Jesus Vargas wanted to be a Resident Assistant (RA) since high school, when he visited his sister in her dorm.
“Her suitemate was an RA and I asked her what that was and she’s like, ‘They’re the people that take care of halls, make sure everyone’s doing OK,’” Vargas said. “And I’m like, ‘That’s like really cool. I wanna do that.’”
Today, Vargas is a senior studying secondary education and is entering his third year as an RA.
RAs are students who look after other students living in residence halls. During the year they live in the same hall that houses the students they are responsible for. They help their residents transition into college life and make sure they are safe and doing well academically, socially and mentally.
Vargas said he enjoys learning about his residents.
Diamond Koloski | Argonaut
Resident Assistant Jesus Vargas helps students during LLC check-in on Thursday morning.
“Getting to know people is awesome,” Vargas said. “Everyone has their own story, which is unique.”
He said getting to know people wasn’t easy his first year as an RA. He said he was more shy and introverted, but he became more sociable once he got the job as an RA.
“Every now and then I’ll recharge in my room, lay back,” Vargas said. “But, I guess, within this job I gained that skill or people-person skill.”
This year Vargas will be an RA in the Living Learning Communities (LLC), a building he’s never stayed in before. He said it’s much different than the other dorms he’s worked in because the residents have their own kitchen and there is a much larger population of international exchange students in the building.
“My goal would be really getting to know this building in the LLC and seeing how I can collaborate with other buildings — the Tower, Wallace, McConnell — just to build a better community,” Vargas said.
Vargas said he works with residents to plan programming or events for the hall. He said he’s brought people in to discuss social justice, diversity and LGBT topics to let people know about the resources UI has. He said he works closely with the hall representative and his residents to plan social events.
As an RA in Theophilus Tower a previous year, Vargas said he organized a Call of Duty competition between two floors, which he said was a lot of fun.
RAs are limited in the amount of time they can spend with other jobs or extracurricular activities. Vargas said it was difficult for him to say no to many of the activities and groups he had been heavily involved in his freshman year.
“But what that experience taught me is, ‘Hey, I can’t do everything,’” Vargas said. “We’re still allowed to be part of organizations, but we definitely want to put our focus on students first.”
As an RA, Vargas said he deals with incidents that file under code of conduct violations or just general safety issues. He said he does rounds with another RA to patrol halls during the evenings, when there is the most activity in the halls.
“We’re not knocking on every door, but more of like checking the community,” Vargas said. “Making sure it’s safe. Making sure everyone’s doing alright.”
For the best college experience, Vargas said students should try to get involved. He said students should shoot for interdependence — try to be independent but still be willing to accept support from others.
He said it is important to simply participate in activities or groups and for students to learn more about themselves, be it personally, culturally or academically. He said it was also important for a student to make sure none of the things they are participating in are bringing them down or adding to their stress.
Something Vargas said he didn’t expect when he became an RA is how big an impact they make. Vargas wasn’t sure how much of an impact he could make as an RA when he first got the job. But he’s been pleasantly surprised time and again over the past three years about how much of a difference he can make in his fellow Vandals’ lives.
“I met people that say, ’Oh, we don’t have an impact, yada yada.’ But I think we do,” Vargas said. “Making an impact on the community and seeing people grow — it’s something really precious to see.”
Jack Olson
can be reached