Living On Campus Is Developing A Sense Of Belonging And...

Living on campus comes with both benefits and challenges. One of the biggest benefits of living on campus is developing a sense of belonging and forming relationships within the community. As an RA, creating a sense of community is one of my top priorities. In order to provide my residents with a positive housing experience, I hope to make my floor a comfortable space in which residents gain a sense of belonging that they may have initially surrendered when they entered a new environment. To help my residents develop self esteem and self actualization, they must first develop a concrete sense of love and belonging, â€Å"As a humanist, Maslow believed that people have an inborn desire to be self-actualized, to be all they can be. In order to†¦show more content†¦My second goal is for my residents to develop an acceptance and appreciation for the diversity present within the floor. Up until this point, residents have been spending time with other residents who I would consid er to be similar to themselves, and I would like to see residents forming new relationships and learning more about people who are different—whether that be differences in demographic characteristics or in opinions/personalities. A third goal of mine is to form relationships with each of my residents, more than just surface-level information. I want my residents to feel comfortable approaching me for any reason, and having a familiarity with them on a deeper level will help in those tougher circumstances, â€Å"A relationship developed between the good RA and his or her residents becomes the foundation from which to resolve problems that occur during the year† (Vetter, 1993). Overall, I hope that my residents will get to know each other and get to know me so that the residence hall becomes less of a foreign place and more of a home. Although I am going to be positive about reaching the goals I have set for my community, there are some challenges that I expect might cause difficulty. One of my main concerns is related to the physical layout of my floor. My floor is designed in the shape of an â€Å"L†; my room is located in the middle of one side of the â€Å"L† and there are doors for floor entry on both ends. I have already noticed that