothing more than to work for Charlie (only because I knew him so well and loved his leadership style). When Natalie hired me, I was excited for the job but nervous to work with her, unknowing her personality style or leadership style. Last semester started a little rough for me as well. I wasn't sure how far I could push my limits or what she would be ok with. We've both worked through ins and outs, fought, yes legit argued, over things, and have figured out the best way to get things done and truly understand each other.
I shared some news with Natalie this week that I believed saddened her. With that said, I messaged her and told her I truly appreciated her as a boss and that she was in fact awesome. I think it went well, and she and I can truly understand each other now.

Anyway, you never know where a compliment will take you. What have you told someone this week?

Find Happiness, Not Passion

Found this great article if you guys are interested in reading it. It talks about our generation going after passions and failing in careers. It also discusses the idea of looking for happiness rather than passion. I thought it was interesting based on passion being our focus two weeks ago. The article discusses that a friend of the author followed her passions or personal pursuit - graphic design, writing, etc. The author then encourages to find a problem and place that in the center of our decision making process... AKA not being self centered.

I want you to keep the "problem centered decision making" in mind. For example, during Staff meeting Nadia shared her passion of helping develop children, especially at a critical younger age. Her passion included something focused on a problem - lack of proper education for the age group - and it was not self focused.

I want to go back and challenge you again to think about what you are passionate about (AND POST IT ON HERE!). Figure out what your passions are and figure out how it can apply to a problem. For example, Joel loves music. Joel, how can you help others with music? Is there a problem that can be solved with music? Based on your major - don't kids at a younger age, learn better when they listen to music because it keeps them interested? Could you potentially teach and write songs that will help them remember things?

That's the point I am trying to make.. find out your passions and find out how you can make it into something that will help others. Post your passions (along with your 3 honorable compliments) and let's see where our discussions take us :)


Here's the link to the Article
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/to_find_happiness_forget_about.html

This Week's Challenge

3 Honest, Honorable compliments to people you don't see/interact with regularly.

Passion

You guys!!
YaY Fourks!! We got this :)