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RHA wins school of the year designation
Written by Erin Birmingham - Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Association comes back from Oregon with trophy and pride
Surreal, engaging, and rewarding. That is how Resident Hall Association graduate advisor Kelly Ammendolia described the road to becoming PECURH’s 2006-2007 School of the Year.
PACURH, the Pacific Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls, includes colleges and universities from states along the Pacific Coast as well as British Columbia and Australia. This award affirms that Pacific’s life on campus was socially, intellectually and emotionally exceptional.
RHA received their award at the PACURH No Frills conference at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.
At the beginning of the year, “when the executive board of RHA met to set their goals for the future their number one was to win School of the Year,” said Kelly Ammendolia. President, Shali Nguyen, National Communications Coordinator, Marylou Bagus, Coordinator of Financial Affairs, Andrew Llarenas, Marketing & Outreach Director, Dylan Harrington, Programming Director, Genene Chacon, Secretary/Historian, Niki Reif, Professional Advisor, Scott Rausch and Kelly Ammendolia along with the entire body of students worked hard and diligently to receive this honor.
This is the first time Pacific has received this award.
Kelly Ammendolia explained that, “this has been a year of firsts. We’ve have had the highest attendance at RHA general body meetings in Pacific history. We’ve won many OTMs (“Of the Month” awards, for example, “Resident of the Month”) and overall, I attribute this to the general motivation and determination of the executive board. They wanted to win, and they worked hard.”
Every year different schools turn in bids to PACURH to be in the running for School of the Year, along with other awards like Resident Assistant of the Month or Program of the Month. The RHA Executive Board was responsible for creating a creative and comprehensive bid to be in the running for “School of the Year”. When completed it amounted to about 38 pages; 8 pages strictly dedicated to programming.
Specific programs of interest were the school-wide Safe Trick-or-Treat Halloween festivities which drew more than 500 children from the community, and the RHA alcohol awareness casino night, Bright Lights and Cowboy Boots.
The bids are expected to go beyond the average report and integrate a creative theme. This year, the Executive Board chose the theme, “University of the Pacific Restaurant,” for which they did such things as design receipts that outlined their budget.
“The portion of the bid that we believe really helped us surpass the competitor (Central Washington University) was the section detailing our new website, PacificRHA.org,” explained Ammendolia. “The site allows all residences and communities to work together.
It is a central place where people can find interactive calendars, advertisements, documents and forms, forums, information about NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary) and much more.”
She went on to say that, “Marketing & Outreach Director, Dylan Harrington and President, Shali Nguyen logged over 100 hours over the summer to make the site what it is.”
The school as a whole is very proud of RHA and their accomplishments this year.
Vice President for Student Life, Elizabeth Griego, said that, “We are so proud of the RHA Executive Board. The creativity and quality of their proposal for the School of the Year Award is just outstanding. This group of officers, led by Shali and supported by Scott Rausch as their advisor, has challenged themselves to achieve a level of excellence. Their commitment to their programs, community service, leadership, and residential communities enriches student life at Pacific and does us all proud.”
RHA’s win qualifies them to be in the running for National School of the Year at the NACURH national conference in June. Views: 556
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