Learning the ropes of Res Life: First-time members of residential life staff reflect on their first month on the job

As students from the Class of 2014 arrived on campus this August they met their residential life staff (Res Life), first-year counselors (FYCs) and Commons residential advisors (CRAs), who said quick hellos, picked up their luggage and ushered them into their new home away from home.  In the weeks that followed FYCs presented themselves as experts on the goings-on of Middlebury; they led hall meetings, answered questions and tried to explain the ways of the campus.

Many FYCs however, are sophomores who underwent first year orientation themselves just last fall.  These students are excited to help the first-years adjust to college life, but they admit that making the transition from untried first year to knowledgeable upperclassmen has been a peculiar experience.

When asked about being an FYC Anna Esten ’13 said, “I find myself living vicariously through my freshmen sometimes ­— wanting to be able do my freshman year all over again”.

Tori Anderson, a sophomore and FYC in Coffrin said, “it has been a little strange watching my freshmen and realizing I went through that last year.”  When she looks back on the last few weeks however, Anderson added, “It has been really great to see how much I have grown myself in order to be this person that helps them.”

It is at times daunting to live on a hall where 30-plus underclassmen are looking to you for advice and several new ResLife members admit to emulating the FYCs, RAs and CRAs they have known during their time at Middlebury.  Last year Esten lived on Hadley 5 where Brittany Carlson ’11 and John Yanchek ’12 served as her FYCs. She reveals that her memories of the pair have influenced the way that she and her co-FYC, Gwen Cook ’13 have interacted with their own first-years this fall.

“Gwen and I both looked up to Brittany and John so much” Esten said. “I still remember a lot of the things they said to us during our first hall meeting — things that I wanted to tell my first years.”

Stephen Lammers ’13 is an RA in Pearsons Hall and acts as an advisor to the friends and acquaintances he lived with last year in Battell Hall.

“My biggest concern was trying to find that balance between being a RA but at the same time having a social life with my close friends,” he said.  For guidance, Lammers looked to the example set by Cook CRA Emily Picciotto ’09.

“She understands what it is like to be a student in a Res Life position, but not with freshman.”

Lammers is coming to realize that he can speak candidly with his friends and has appreciated the respect they have shown him and his co-RA.

As a senior, Rafael Velez ’11 is three years removed from his first year at Middlebury.  Despite the time that has passed and the changes he has undergone since the fall of 2007, Velez is able to look to his first months at college and draw upon that experience to help the students on his floor.  He has liked answering the questions his first-years bring him in part he said, “because I remember so clearly what it was like to be confused in this new environment.”

Esten has also enjoyed assisting her first-years, but has been surprised by their persistent inquiries.

“I feel like the group this year has a ton of questions,” she said. “It gets a little interesting when they ask about the more night life kind of things.  They try to tip toe their way around the question instead of asking me straight up what’s going on.”

Many of this FYCs and RAs praise their Commons and their Res Life team.

“It’s comforting to know it’s not just me,” said Velez. “It’s me and Gregg [Miller] and really the whole Brainerd Res Life staff.”

When talking about the better aspects of his job Lammers said, “Everyone who works in the Cook Commons office is amazing and being a part of Res Life you get to know them so well.”  It seems then that both first-years and Res Life staff members alike are looking to the commons system for guidance and support.

The Class of 2014 exhibits many of the behaviors that upperclassmen succumbed to during their first months at college.  The first-years walk into the dinning halls in groups of 10 and are somewhat terrified of Public Safety.  Velez chuckles over how the students in his dorm have begun to form relationships.

“Watching first-years pair off is funny,” he said. “It’s such an ‘aww’ moment because I remember that happening my freshman year.”

Some things have changed however.  Esten claims that the reputations of the first-year dorms have shifted and hallways that were once eerily quiet have become destination spots on the weekends.  The underclassmen dorms have already begun to bond and form identities for themselves.  The boys of Stewart 4 have been playing the original Super Mario Smash Brothers together while the first-years in Coffrin have organized trips into town to celebrate birthdays.  It seems that, with the assistance of this year’s Res Life staff, first-years are gradually making Middlebury their own.