Week 26: Excitement for CAvages
RA Apps (part two): The next step in the RA process was to review the applicants’ video interview responses. It took us significantly less time to complete reviewing this part of the process than it did the first part. I genuinely enjoyed watching the applicants’ video responses because it gave us a new window of being able to see and understand in a different light where these applicants were coming from and what it is that they wanted to bring it into the RA role if they were being hired. Of course three minutes is not enough to get to know an applicant, but they had so much to tell in such a short amount of time. I had so much passion for what they wanted to do and that translated in a lot of these applications that I reviewed. At the end of it I really felt challenged because there were just so many good people and we can’t hire every single person that goes to the process.
Courtside Lunar New Year: The first Resident Government Council (RGC) team was a Lunar New Year event, where we were featuring activities like modern hand calligraphy, painting Chinese characters, and painting on lanterns. We served sesame puff pastries and candy from Asian cultures. I’m fascinated by the cultures celebrating Lunar New Year – especially one that I don’t celebrate or understand entirely despite it being a part of my culture.
Weekend: There was a CAvages trip to LA this weekend and it was awesome! I really missed them and I really missed having them around. It was night to be with some of my closest friends again.
Week 27: A New Experience
MLK Oratorical: I am FASCINATED by the investment in the culture and the viewpoint of the ethnicity. For the past 30 years, UCLA has had an event known as MLK Oratorical with a new theme every year, where students perform a spoken word piece. There are judges and they compete for a prize, but even more — they share messages of challenges, successes, and everything in between. It was amazing to see such passion. I was left speechless at the end of the event.
RA Group Process: So when I thought the first two parts of the RA Hiring process was hard, this part was even harder. I’m seeing these students who are trying very hard to hopefully get a job as an RA. I only had to review 8 students on their performance in the group process, but it was very interesting to see how they performed and how much they were putting towards the position. I genuinely enjoyed this part of the process just because I enjoy my interactions with students. This was a high pressure situation for them and i know what it’s like to be in the same position, so i alleviated their stressors at the beginning and watched their performance.
J-Mi Out-of-Office: I took a half day on the Friday of this week and went to Universal Studios. I gotta say, I enjoyed spending time away from the office and being in one of my favorite places. Whoop!
Week 28: College Bowl
College Bowl Intra-Hall Tournament: This is my first ever college bowl experiences (technically two days before Courtside was, but running my own show was the first). The process, the checklist, and learning to know how the whole thing ran was most definitely challenging because I had not been in a college bowl before. It was a really fun experience getting to see residents participate in College Bowl and be SO invested in being competitive with each other. Then getting to see them the following week and continue to be one on top – they made it to Top 8! I’m proud of them.
Week 29: Old Enough to be a Chaperone
Valentines/Galentines: I dislike Valentine’s Day (as a holiday) — a lot. This one was spent productively during the day, then spent the night with Jazzmin and Violet watching “Say Yes to the Dress” eating cupcakes. As much as I have a distaste for the holiday, I do appreciate those who make their efforts for this day and make their own specialness (is specialness a word?) out of it.
Kyle: So July 2016, I was a part of ACUHO-I STARS College where I met a bunch of amazing people. One of those people was Kyle. I haven’t seen my fellow STARS 2016 Cohort friends since STARS, so it was a nice surprise that I got a visit from Kyle while he was out in SoCal with his girlfriend. Catching up and getting to know about all the Student Affairs lifestyle we’ve had.
Courtside Love Yourself: Another RGC event, but this time focusing on a Valentine’s theme with a love yourself aspect. One of the primary hits of this event was our “Tunnel of Love” board where we had a large butcher paper with hearts all over and people were able to write names of people they love or positive messages. Oh, and apparently… cotton candy is a really popular piece of all of our programs.
Black Panther: So “Black Panther” came out on Friday and I got the chance to watch it with a number of UCLA ResLife folks and residents/students by being a chaperone (I’M OLD ENOUGH TO BE A CHAPERONE SMH). It was AMAZING. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out on so much! 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was WOW. I might be positing a reflection piece on how “Black Panther” has impacted me on how it affected the viewpoints on my identity after seeing another’s culture. But of course, I’ll let you know if I write the piece.
Roger & Jacco Visits: My ResLife Coordinator from my RA year in Middle Earth came to visit. It was a relief from all the experiences being ProStaff and to have conversations where we understood each other on another level. But most of all, it felt nice to feel like Middle wasn’t as far as it felt again. I miss Middle a lot, and being around Roger and Jacco again made it feel close.
There’s a lot coming up in the next few weeks and I can’t believe I’m diving into Week 7 of Winter Quarter. It’s going SO fast, but I’m finally getting the hang of my job where I’m asking less and less questions and figuring a lot of things out on my own. So that’s nice.
Until next time,
ARD Jamrensze “J-Mi” De Leon
Stories of the Reign 