Morewood Memories 2019-2020
By Sierra Williams, Assistant Housefellow
The Morewood Garden's staff reflects on their fondest memories as a team from the 2019-2020 school year.
Sierra Williams, Assistant Housefellow
For the past year, I have had the pleasure to work with a group of tremendously talented student leaders. The RA staff in Morewood Gardens has demonstrated true care for the residents they serve and have exemplified what it means to be an RA. Every one of my staff has contributed positively to building community through unique programming initiatives, developing genuine and deep connections with residents, and by displaying unwavering integrity.
Mel Bryan, RA
My favorite part of the year was during House Wars: wearing a bee one-sy with my bee slippers and trying to sprint around the Cut. It didn't work too well, but I had fun with my staff and my first-year residents and that's what counts. Also, did you know you can wash slippers in the washing machine?
Ana Torubara, RA
My favorite memory was karaoke during finals week, an event a couple of RAs hosted. I sang duets with Joe, Drew, Robin, V and several residents. The really fun part was when V, Tobin and I sang until midnight.
Drew Burns, RA
This year I had the pleasure of working with some amazing residents. My fondest memory was when a few residents and I were up late working in the computer lab. Around 3 am, one resident started playing 24K Magic by Bruno Mars. Eventually everyone in the computer lab started dancing and singing.
Rachel Sneeringer, RA
I really loved getting to know all of my residents this year. They each brought their unique personality to our community, and my favorite memories have been hanging out with them in the lounge either talking late at night or engaging in one of my programs like Tea-uesday!
Dilara Ozdoganlar, RA
My favorite memory from being an RA this year was during Orientation! I loved the whole experience of training with my staff and getting to know my residents. One night during Orientation week, some of my residents knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted to play a game with them. We walked over to their room (the big triple in Morewood) and by the end, there were probably 20 of us in a circle playing the card game with like four decks! It was so awesome that my residents wanted me there and that I got to see them bonding during the first week.
V Reiter, RA
My favorite memory is from one of the weekly Wholesome Thursdays I hosed. It was the week we all had to answer the prompt "share a story from your life." There were many wild stories shared—things that just don't come up in normal conversation. It was a really fast-paced ice-breaker—to learn a bunch of crazy stories from a room full of neighbors you've only just met. Many of the stories turned into inside jokes that recurred for the rest of the year, and others are some of the most salient things I will remember about some of my residents. In general, they are anecdotes I am certain I will never forget and plan to retell in the future.
Stan Becton, RA
My favorite memory from this year is when I was on duty on rounds the night of WildervFury 2. I was excited for the boxing fight later that night and was planning to watch it in my room once I finished rounds. Then, while I was doing rounds, I saw a group of residents live-streaming the fight in the lounge. Rather than return to my room and watch the fight alone, I returned to the lounge and was able to enjoy the fight with others. It was a great bonding opportunity.
Jae Lee, RA
During my first year as a Morewood Gardens RA, I noticed that it was difficult to foster a community on an upper class floor, and I learned that my role was about way more than building one-on-one relationships with my residents. While I did feel a little sad to not have the sense of community within the floor, this ultimately was not a bad thing. Most of my residents had already made friends through student organizations and classes, so building a floor community wasn't as important to them.
As a returning Morewood Gardens RA, I had similar expectations, but during the first week of classes, I ran a Jackbox program for my residents. Through that program, many of my residents got to know each other and we even made a couple floor-wide inside jokes. The event truly warmed my heart, and even though this sense of community wasn't 100 percent constant, I got to see friendships continuing during floor programs in our lounge and at more out-of-the-box events like ice skating. It's funny to think that my residents ended up on the seventh floor of Morewood in a relatively random process. But now looking back, it really seems as though the friendships that happened were meant to be.
Robin Kuo, RA
One of my favorite memories with my staff and residents was finals week and closing. During finals week, we ran community events nearly every day, which gave us a really great opportunity to spend time with each other and our residents. There were stress relief and self-care events, plenty of free food and fun ways to get our minds off of studying like movie nights and holiday karaoke. I think we often get caught up in how busy things can be just by being students with multiple commitments on campus, so I really value the times when residents come out and enjoy the events we've planned for them. That extra interaction, sense of community, and reminder to take time for ourselves, even in the midst of the grind, are some of the core parts of the residential experience that I cherish and hope that our residents love too.
Closing was really fun because after getting to spend that time with our residents, we had an opportunity to come back together as a staff. Our staff is pretty close-knit, and so spending time together is not only good for professional development and building our energy as a team, but serves to really deepen the connection we have. It's a different vibe than usual, but still plenty lively with the 14 of us!
Another moment I appreciated having with my own floor was having breakfast and journaling. We often strayed from the reflection and really just had breakfast together, but it was nice to be able to talk and to see people from different suites and blocks start to get to know each other better. We talked about our goals for the semester, our interests, and shared recommendations for things we love. It was something that made our floor feel closer and a lot more home-y, even though we're an upperclassmen community.
Sam Rainey, RA
My favorite memory is the Fall Party the Morewood neighborhood put together. It was so cool seeing all the residents interact and have fun as a community. I enjoyed hanging out with the various Res Ed staff and manning the grill, trying to keep up with the line of hungry people! I also really enjoyed weekly staff meetings, especially when we shared highs and lows or discussed hypotheticals.