News

More than meets the eye

March 2, 2017

Resident assistant shares the fun little activities that help her be a support system to students on campus
Rachel Smith
Antelope Staff

"We try to stick with the holiday themes [for nametags] sometimes it just gets off track depending on what we want to do,” Erin Shapcott says. — “We try to stick with the holiday themes [for nametags] sometimes it just gets off track depending on what we want to do,” Erin Shapcott says.

When students think of resident assistants they usually think about someone who keeps the floor organized and safe, or they think the job is to check residents in and out of their dorm rooms at the beginning and end of each school year. Erin Shapcott, a sophomore pre-nursing major from Underwood, Iowa, enjoys the “littler” lesser-known things about being an RA.

Shapcott, a resident assistant of the second floor in Centennial Towers West says she wanted to be an RA since her freshman year. “Last year I had really awesome RAs so that helped a lot, and I still wanted to live on campus,” she said.
She says she wanted to continue to be a leader after graduating high school because she was the vice president all four years and was in several leadership clubs.

“I love my staff and my co-RA, Dillon. I feel like we have gotten really close this year, definitely, and the rest of the staff too,” Shapcott said.

She decided on UNK because of the medium size and the leadership opportunities. She is in the NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary) and is also a member of the Red Cross Club, and the Health Science club on campus.

Everyone who has ever lived in the dorms at UNK has probably noticed that every month, a new nametag with a different theme shows up on each resident’s door. Shapcott said her and her co-RA, Dillon Beles, come up with the different themes each month for the nametags on the doors. “We try to stick with the holiday themes. Sometimes it just gets off track depending on what we want to do,” Shapcott said. Beles is a junior secondary education major with endorsements in physical education and history from La-Vista.

Beles and Shapcott also decorate a board in the hallway of the floor right outside the elevators with different topics or events that are happening.
“Right now we’re in the process of making a new one, so we kind of want to do something with summer,” Shapcott said. “Something with either actual summer vacation, or waiting for summer. Then, we come up with an idea of what we want [for the theme] after we have the information.”

“We come up with an idea of what we want [on the board] after we have the information we want to put on it, then we come up with actual themes,” Erin Shapcott says.

Shapcott said creating the board or the nametags doesn’t take much artistic background. “As for artistic abilities, you gain it through the year. You have to learn to be artistic,” Shapcott said.
Her favorite part about being an RA is getting really close with the staff throughout the year.

“Even if I don’t know or if I’m not best friends with all the RAs in my building, I still have really good friendships with other RAs of other buildings.”
Shapcott enjoys the little things in the job that make it fun to be a leader.

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