{"id":59904,"date":"2019-08-28T11:13:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T15:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=59904"},"modified":"2019-08-29T08:50:56","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T12:50:56","slug":"residence-dons-play-key-role-in-students-transition-to-university-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2019\/08\/residence-dons-play-key-role-in-students-transition-to-university-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Residence dons play key role in students’ transition to university life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part\u00a0<\/span>mentor<\/span>, educator and event planner,\u00a0<\/span>dons\u00a0<\/span>support\u00a0<\/span>students living in residence\u00a0<\/span>in being\u00a0<\/span>happy, healthy and successful.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of\u00a0<\/span>those<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>living in residence are first-year students who have left behind a familiar high school routine, lifelong friends and oftentimes, their support system. Although friends and family are a phone call away, many students require a different kind of support while they\u2019re at university.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the\u00a0<\/span>2,400 residence students who choose to make Brock\u2019s campus their home, this support often comes\u00a0<\/span>from residence\u00a0<\/span>d<\/span>o<\/span>n<\/span>s<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to create a sense of community,\u201d said Zach\u00a0<\/span>Harrietha<\/span>, Residence Don\u00a0<\/span>in Village Residence<\/span>\u00a0Court 6 and a third-year General Science student. “Beyond interacting with students to get to know them on a personal level, dons organize fun social events like board game and movie nights so students can interact with each other\u00a0<\/span>outside of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>an academic environment.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Residence Life team is\u00a0primarily\u00a0comprised of upper-year undergraduate students in various roles.\u00a0Head residents\u00a0each\u00a0oversee one of eight residences,\u00a0dons of activities facilitate large-scale\u00a0social\u00a0programming,\u00a0residence\u00a0education dons support\u00a0the residence\u00a0curriculum and residence dons are each responsible for about 40 students within one area or floor of a residence building. Dons often spend their time facilitating meetings, having one-on-one conversations with students and taking turns making the rounds in their communities.<\/p>\n

For the past several<\/span>\u00a0weeks,\u00a0<\/span>Residence Life staff, which includes\u00a0<\/span>10 head residents and\u00a0<\/span>72<\/span>\u00a0dons<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0have been in intensive training to prepare\u00a0<\/span>for their important roles. Although the training isn\u2019t new, the way dons will facilitate programming has changed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Most\u00a0<\/span>residence systems<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>operate\u00a0<\/span>with<\/span>\u00a0some sort of programming model, often a wellness wheel<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Recently,\u00a0<\/span>there has been a shift and\u00a0<\/span>some campuses have moved to a curricular approach,\u201d said Residence Life Manager Amanda Zi<\/span>e<\/span>gler. \u201cInstead of\u00a0<\/span>asking<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>dons to\u00a0<\/span>plan and organize\u00a0<\/span>educational\u00a0<\/span>events, we have intentionally developed\u00a0<\/span>consistent programming<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and lessons to focus on three main pillars: independence, resilience and emotional intelligence.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to\u00a0<\/span>sessions<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>facilitated by dons, campus partner workshops will be held to inform students\u00a0<\/span>about timely and relevant topics, such as healthy relationships, alcohol use and harm reduction.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A pilot project of the new curriculum model was tested from January to April in four different residence communities.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt involved a lot of growing and learning how to adjust educational tactics for our target audience,\u201d said Head Resident of DeCew Residence Jenna Freeland, a fourth-year Business Economics student<\/span>. \u201cIt was a really great opportunity to see how the new model could make learning moments intentional.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After feedback was received and implemented by staff, the new model\u00a0<\/span>will be officially launched throughout residence\u00a0<\/span>in September.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s been\u00a0<\/span>a few<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>years in the making, so\u00a0<\/span>i<\/span>t\u2019ll be really neat to see how dons and students respond to it,\u201d said Zi<\/span>e<\/span>gler. \u201cA set curriculum will\u00a0<\/span>allow our staff to focus on\u00a0<\/span>facilitating<\/span>\u00a0key learning<\/span>\u00a0for our students<\/span>\u00a0instea<\/span>d of\u00a0<\/span>feeling like they need to reinvent the wheel\u00a0<\/span>every week<\/span>. We hope this\u00a0<\/span>will provide our students with the best\u00a0<\/span>residence\u00a0<\/span>experience possible so they can be successful in both their academic and personal lives.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

B<\/span>rock’s h<\/span>ead residents and r<\/span>e<\/span>s<\/span>i<\/span>d<\/span>e<\/span>n<\/span>c<\/span>e<\/span>\u00a0d<\/span>ons<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>will be among hund<\/span>reds of Brock staff and 600 volunteers who will welcome the 2,400 mostly first-year students to campus on Sunday, Sept. 1 as part of the University\u2019s annual\u00a0<\/span>Residence Move-In Day<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part\u00a0mentor, educator and event planner,\u00a0dons\u00a0support\u00a0students living in residence\u00a0in being\u00a0happy, healthy and successful.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":59905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,7,41,1,4],"tags":[6481,1411,594,1281,2071],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59904"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59918,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59904\/revisions\/59918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}