 Welcome, my name is Cecily Esri and I'm our coordinator for student leadership here in housing and I'm so excited to join us today. We're going to talk a little bit about our student leadership opportunities, whether it's LeadHogs, it's NRHH, which is our service and recognition organization, RIC, which is our student government. We're going to talk a little bit about the RA position if you maybe want to be a student leader in that way someday and I'm sure we'll cover some other things. So stick with us today if you want to learn more about that. First, welcome to my office. If you ever need something throughout the year, you just need, you have questions about student leadership, how to get involved, or you just want someone to talk to, my door is open, you can always find me. So we're going to make our way to one of my favorite places in the housing office. First off, that's where we're at. We're in the housing office. Come visit us. But we have our student leadership office is where we have a couple of different student leaders who have office space there. They are there on a regular basis. So let's head that way. Do you want to introduce yourself? Oh yes, head that way. You're the supporting person. Oh yeah. Hey y'all, my name is Henry. I was a student at the U of A for four years and an RA for three years and I'm going to be the cameraman today. So be sure to put your questions in and I'll be sure to assess lead them. And where are they tuning in from? Yeah, and where y'all to be sure to let us know where you're tuning in from. And any question is a great question. So if you have anything to do with student leadership, we'll try to answer it. Also, fun fact, Henry was a student of mine when I was over Hots Hall. He was a lead hog. He was an RIC rep. Was all the things. He never did an RA change though. I never did an RA change. He never had to come back and do an RA change. So many hats, Henry. I know. Yeah, Henry has all the hats. All the activities. Henry's a great guy to get to know as well. So we'll just introduce you to our next person, which is Kale. Hey guys, my name's Kale Lawson-Ager. I'm the president of our on-campus student government residence, Interhall Congress. And today we're going to show you our student leadership office, where the executives for residence, Interhall Congress and the National Residence Hall Honorary do their office hours and are available to students. So over on this side is where the NRHH executives work. And if you swing around over here, we have two spots where our RIC executives work. So to begin, I'll explain a little bit about residence, Interhall Congress and what it is. As I mentioned, I'm the president of residence, Interhall Congress, which is our on-campus student government. The main function of RIC is to serve as the voice of the on-campus student. So the main ways that RIC does that is through an elected House of Representatives. Each hall elects representatives from their hall, lead hogs, and they work with two major things to help advocate for that voice of the on-campus student. The first of those is by using bills. And bills are a formal legislation that allows RAs, lead hogs, anyone with an interest in helping the on-campus student access our $42,000 budget to help fund programs and improvements around the halls. So big campus-wide programs can get funding from RIC. Also small programs that lead hogs are putting on or just RAs are putting on within their floors. And also improvements such as new water fountains or in the past there's been foosball tables or pool sticks, different things like that that are purchased using our budget to fund these improvements within the residence halls. The other form of legislation we use are resolutions and resolutions allow the RIC House to make a statement on behalf of the voice of the on-campus student. So the reps work together to debate and vote on these resolutions that say this is the opinion of the students on our campus and then we use that to help advocate for that opinion. One big example from last year was that we had a couple representatives and one of our executives work together to author a resolution supporting increasing the number of water fountains that were in residence halls and when this passed we were able to take it to administration within university housing and they received it well and helped work with the plan so that we could increase the number and access to water fountains within residence halls. So the reason that this matters to you is because you will have the opportunity to become an RIC representative for your hall through lead hogs. So your role as a RIC rep is to collect the opinions of other lead hogs in your hall, your roommate, your neighbors, all your peers that live in your hall. You collect their opinion on different things going on around campus, things that they would like to see improved and on current legislation that's been presented to the RIC House. So this way you know how to help voice their opinion during debate at house meetings and also how to use their opinion to shape the way that you choose to vote on different bills and resolutions during the RIC House meetings. And then from there after you help gather that feedback for your hall you go to the house meetings where bills are presented, resolutions are presented, you debate them with other representatives, share the opinions that you and your peers have from your hall and then in the end every rep has one vote that they get to approve or deny bill or resolution and then ideally it passes so we can find a lot of great programs and improvements and initiatives on our campus. So that's the main role of representatives and I was fortunate enough to be a lead hog and a representative my freshman year for Hots Hall and it was an amazing experience. It led to me last year as a sophomore filling in this position as the RIC president and now I'm starting my second term. So I couldn't recommend it more. It's a great way to get involved on campus to really connect with your peers, your neighbors in your residence hall and also to improve your leadership skills in a really practical way. The other main part of RIC is the executive team. So we have a eight person executive team that I get to oversee as the RIC president and the rest of the executives have more specialized areas where they're able to advocate for students on our campus. For example we have a director of sustainability who works to promote sustainable practices within the residence halls and different sustainable programs acting as a resource for RAs as they program and things like that and most importantly acting as a resource for the RIC representatives as they consider legislation, author legislation, sponsor legislation. So we have a really great executive team this year that's super passionate about advocating for change on our campus and making the quality of living for residents on our campus better and so they really look forward to meeting you all working with you whether you choose to be a RIC rep or you just choose to be active in lead hugs or you're just a resident on campus. I recommend coming to this slow meeting these people because they're really great resources and they're really passionate about helping you. The last thing I have to say about RIC is that you can visit our website here at RIC.urc.edu. Here we have a couple different resources. This RIC 2022-2023 page has information about being a representative, things like that, some quotes from past representatives on what their experience was like. So I recommend visiting this page and looking into that. You can also find a little more information about our election process which I'll just touch on briefly. The elections happen within your residence halls. Each hall is able to elect one representative per every 100 residents that they have in their hall. So these elections will happen at lead hogs pretty early on so keep your eye out for more information as we go over this summer and as you move on to campus. If you have any questions about RIC or anything make sure to ask them in the chat or visit this website to find my email and you can always reach out to me and I'll be happy to help and I look forward to meeting you soon and having you on campus. Awesome thank you so much Kale. So yeah guys be sure to let us know if you have any questions about RIC and one question I have for you Kale what has been your favorite thing about being involved in student leadership, RIC and student government? My favorite part actually hands down probably is all the great people I meet who come from different backgrounds. I'm not from Arkansas I'm from Wisconsin and so I didn't really know many people when I first moved here and so I got to meet people from Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Kansas all over and when you work in student government you get great opportunities to meet people who are really passionate about different things. You get to learn their stories what motivates them and all of those things and then you get to work with them and as RIC president I've really gotten to support people as they advocate for the things that they're passionate about the change that they want to see. So it's really eye-opening it's encouraging to me and that's kind of what makes me love it and makes me want to do it every single day. Awesome and one more question I had what advice would you give for people running their campaigns when they're trying to become RIC reps? Okay so what I would say is that it's honestly pretty casual. People love to see other genuine people they want people to represent them who feel real who they feel like that they're able to naturally connect with and people that aren't only trying to connect with them maybe at the beginning of the year because they want them to vote for them for RIC or they're using them to basically push their own agenda. People love people who they can connect with genuinely so I recommend being yourself being real reaching out to people being really intentional about forming those connections and just introduce yourself to people figure out you know why did they choose to come to the U of A what drives them what are they interested in and different things like that I think is pretty much almost a foolproof way of you know getting people to trust you and getting people to want to support you as you choose to represent them. Gotcha awesome thank you so much all right so be sure to let us know if you have any questions about RIC but we're going to move on in Cicely. All right well Cale touched on one of the things that is really valuable about getting involved in student leadership and that is like finding connection in community and learning from other people and so if you're looking for that I mean I imagine a lot of you are if you're coming to college there are thousands of people you can meet but if you're looking for a smaller pocket of people who live in your residence hall and you want to get to know them and you're a leader or maybe want to become a leader maybe you're wanting to practice some of those skills then our leadhawks program is a great way to get involved it's a very low entry it is something that you can try and if you decide there's another place for you to get involved awesome but if you decide you want this place to have a launching pad for understanding what it means to navigate change how to advocate for people how to really have and find mentorship then this is a great program so it's for any student who lives on campus it's for mainly freshmen but we also have a lead more which is for students who live on campus who are upperclassmen so Kale was a leadhog Henry was a leadhog and actually both of them were my leadhawks when I was a whole rector so or a CRE get to know your CRE that's a great piece of advice time for you but all that to say they when you're a part of leadhawks you get to do things like lead passion projects let's say you're passionate about something and you want a space to have money and funding to do an event on campus or you really want to lead a service project or you have something you want to do on campus once you get here then this is a great space to do that because there's a lot of resources and a lot of people and advisors who can help you navigate that that project so there's passion projects there's programs and events for the hall you can get involved in RIC a lot of leadhawks groups will also do things like hall improvements they'll be like hey we're getting together every Monday night and we've actually all noticed that we need more equipment in our gym space let's get together and let's lead some change and get some more gym equipment random things like that so it's very student driven they meet every week at six o'clock on Mondays so for a lot of you that works for some of our greek life students it can be a little bit more difficult because chapter is on Monday nights and so I encourage you if you want to do both come to as much of leadhawks as you can and then jet out and go to chapter meetings if you are in maples or reed we do have a Tuesday night meeting that is the only group who has um a Tuesday night meeting as well as the Monday that's because there's just so many great students that building and we want to give you that opportunity to be involved um to get involved with leadhawks you really can get involved all year long but we do have a priority deadline for people joining at the very beginning of the year so you have like nine more days is it the 11th um so July 20th next Wednesday is our deadline you have until midnight highly recommend you do it go on our website at leadhawks.uwork.edu and um it'll say get involved and you can fill out the application um if you're interested in um sorry back up you will hear back from us in about one to two weeks and then if you are accepted then you'll move in early you will go through an orientation it's just a quick like fun get to know people welcome to leadhawks event um when you first move in move in we'll do a few community building events like we'll go to the local family fund center um we'll do another community building event and then um you will also help with moving so this is a fun way to get to know people right away um you will find some volunteer shifts and or you'll pick them and then you'll get to volunteer to help other people move in because you're going to move in first um before everybody else and so great way to get to know people and then also if you're a part of leadhawks and you're taking university perspectives you can sign up for a leadhog specific university perspectives course um where you're with leadhawks from all across campus meeting for your required course so um that's also an option which is pretty great um try to think of that anything else I think that's a lot does there any questions yeah so be sure to ask us any questions you have about leadhawks but um Cicely could you tell us any uh like what favorite memories you have about leadhawks whether it be programs or meetings or anything like that uh I think there's a lot there's a lot we had a lot of really great programs we I think one of my favorite was um during COVID we it was really hard to do a lot with leadhawks because we were virtual but towards the end of the year we started to be able to meet outside and the group really wanted to plan a karaoke it was like a a um island themed karaoke night we brought a cookie food truck no ice cream food truck and um we set up karaoke and the advisors had helped you know help them plan and we were like we'll be there until eight or nine and the group wanted to party for so long that the advisors just left we were like we can't be here all night like we also have to do things and so we let the leadhawks just like I think Kail was there I think and I think they partied into like midnight about just doing karaoke and oh it was a blast and it was just a great way to end the year but it's things like that that leadhawks have ideas and then we helped make that happen um we also had um during Henry's freshman year there was a girl who really wanted to do a service project where they collected prom dresses for students in need and then um also did like a makeup day for students on their prom day and so she coordinated all of that with the local school district and then had them come to campus to pick a dress and um get all done up on their prom day and I think those are just really cool projects to watch students um be able to bring to life so those are my favorite memories awesome and can people apply uh like throughout the year yes so again that priority deadline is on august or july 20 but then it will close for about 10 14 days and then they'll reopen back up so anybody is welcome to join leadhawks like bring a friend always bring your friends to leadhawks it's a great way to um kind of help bring people in and build that community gotcha and it looks like we have a few questions coming in so if you are not able to move in early on the 11th can you still be a leadhog yes great question I do not want that to stop anybody it's meant to be a benefit and it's supposed to help your experience but if you can't move in early just keep an eye on all the emails and things you can join um and join us when you can gotcha and another question is is I'm in band so I won't be able to help with moving can I still participate uh yes so kind of the same answer as the other one like sorority recruitment band things like that focus on you have to prioritize that but when you can join us join us awesome leadhawks is pretty casual it's very like very low-key very student-driven the advisors are really chill but it's also like a really meaningful experience so it's nothing to stress about that's for sure gotcha well I think it's all the questions we have about leadhawks and um but Dona you can always ask us about leadhawks or RICA throughout the rest of the stream y'all cool and you can also email us at leadhawks at york.edu if you have any questions on gotcha well we'll transition now into our last main um student leadership organization that we have in housing so I'll come over here to the NRHH side um I do not get to be the president of NRHH too but they have an awesome executive team that's super passionate about the two main pillars of NRHH which are service and recognition um so NRHH I like to compare it to NHS if any of you were involved in NHS national honor society in high school um because NRHH is really focused on recognizing the great things that are happening and that people are doing on our campus um and also helping to grow our campus community through providing volunteer opportunities and serving our on-campus community so they do one project that's specific to each every month um and as a general body member of NRHH you meet every two weeks um so every other week you meet for one hour it's super casual with a lot of fun people um and you just do service projects plan service events um and things like that we actually are able to see a couple of examples over here um they have some food that's been collected so they kind of collaborate with our food camp or our food pantry on campus and they collect this food through NRHH and help donate it through the food pantry so that the food pantry can then help disperse it to students who are in need of food products and things like that so I know last year they also did a project where they made dog toys um with old t-shirts I think they helped tie blankets for individuals who struggled to get warm clothing during the colder winter months so NRHH is just a great way to help the community not just the campus community but I think the northwest Arkansas community as a whole really benefits from the work that NRHH get involved is to follow the u arc NRHH Instagram um they have a lot of super cool content um they keep it up to date with uh lots of updates things like that so follow it um that's how you can get more information you can also look on hogsink um for updates and more information as well about what they have going on and information about how to get involved if you have any questions about NRHH I'd be happy to answer those as best I can says to me as well gotcha so can you be involved um in NRHH and RIC you can be involved in NRHH in everything um there's there's really no conflict um that's the best thing about NRHH is that uh it's really casual and just a great way for people who are passionate about service and volunteering uh and recognizing the great work others are doing to meet and do those things um but there's no huge commitment it's not super time consuming and if you can't make it to a service product one month that doesn't mean you can't be involved in NRHH you can go to service projects later on um and things like that so don't let any commitments be an obstacle to being involved in NRHH gotcha and could you explain one more time how to join NRHH so there's a kind of a long process that goes on with it um they have a pre membership period um and so it's it's a little more advanced than I could probably explain on here but um to start I think go to Hogsing find out about when they're meeting um and show up to some of their first few meetings and you can get more information there uh the other great way is the pick one program um so if you've heard about that pick one is a great way to kind of find your place early on on campus so to learn more about NRHH for the pick one program choose NRHH by August 1st um so that you can participate in the NRHH pick one um and then learn a little more about NRHH how it works how it functions and um I'm sure if you do it you'll find that you really do want to get involved further in NRHH awesome we'll be sure to let us know um y'all what questions you have about NRHH and Cecily what do we have next um we've Kail talking about our fundraisers okay awesome Kail let's do it I'll circle back over here just to talk about a few fundraisers that we do for our organizations um so right here um you can see a few um items that are room essentials so I better grab my paper so I don't forget the deadlines okay the deadline to get any of these is July 15th which I believe is Friday so um so order your room essentials hop on by Friday and check those out you can find the link to the room essentials on the moving website movein.uark.edu um so check that out obviously there's there's bedsheets and things like that they have headboards on there too just different room items um and that way it helps we put these in your room right away so you don't have to go buy them at different stores back home and haul them down here or wait till you get here and go around to Walmart, Target, Kohl's just everywhere trying to gather this stuff you need you can order them right online they're in your room right when you get here for moving so it's super convenient um another great one we do is micro fridges that deadlines August 1st once again the links at moving.uark.edu and it's a microwave freezer fridge combination three in one we also put that in your room before moving so it's there right away you can use it for a fridge fridges take up lots of space so that's something really nice to not have to haul the campus and the last big fundraiser is these care packages here um so tell your parents about these um because you're going to want some of the snacks that are in these your parents can sign up to have them delivered to you throughout the year they come with um things like stress balls too but also chips trail mix cookies hot chocolate other snacks like that um so it's a really great gift to get and I believe they also come with a note in there too that your parents can even personalize so you can have a nice little motivational note from your parents and they come at really cool times holidays um around finals different things like that um so the perfect time that you need um some treats to cheer you up so the deadline for that one is July 18th once again you can find the link to sign up for those at moving.uark.edu so you have till the end of this week basically for the room essentials items until next Monday it looks like for the care packages and then a couple more weeks for the micro fridges but check those out a lot of them are really great deals actually I think so um they're convenient everything like that so look into those um there's some great options awesome all right what's next Leslie all right the last thing we have is a little bit information about becoming an RA this is another way to get involved in housing it's a really great way to find community find mentorship through student employment so if you're interested in the resident assisted position really what it is it's a way to for upperclassmen students to mentor to help with like working the front desk do events and programs help with crisis management in the residence halls and so really your RA is someone you're they're probably going to be one of the first people you meet when you get here and they're there for you if you need something throughout the year whether it's you go through you're going through a hard time or you just need somebody to like tell some good views to your RA will live on your floor in your residence hall and there's a couple of different types of RAs so if you're someone who really loves community building you really love just like you know that one-on-one relationship with people or just like that community building then we have community RAs for that we also have six other specialized positions so if you're like hey I really want experience um that's going to really translate to my resume then we have six different RA positions which are our lead hogs advisor RAs which are our leadership RAs we have wellness RAs we have diversity and inclusion RAs we have event management RAs marketing RAs and academic outreach RAs so if you ever need help in one of those areas there's someone who works in your building or four-year building that you can go to and then also if you're interested in filling one of those positions at some point then what I would advise you to do is keep an eye out on the you work RA Instagram also on your email and starting around September it's really early you'll start to see information about intersession so these intersessions will tell you all about what it's like to be an RA what the compensation is how many hours you work it's a 20 hours a week roll and then you'll get the application for the RA job so the only thing you really need to know now is if you're interested in becoming an RA keep an eye out for those intersession dates so um if you have any questions about that you can also email RA hire at uwork.edu and our staff can hopefully answer those questions but it's something to look into early I'm gonna highly recommend you apply even if you're like not quite positive you want to do it um it's good to to do the application so gotcha yeah any questions about that yeah who was uh your favorite RA and why wasn't me Henry was pretty great I had him for two years or three two one years I have two years of RA and then he left me just for I did yeah yeah it's okay it's so fun Henry was a senior RA too that's another position you can hold today after you want a little time and a little yeah a little a little little bit of experience before that yeah but um yeah let us know y'all what questions you have about becoming an RA as well as any other student leadership we're gonna hang out here for a little bit more and also let us know uh what you're uh most excited for for this upcoming uh upcoming school year but on the meet with us yeah I would be most excited yeah yeah just kidding you only want to hang out with Kale there's like no Cecily's pretty great she's yeah Kale what's what's the fun facts about Kale though we know Kale what's what's fun fact what's what's your high school mascots uh my high school mascot yeah so I mentioned I'm from Wisconsin I'm from a town called Monroe in Wisconsin and my high school mascot was the cheesemakers we take our cheesemaking very seriously in Monroe I spent some time working at the cheese factory working in the lab big cheese guy doing some tests I love cheese um interesting we have a festival um every other year and even years in September called cheese days uh cheese days in Monroe pretty much the coolest festival ever because you used to eat like cheese sandwiches fried cheese curds stuff like that um unfortunately the hogs have a home football game that weekend so I don't think I'll be trekking back to my hometown for cheese days but um if you're not interested in the hogs football game which you should be but if you're not and you want to go to cheese days in Monroe um hit me out if I can get you some more information but go to the football games I love going to football games you'll probably see me down in the front row um so I love football that's probably the most fun fact about me I feel like Kale's a good example too of what it looks like to get involved as a freshman um like I feel like you did everything as a freshman you were just going everything all the eight week events all of the fun housing events you just go along you'll meet so many people yeah he's president right now he's president he's moving up in the world yeah um but uh in all seriousness I do really recommend getting involved um you might think that something sounds weird or strange but um it's getting involved in everything at least trying it once is really the best way to find where you fit in uh the people that you want to uh basically invest your time in um and also really where your passion lies because um even you know I thought where my I knew where my passion lied coming out of high school um and I think oh it's like almost two years later now but that's crazy to think about it time goes fast too um but a couple years later as you grow older and get new experiences your passions start to change and you find them in new spots um and if I went to get involved I don't think I would have recognized that as well um and I wouldn't know I wouldn't have the resources and wouldn't have the connections to be able to um immerse myself in those areas that I truly am passionate about so I definitely recommend getting involved in everything um you'll meet a lot of great people that way it'll open the door for tons of opportunities um and then you'll be able to kind of specialize more in things you're super passionate about and interested in as you go down the road yeah is that like some of your best advice for a freshman uh like coming to coming to the university that's some of my best advice for freshman I would say um gotcha I would say other advice take your classes seriously but not too seriously make make lots of friends uh there's really great people from all over kind of like why I talked about why I love just being involved in student government but really anything is the people you get to meet because there's a there's tremendous people and they all have like really unique characteristics and back stories and things that they're passionate about and reasons why they're passionate about those things connecting with people allows you to hear those stories and it really makes your college experience so much more fulfilling so um I I definitely recommend just meeting as many people as you can and really getting to know them and getting to know I guess what makes them what makes them tick what makes them go so uh I feel like on top of that I would say like get to know your peers but also like as a staff member I'd really encourage you to get to know staff and faculty your professors um because like sometimes it can be a little bit intimidating like I find out that students are like scared of me sometimes like what like Cecily's Cecily's definitely very scary like you can see it so my advice to you is don't be afraid of your professors don't be afraid of staff members just because we're old doesn't mean we're scary um we work through the university because we love students and so like approaches get to know us ask us questions we want to help you and mentor you so that's my other piece of advice going along with getting to know people yes so Cecily to make you seem less scary could you tell us more about like what you do at a university housing and remind us what you do my job is to help make dreams come true like that's my every day um I'm joking but kind of not really I oversee the lead hogs program so a lot of that is like what the lead hogs experience looks like in training the advisors but then I also work with RIC like every day it feels like we respond to the needs that students have um really helping the exec team and helping them lead um the student body well or lead our students who live in our residence hall well and then NRHH is getting to do service and making people happy because you're sending them thank you notes and doing projects for them so um my job is very much back in support for the students that um I advise so um yeah it's it's so it's so great so it's I hear full time 40 hours a week I even live on campus pretty fun so um yeah live in live in the dream awesome gotcha and one last question I had and it's also for people in the chat uh Kale what's your favorite cheese um and everyone in the chat let us know what your favorite cheese is to you I'm not much of a cheese guy but Kale I'm curious to see what you say I'm interested I'm interested here um my favorite kind of cheese is probably Swiss cheese uh my hometown is most known for Swiss cheese uh I like to play I have some in my fridge right now my grandparents brought down so um I'll probably eat that right after I get done with this but it goes good on any sandwich it's just a really good cheese but I love all cheese I'll eat just about any um my hometown has seven cheese factories I think so uh between seven cheese factories they make all sorts of cheese so um Monroe Wisconsin is really the hot spot for cheese if you're a cheese lover uh hit up Monroe um I there's not a better place for cheese gotcha Cameron said he likes mozzarella how do you feel about mozzarella mozzarella is really good because it melts really well on uh pizza um sandwiches anything gotcha so I'm definitely I'm definitely on board mozzarella Cecily what about you favorite cheese oh gosh um I'm kind of a fan of goat cheese lately goat cheese it's like judge time it's real because you guys could have felt the presence of these people um yeah I mean it's good on a lot of things because you haven't made it to goat cheese yet and goat cheese goat cheese goat cheese you have to get this uh like can you get this a walmart or is this like a whole foods kind of thing yeah this is not a whole foods thing you can get a walmart try it out someday guys okay gotcha I was more talking about cheese that comes from cow's milk but oh you're right oh I went outside the rules oh well oh yeah Cecily is making it out all right is there is there a cheese y'all think is overrated cheese y'all think is overrated um let's just say craft singles yes yes craft singles I used to love to make a good thing about good craft singles um but then I realized that that's kind of fake uh my time at the cheese factory working in the lab um gave me some more insight into how that type of cheese gets made so it's kind of steered me away from that I prefer I prefer some other stuff gotcha yeah all right well I think that's all the questions we had thank y'all for talking to us about a student leadership in cheese um we really appreciate the end of your rock star yeah wait to meet you come find us but yeah be sure to um follow uh lead hogs on um I think it's like UA lead hogs I think so yeah follow us yeah there's uh Instagram accounts for uh for all the the leadership organizations out there and be sure to let us know if you have any questions feel free to dms or email us cool great to see y'all I didn't see any of you just kidding great to um talk to you all awesome so thank you guys all right bye y'all