Danielle Parker

There are many benefits to being an RA at IUPUI, and one will gain many skills that will be useful to them after they graduate. For example, you learn how to communicate with people, build relationships, and even learn how to have fun with the job.

One benefit that was the most rewarding to me was learning how to be a part of the RA team for the 2015-2016 academic year. During RA training, the RAs have the opportunity to go to RA camp and do a variety of team-building activities and learn what it means to be apart of an RA team at IUPUI. While at camp the RA team that I was apart of participated in role call, which is a fun activity where the team must work together to create a skit to introduce the staff to each other. During the days leading up to leaving for RA camp, the team spent one of our lunches trying to figure out what we were going to do. At the end of the lunch we decided we were going to do a dance to "Jump On It" by Sir Mix-A-Lot, and we were able to map out how we were going to do the dance.

Once we got to camp, we were able to run through it one more time before we performed the dance in front of the other RAs. Before we went on stage we were able to laugh, crack jokes, and even get a selfie of the whole team, which turned into our signature picture for the rest of the year.

This memory is one of my favorite memories because this is when I learned how to create friendships and found my sense of belonging at IUPUI. Now I am getting ready to graduate from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with my Masters of Arts in Student Affairs in Higher Education and complete my assistantship at Carnegie Mellon University, and this memory will always be my strongest memory from IUPUI and will stay with me as I move on to my next job at Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, FL.