In this episode of Roompact’s RA*Chat, join Assistant Director Amanda Franklin as she shares insights, practical strategies, and real-life advice to help Resident Assistants (RAs) and Student Staff members in Res Life prepare for training and succeed in your role! Whether you’re a first-time RA or an experienced leader, this podcast offers quick tips, engaging stories, and practical tools to boost your confidence and effectiveness. Get ready to make a lasting impact on your campus community!
Guest: Amanda Franklin (she/her/hers), Assistant Director of Residence Life for Resident Services, University of Oregon
Host: Anthony Martinez
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About ResEdChat
Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Anthony Martinez:
Welcome back to Roompact’s Res Ed Podcast. Today is a special RA chat edition where we talk about issues of importance to RAs and student staff members and housing and residence life. Today’s episode is all about gearing up for one of the most intense and exciting parts of the RA journey and student staff member journey, which is training weeks. Whether you’re a first time RA or a seasoned professional, Training Week can be a lot. There’s lots of hours, there are long schedules and let’s be honest, sometimes some awkward icebreakers, but we love them and don’t worry, we’ve got your back here at Roompact. And so today’s theme is train hard, RA harder, and we’re going to dive into some tips and tricks and mindsets to help you make the most out of your training and avoid that burnout. And today I have a very special guest with me who I’m going to go ahead and let introduce themselves.
Amanda Franklin:
Yeah, my name is Amanda Franklin. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I currently work at the University of Oregon as an assistant director of residence life for resident services. However, I started my journey as a resident assistant in 2015, so 10 years ago, oh my god, I was an RA. That makes me feel so old, but that’s okay. But 10 years ago I was an RA. I was an RA for three years. I worked every summer, whether it was summer conference assistant, desk assistant, any residence life position that was available, became a grad hall director, then became a community coordinator, complex coordinator, et cetera. That’s how I know Anthony actually is being complex coordinators together. And now I’m here at the University of Oregon, but at least the last 10 years of my life have been centered around being an RA, serving RAs and training RAs. So I’m super excited to talk about this today.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, we are so excited to have you here today, Amanda, and you are a very seasoned professional with lots of experience and so I’m excited to pick your brain and also see what you have to offer our student staff members who are listening today. So we’re going to start with the most obvious question first, which is RA training is intense, you’re learning policies, practices, scenarios, and you’re bonding with your team at the same time, and you’re probably sitting in a lot of chairs. And so the first big question I have is how do you avoid stress during training with all of these things going on?
Amanda Franklin:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing to know is that you are probably going to get stressed at some point and knowing that and being okay with that and there’s no growth in comfort. There’s going to be times where you’re uncomfortable. In preparing yourself in advance mentally for that, maybe that’s having a really chill week beforehand, finding times to decompress during the week. If your training is multiple weeks, seeing if you have time over the weekend, in between the two to be able to decompress. As well with stress, know your triggers and what stresses you out. Some people get stressed by things more than others. Don’t compare yourself to other people’s stress and what keeps them up at night. Really stay true to yourself with that portion. And also if you get so stressed that it’s starting to impact your ability to stay focused, your mental health and things like that because there’s healthy stress.
But if those things are getting impacted, talk to your supervisor, whether that’s a residence director, grad hall director, whatever your supervisor’s title is. If you have a returner peer that you can confide in or your support system and kind of talk through what’s stressing you out and see how to mitigate that because I think it’s super important to realize that you’re going to be going into training and then you’re going to speed run into the academic year. So planning ahead I think is very important. Anthony knows me. I’m very much a plan ahead person, and having those conversations with your team in advance is super key because if you notice you are getting stressed, you’re not the only one. So just how to support each other in that. But it’s impossible in my opinion to avoid stress in that time period. But there is such a thing as healthy stress, so just keep that in mind. Keep your ducks in a row, ask for help if you need it, and know what your triggers are and how you cope with those.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, exactly. Especially I love that you talked about knowing your triggers. I think it’s important for our students to reflect, and if you haven’t yet, if you’re listening, I think it’s important for you to think about a time that you were thrown off from something and figure out how you adjusted it. So write it down on a piece of paper, what did you do to adjust and address your stress and understand your self-care? Yes, Amanda touched on it perfectly of knowing that, talking to your supervisor and really communicating which is important. And speaking of communication, people love to talk throughout training, even throughout the night, and so what do you have to say to some RAs who love to stay late up at night during training and other student staff members who are trying to get things done?
Amanda Franklin:
Yes, it might feel like there’s not enough hours in the day to get everything done. I think it’s really important to know does it really need to get done tonight or can it wait until tomorrow? If you had a deadline that it was the end of the week and you’re up all Thursday night doing something, did we manage our time up to Thursday to be able to not have to stay up every night? I think also staying up really late at night sets the tone for your workplace and it sets the tone for your peers, whether you’re a returner RA or a new RA, and if other people see you staying up until two, three o’clock in the morning working on door decs, which is usually what it is. It’s door decs, it’s bulletin boards, things like that, they’re going to think that’s an expectation and it’s not. You live where you work, you are there 24/7. That is already a very busy environment.
Definitely planning ahead, what can you get done? Ask your supervisor if there’s things you can work on during sessions. Is it okay for you to map things out during sessions? If they’re providing fidget toys, is it against policy to work on a door dec during sessions? Can you map out your bulletin boards in advance? Can you think about those ideas over the summer before you return to your role, just to kind of make sure those things are done in advance as much as possible? We already have late nights built in when you’re on call. We don’t need to add more to the late nights when you are already living where you work with people, and so I think it’s very important of knowing you’re setting the tone for yourself and other people by staying up that late. We don’t want to set a toxic work culture where the expectation is you work until you drop. That’s not an expectation We have in residence life.
We like to have fun, we like to learn, we like to hold people accountable, but we don’t like to exhaust people, and so that might be a sentiment you’ve seen and I definitely push my previous RAs away from that. If you really feel like you had to stay up until four o’clock in the morning, just ask me for an extension, like one door dec for a resident who’s not moving in until the next Tuesday not being done on the deadline is not going to hurt anybody. It’s not make or break. And so just don’t look at everything as such a life and death with deadlines. Talk it out, be reasonable, set your expectations, set reasonable sleep expectations. You know how much sleep you need to exist and be a human and to thrive and stick to those and know what your boundaries are. I think that’s really important. But no, you’re already staying up late for on call. You don’t need to do it for a door dec. It’s not worth it for a door dec.
Anthony Martinez:
That is so real. Yes, knowing if it can be done today, can it be done tomorrow? I love that you talk about setting a curfew for yourself basically, even if it’s just a soft one being like, okay, I’m going to aim to go to bed at this time. And so having that boundary is great and just remembering to again, unwind, relax, and you don’t need to hang out with your team every single night to be a great team member. There are multiple ways to do that, and so thank you for that Amanda.
Another question, kind of something you’ve already addressed, but I really want to hone in on are strategies that you would suggest to our students listening on ways to avoid burnout during the first week. Because something commonly we see with individuals as we’ve already addressed, who are pre-stressed before training and maybe they didn’t listen to the second part of talking about not staying up late and they’re doing it anyways, and so how do we address that burnout in the first week?
Amanda Franklin:
Yeah, I would say burnout is real and naming burnout. Are you burned out? Are you stressed? Are you just overtired? Are you overstimulated? Is it a combination of all the things? And really talking that out with your team and your supervisor and seeing if there’s ways to mitigate that, especially with the first week of school, you’re a person first, student second, and then RA third. That’s a lot of times you hear that in residence life. We want you to be a person and a student first, and if you don’t feel like those things are being prioritized, talk that out. I would come with solution-oriented ideas of I feel burned out because I just went through 2 weeks of training, we just did move in and I have 52 residents you want me to connect with by Friday. On paper, that might seem like calendar-wise, oh yeah, there’s plenty of time for that.
But as a person, that might not be a realistic expectation and talk that out with your team. See if you can set it out in segments. See if you can get some advice on how to work out that deadline without also influencing your academics and your sleep schedule. Because realistically, all the students you need to connect with in the first six weeks or so are going through the same thing as you. They just didn’t have the two weeks of training. They just moved in, they just started school, they’re overwhelmed and probably burned out from their academics. And so how are you connecting with yourself, your supervisor and your students in a reasonable way?
I would like to say burnout is avoidable, but in the 10 years I’ve been doing this, I get burned out at the same exact times every year regardless of position. And that sometimes is just because it gets monotonous, so break up your routine. A lot of times the monotonousness of our job makes it where it’s very easy to get burned out. You have all these objectives you constantly have to do, but you also have to go to school. You also have to constantly feel like you’re on, so you do not have to be an extrovert to be an RA. I want to put that out there. I’m not an extrovert. Anthony might disagree. I’m not an extrovert and I was a great RA in my opinion.
I mean, I’ve been to my residents’ weddings, we know each other, and so you do not have to be an extrovert to be an RA, and if you feel like that extroversion is the reason that you’re getting burned out because you feel like you’re constantly on, you’re losing authenticity. Your residents want you to be authentic. They want you to be yourself. They want to connect to somebody who’s like them, and there’s no way all 52 of your residents are extroverts unless you have a very specific residential community where that’s what they signed up for, which I don’t know why we would hire an introvert RA for that. That sounds mean, but I definitely think knowing your strengths and knowing what burns you out, is it that social interaction? Maybe finding different ways to do those connections, setting aside time specifically for that, and then break up your routine. Do you always study in your room? That sounds boring and exhausting. Go outside, touch grass, touch the study environment out there and do all of those things because forcing yourself to do things you’re not used to doing helps with the burnout cycle.
I’m very used to sitting at a desk and doing all of my work in here, but I get burned out very easily from staring at StarRez or screens all day, and so I need to take my laptop outside and just take a breath and break up the routine. I think that helps a lot, but naming it and knowing ways that you can move through it because it will end. Burnout always ends. It always ends, and there is a light at the end of tunnel for burnout. It’s just knowing how to move through those feelings and how to break up your routine to get through it maybe a little bit faster.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah, that’s great. I love it. I love that you’re saying naming it. Is it stress? Is it burnout? Communicating that, that’s perfect. Identifying that core thing, naming it, love it. Students need to remember that, so when you’re encountering your training week, you got to name it, identify it, what’s going on? Again, that reflection piece of what that looks like and essentially talking about knowing your limit and knowing where you’re at and celebrating those small wins. It sounded like you were talking about, yes, I made it through the day. That is a win. Let’s celebrate that and that is important. I also know that I’ve used a buddy system in the past, and so checking in with somebody, Amanda was someone I would check in with and be like, “I’m stressed.” She’s like, “Me too.” I’m like, “Oh, great. We’re in community.” And so that is also really important. But with that, it sounds like we’re also entering the mindset of what we’ll have during training. And so Amanda, my question for you is what mindset helps you get through training?
Amanda Franklin:
I think it depends on what role you have when you’re going into training and thinking about that first. Are you a new RA? Second year, third year and beyond? Because a lot of times the consensus from a returner RA is, “I already know this information and I don’t need to go through it again,” and in the 10 years I’ve been doing this, that is usually not super true. Usually we’ve changed something, like a policy has changed, a law has changed, the way we’re going to program, our curriculum. It might not be a huge change that you may notice, but there’s something different about it that you need to be aware of. I also think the mindset for training, be inquisitive, take notes, but also know you are not going to remember everything that is presented to you during that week or two weeks. It is okay that you are not going to remember everything, especially as a brand new RA and do not beat yourself up over that.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a new RA come to me and be like, “I know we talked about this during training, but I just don’t remember it.” Or “I can’t find the PowerPoint and I’m so stressed,” and it’s some consequential thing of how to send an email on StarRez or on Roompact when they want to post about their event or something and I’m like, “That’s okay. Maybe we need to make a guide for that,” or “This is where it’s at, let me walk you through it.” And that’s okay. It’s okay to not remember every single thing that you did during training. A lot of it is going to be presentations to you, and that’s okay. There’s hands-on training too usually as well, and that is very helpful. But know your learning style and definitely hone in on that. If you’re auditory, if you’re a visual, if you’re kinesthetic, pay attention to that when you’re training and try and implement those. If you’re receiving a presentation but you’re kinesthetic, taking notes while someone is talking is very helpful because you’re physically doing something while you’re learning about it.
I see a lot of people whip out their phones and take pictures of slides. I would love to see a poll of how many people actually refer back to those photos when they want to go back and look at the information. Because taking two seconds to take a picture, your brain’s not going to remember that versus physically taking notes and writing it down. So I think there’s a lot of power of having a notebook and pen to paper. If you’re auditory, if you’re visual paying attention to that as well whenever you are in training, but just be inquisitive. Look at everything with fresh eyes.
Also, if you’re a returner, look at it, the perspective of your new RA peers because they’re going to have a lot of questions, they’re going to be stressed, they’re going to be overstimulated. There’s going to be a lot going on and you may already know a lot of this information and you’re learning some updates, but you can help them process that information too. So everyone has a role to play when it comes to learning the information. I also think it’s super important to know to build a relationship with your team, not necessarily the whole RA team as a whole. You might have a bestie that ended up becoming an RA at the same time as you. That happened with me with my best friend our first year, but we were not on the same staff.
And so be intentional about building it with your team. That’s the team you need to swap shifts with, that’s the team that you need to help pick up things whenever you’re going through a lot, that’s the team you’re going to be on call with and writing IRs with. You need to be able to develop that team relationship first. And then in-services or just-in-time trainings and things like that or spring training, that’s when maybe you can start connecting to other RAs a little bit more or programming across campus. But knowing your individual team I think is super crucial. For me, and Anthony knows this from the building that we ran together, building trust on our team is number one priority. If we as a village can come together and build trust and rapport, we will run smoothly and seamlessly the whole academic year.
And so know that as a responsibility of you as an RA is like my role is to take in information, write it down, ask questions, seek to understand and get to know my peers on my team and my supervisor if there’s time for that. Because your supervisor might seem scary. You never know. I’ve always been told that I was a little bit intimidating when people meet me. Get to know them, talk to them, eat dinner with them, eat with your team, talk about non-work stuff. I think that’s also super important when you are during training. Yes, you can have a debrief of the day at meals or whatever, but talk about non-work stuff. What do you do for hobbies? What do you do when you get out of your room? What’s your for you page looking like on TikTok? Things like that. Don’t talk about work to get to know your team a little bit more and to decompress a little bit during training because there’s just a lot of information.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, yes. I love all of that. And one thing I also want to point out, and this is something you’ve mentioned before and I heard you mention, which is why I thought you’d be great for this, is you’ve told our students to focus on their why, why did they become an RA? And I think that’s also important when coming in with that mindset. I know returners, you’re familiar with returners and then coming back and reminding them why did you return? Why are you back in the building as an RA?
So I think that’s important too, and that’s something I’ve heard you mention and if you’re listening right now, I think it’s important for you to kind of think about before you go into training, why did you join this role? What are your goals to get out of training? So that way you have it visible for you and you have some goal setting prior of what that looks like. But I know we’re going to be wrapping up soon, and so I did want to ask you one more question on some misconceptions you think there are about training and how to address those misconceptions that students may have before they’re going into it.
Amanda Franklin:
Yeah, I think the main misconception is that it’s a waste of time. I’m going to put that out there. I’ve heard it every year, everyone, the misconception is that it’s a waste of time, but once you get in the weeds of it, you’ll be like, “That training I had on how to write an IR was actually really helpful” or the training on how to build a program or all these things where you’re like, you’re inherently, I should just know how to do that. You might not know the way your unit wants you to do it, your department. You might not have thought of every other way to do it, and so I would look at it as an opportunity instead of time that you’re spending, it’s time that you get to be there. It’s time that you get to develop your leadership skills. It’s not just being an RA. There’s a lot that goes into the position that’s transferable to anything you want to do.
So all of that training is stuff that you get to do for free. You get to do it as a student and you get to do it as an actual learning opportunity. You’re at an higher education institution to learn, and so this is a way for you to learn outside of the classroom. And so that’s leadership skills, like I said earlier, that’s just socialization skills. If you’re really like, “I want to learn how to present,” or if you want to have a certain position later in life that requires you to do a lot of networking, this is a great place to start.
I also think another misconception of training is that all of the information will just be available later and I don’t need to pay attention now. I also don’t think that’s true because you might have questions, so paying attention is super important. If you don’t have a debrief built in at some point during training with your supervisor, request it because you’re going to have questions about certain things, whether it’s a policy or best practices or how to connect with residents or how to use a software. I mean, every institution I’ve been at uses at least five softwares minimum to do the RA job and that’s great. Those softwares are helpful, but they’re not all super easy to learn and intuitive like Roompact, and so it is very helpful to pay attention to those trainings because those are things you can take away as transferable skills.
Think of it as an opportunity to learn transferable skills, even if being an RA and being in higher ed isn’t your career objective. Not everyone wants to be Anthony and I when they grow up, which I understand and I don’t take offense to. However, whether you want to be a doctor, an accountant. I mean, I can’t tell you how many professions Anthony and I encountered where they said the skills I learned from being an RA directly assisted me with this career path. So definitely seek it as an opportunity. Don’t think of it as a waste of time. Don’t look at it as this big overarching scary thing either. I think a lot of people, the misconception is training is scary. Like Anthony mentioned at the beginning, it’s more icebreakers than you would think. There’s a lot of getting to know people, a lot of getting to know your department, a lot of getting to know the role and then preparing to welcome students to campus, and that should be very fun. It should be exciting.
I think the misconception that it’s scary and draining and all these other things, flip the lens. Housing is supposed to be fun. This is supposed to be a fun job. We’re supposed to have programming, we’re supposed to be talking to people, building relationships, making sure people make friendships that last forever. My first suite mate my freshman year, went to my wedding this year. Those are the relationships you’re building, and think about that, don’t think about sitting in sessions all day or having to go to this thing or having to go do this. You get to do it. Switch the mindset, be excited about it even if you have to fake it till you make it, and that’s totally fine.
I think those are the main misconceptions that I see. I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, but I mean most of our students are either scared or they think it’s a waste of time. So think of it as something fun, think of it as an opportunity to build on skills, think of it as transferable skills, think outside of the box and think about the residents that you are about to welcome. It’s not always about our self-centered approach, but necessarily about who are we about to serve moving in.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah, that was great, Amanda.
Amanda Franklin:
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Anthony Martinez:
We’re coming up on time, and so I did want to give you an opportunity if you had any final thoughts and also how people can connect with you afterwards.
Amanda Franklin:
Yeah, well, I’m on LinkedIn. There’s a lot of Amanda Franklins in the world though. I think I just recently changed my LinkedIn to Amanda Scott. I am married, but I haven’t legally changed my name. It has multiple degrees on it and stuff. We’re keeping it Franklin for a while, but I’m on LinkedIn. That’s the main place you can connect with me professionally, I think on there, you’ll see my face, and so that is on there. I think that’s the main way to connect. As far as main takeaways after this, being an RA is supposed to be fun. The whole point is that you’re in a leadership position, you’re in a position of power, but use that power. I think Spider-Man has a quote about that, “With great power becomes great responsibility.” Yes, and it’s also supposed to be fun. You’re building relationships, you’re finding best friends. Two of my residents I connected with my first year as an RA are married and have children.
You are there to build relationships and build bonds for the rest of other people’s lifetimes, and also you are going to build bonds with people for the rest of your lifetime, and this all starts at training. And so people that you’re going to be working with, you’re going to be staying up late with, whether it’s on call or another reason, whatever you choose, things like that. Just make sure that you’re cherishing this time because before you know it, it’s over. And hopefully the RA role gives you all the things that you were looking for out of it. And training should give you plenty to think about and mill over and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
I think my only feedback with that is there is a time, place, and manner for everything, and Anthony has heard me say this. So if you do have feedback for something or you do have a question, think about the space that you’re in and whether or not that’s the best space for that, or if you should just ask your supervisor later. I think that’s my biggest takeaway as a student staff member is sometimes saying it in front of 400 people might not be the move, and so think about that too.
Anthony Martinez:
Thank you, Amanda. That was perfect, and that is a great way to end this. Again, thank you so much for your time. Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn. That is so important. She’ll also be tagged in one of my posts, so you’ll be able to connect with her there if you’re already connected with me. But that is a wrap on today’s episode. Remember, training is just the beginning. Take care of yourself, lean on your team and trust that you’re growing into something amazing with your department and with residence life. If you found this helpful, go on ahead and share it with your RA Friends, chats, tag us on social media and if you’ve got any of your own training tips, be sure to let us know here at Roompact. But until next time, remember to train hard and RA harder.
