Pedro, ‘12

After more than 20 lectures throughout the week of training (some of them lasting even more than 2 hours) on Sunday we came to the best part of the RA training. Behind Closed Doors is a program designed for first-year RA’s to experience potential scenarios where we would have to engage in confrontation with students at UR. I’ve always thought that practice is the best way of learning, so I was more than ready to get done with the lectures. Even though some of those situations could be really uncomfortable, I felt I could do a great job and knew it would be exactly what I needed in order to be ready for when those scenarios repeated themselves in real life.

I decided not to go first though, haha. I watched the first pair of RA’s go and then discussed with the rest what they had done well and what they could improve. That extra information gave me the encouragement I needed and I decided to go next. I got a scenario where it was 10pm and there was a party in a room, potentially involving alcohol. I approached the incident as a noise violation and tried to gather as much information as possible. The people supposed to be having the party were returning RA’s (they’ve been more than one year in the job) and they had been asked to be extra difficult. The guy I talked to was being rude and loud, but I stayed calm and in the end they all said I had done well.

After that, I felt motivated and ready for more. I got another scenario of noise violation with people running around heavily intoxicated and then one where two people were drinking in the hall. I dealt with those situations pretty well too, and the program was over faster than I would’ve wanted it to. I was actually having fun, but I think that was because I knew it was all made up. It probably won’t be fun when I have to deal with alcohol, drugs or violence, but at least I know I can do my job if that happens.

Today, we had Behind Closed Doors again, but this time we dealt with different things, like depression, eating disorders and roommate conflicts. This was probably harder, cus the scenarios were a lot more shocking. I did a good job, but sometimes I just didn’t know what to say at first. I’m really glad we got to do this program, because it definitely helped me learn stuff that I hadn’t even thought about before.

In the end I was exhausted, just from experiencing so many tragic scenarios, but being done with Behind Closed Doors today also felt really good cus it was our last program. I finished RA training today and I can say that I’m officially ready to be an RA. There’s always going to be experiences you haven’t practiced before, but with all the information they’ve given me and the Behind Closed Doors practice, I know I’ll do a better job dealing with those unexpected situations.

Tonight we have a lip sync competition with other RA’s and after that I get to rest, pretty much until the first day of classes on the 24th. It feels great to be back, and I’m looking forward to what I know will be a great year at UR.