Residence Life

Truman’s Residence Life staff sent a team of student staff delegates for a weekend of professional development, leadership training and the opportunity to collaborate with residence life staff from other schools. During the weekend of Jan. 28-30, 39 schools from around the United States gathered at the University of Northern Iowa for the annual Resident Assistant (RA) conference.

Every residence hall was represented by a student advisor delegate, led by hall director Stephanie Dunton. Two student advisors presented at the conference. Jennifer Pham, a student advisor from Missouri Hall, led a presentation on how diversity and inclusion is worked into hall events. Pham’s presentation addressed how to create a welcoming environment for residents. She won an award as one of the top 10 presentations at the conference. Maggie Carlson, a student advisor from Dobson Hall, led a presentation about Truman’s pet friendly residence hall. Carlson’s presentation gave valuable insight into the experience of being a resident assistant in a pet friendly residence hall.

In addition to Pham winning an award for presenting a top 10 presentation, she and Kit Cork, student advisor of West Campus Suites, won third place in a spirit-related event. Duntun represented Truman professional staff at the conference by serving as a judge for a case study, whereby student staff teams from a variety of schools had to present on how they would respond to a residence hall issue that could arise within a residence hall community.