The Office of Residential Education and Living has scoured our campus for the leadership-hungry and handpicked a dynamic crew that will be calling the housefellows of 2010-11.
As the current Housefellow of Branford I was able to watch the process from the other side of the desk as I helped conduct interviews and read through applications.
Here’s what struck me: it appears as though the most formative component of the process was Res. Life’s understanding of dorms as sentient beings with their own unique sense of character.
The housefellow selection process seeks to emphasize these qualities through matching the applicants with the correct personalities to the right environments, not simply putting the strongest candidates where they wish to be placed.
But how does the Grand Council of Housefellow-choosers attain this in-depth character analysis?
As far as the application process goes, all interested parties submitted answers to a fairly regular array of essay questions as well as resume standards. Applicants also had to explain how they were distinct on a single piece of 9 ½ x 11 cardstock.
For me, the applicants’ essay answers tended to blend together, though a lot of character shined through in the cardstock assignment. If you ever apply, do something utterly insane that explains who you are as an individual at ever opportunity that you get.
Central Campus Area Coordinator Colleen Haggarty talked about the creative aspects of the application process that shed light on the unique qualities of students.
“On the housefellow application, we asked them to create their perfect residence hall, not just a box with rooms and a common room,” she said. “The floor governors were asked to explain what they would want their residents to say about them by the end of the year.”
Haggarty noted the ways in which the creative portions of the application shed light on applicants in unconventional ways.
“They are better than just essays,” she said.
The application process also includes an interview whose format has changed slightly in the past year according to Haggarty.
“We tried to make it a little more formal this year,” she said. “This may not be a Fortune 500 interview but your professionalism will come through in the way you present yourself.”
Each interview is conducted with both a professional staff member and a current housefellow. Both have the opportunity to ask questions and submit feedback on a given applicant.
While interviewing candidates, I was impressed with the weight given to housefellow comments, an aspect of the process that hopefully results in a dynamic understanding of each interviewee from both student and faculty perspectives.
The third and final part of applying is this tricky little thing called group process.
Essentially, candidates are arbitrarily grouped and asked to perform a variety of activities that are reminiscent of the same icebreakers used at orientation.
It’s not as simple and fun as it seems, however, as the applicants are observed like lab rats by current housefellows who are asked to take notes on the actions of the potential-fellows.
Our selection process is unique because of the importance we put into these judgments, though they are far more subjective, of an applicant’s strengths.
“Conn is the only place where we do a lot of interesting stuff with group activities,” Haggarty said, “and I’ve had a lot of years doing selection.”
The entirety of the process is aimed at the maintenance of community on our campus, and Res. Life is doing a solid job at attacking this challenge through a very personal approach that separates students from the numbers that they often become on paper.
Looking through the list of housefellows for next year, I think that each choice will help each dorm on our campus retain the definite sense of personality they have always had without (hopefully) all of our living spaces erupting into chaos.
2010-2011 Housefellows:
Abbey: Emma Krane
Blackstone: Sally Zuar
Branford: Eric LeFlore
Burdick: Becca Dolfi
Earth/360: Adam Sleeper
Freeman: Trevor Prophet
Hamilton: Molly Bierman
Harkness: Lincoln Wesley
JA: Chelsea Manning
Johnson: Alex Domeniconi
KB: Nita Contreras
Knowlton: Aaron Chau
Lambdin: Sara Keller
Larrabee: Adam Miller
Lazrus: Katie Serra
Morrisson: Lindy Nash
Park: Emily Webb
Plant: Miriam Singer
River Ridge: Anne Denton
Smith: Anna Membrino
Windham: Annie Bigwood
Wright: Luke Wilder
