Let The Games Begin!

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” -Lao Tzu

Today is day three at UC-Berkeley, and I love it! Kristin and John (my direct supervisors) are great, and so are Mandy and Angela (the other two interns). My students are absolutely amazing, and my PA’s are the best. PA’s are Program Assistants (Head Resident Advisors). Suzanne (PA) will be my assistant (Her picture is below) and Jay (PA) will be Mandy’s. We’ve toured the campus and it is gorgeous, and some of our residents have already moved in. Right now most of our residents are international students completing exchange or study abroad programs.

I’ve been in training/orientation since Monday, which has basically involved paperwork, human resources stuff, and meeting all of the Housing Staff. Later in the week we will be discussing more detailed things such as supervising the summer staff, and the Berkeley conduct philosophy since we will be hearing conduct cases. So far I’ve been to three RA programs that have gone great and have had great attendance. Here are some pictures from some of the events:

Tonight we had our first staff meeting, which went fairly smoothly. We discussed program assignments, and completed an ice breaker led by me and Mandy. We chose to use “Where the wind blows” which is like a combination between musical chairs and 50 questions. The staff seemed to enjoy it, although they were extremely competitive haha. They also gave a presentation on their expectations of us over the summer. It basically involved feeding them and being friendly…I think I have that covered. Perhaps I’ll introduce them to sweet tea and fried squash?

The Berkeley culture isn’t entirely what I expected. Of course you have some very interesting parts of the city/campus, but for the most part things aren’t drastically different from any other camps of which I’ve been involved. The student demographics are very different though, which is really great because I’ll get A LOT of experience working in a very diverse environment. I’m still somewhat jetlagged, it’s only 11 o’clock but I still feel like its 2am…so I’m going to bed. More to come.

Cheers!