The semester is over, so I am all out of on campus art activities to blog about for now. But even though the semester has ended, I am still working on projects and haven’t retired my colored Sharpies and X-ACTO knife. Why? I’ve accepted a position with Marywood’s Residence Life and am going to officially become “RA Katlynn” to about 30 residents in Loughran Hall! I’m very excited and have already begun working on hallway/door decorations, hence why my art supplies aren’t getting a Christmas break.

I’ve spent the last semester as an alternate RA, meaning that I helped out and would be moved up should a full-time position become available. That in itself was a great experience to make myself more comfortable in preparation to become a full-time RA. I would recommend becoming an RA to anybody, because you learn to work with others and become better at dealing with tricky situations. Art majors in particular make excellent RAs. You might think of the “good RA” as being a psychology or education major, but artists do a lot more than just make pretty pictures.

Here are my top 5 reasons art majors make good RA’s:

5) Our door tags will always be on point.

If we can obsess for hours about a rip in a canvas, your door tags are going to be perfect.

4) We are good at staying up late.

2 a.m. rounds? Please…I stayed up until 4 a.m. the night before working on my project.

3) We are resourceful.

Because art supplies aren’t cheap, we know how to stick to a budget and re-use materials. That programming budget is no match for us.

2) We learn how to build a tough skin.

From confronting residents to being told you need to improve your work from your RD, the RA position requires you to handle criticism well. Art majors’ projects are critiqued on a weekly basis and they know how to handle it.

1) Creativity matters.

According to a study by IBM in 2010, 60% of CEOs said that creativity was the most important leadership quality (fastcompany.com). Creativity is used for more than making good door decs. RAs need to solve problems creatively and think outside of the box to help their residents. Who knows creativity better than an art major?

If you’d like to become an RA at Marywood, keep an eye out in the spring for applications and interviews. Creative people are always needed.