Living in a residence hall gives residents the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of people. You will find students with different backgrounds; various cultures, races, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations. Residents will have different thoughts and attitudes about the world in which they live. Interacting with and learning from others who are different from you can be one of the most exciting experiences of your college career. As RAs, you are responsible for developing a positive community atmosphere within the residence hall that can foster these learning interactions. A great way to accomplish this is through programming or community building opportunities.

Programming for Community Development

One of the fundamental roles of an RA is to build community on your floor/wing, and ultimately, your building as a whole. Programming is a useful tool in bringing residents together to form that sense of community. Whether used educationally through expanding awareness of a particular issue or event, or socially by bringing residents together informally, programming is one of the most important jobs of an RA. For the sake of making programming intentional and purposeful within our residential communities, we call our programming efforts, Community Builders.

What are Community Builders (CBs)?

Community Builders (formerly Learning Experiences) are planned, intentional, and purposeful opportunities designed to help residents acquire information, experience, and skills that will assist them in learning and growing as individuals. Community Builders promote resident interaction, learning, and personal development by challenging residents both academically and socially, in becoming more competent and educated human beings. CBs are the things you do to help engage your residents in the community and educate them outside of the classroom. Overall, Community Builders aim to successfully integrate “living and learning” within the residential community atmosphere.

Why the term "Community Builders"?

The Office for Residence Life is committed to extending learning outside the classroom and helping to prepare well-rounded students for the Villanova community and beyond. We have designed a Community Development Model to assist Resident Assistants with building community within their residence halls and apartment buildings. We used to call them “Programs”, and then we moved to “Learning Experiences”. After ongoing assessments of the “communities” our residents live in, it was clear that our aim in Residence Life is to build community within the residence halls and across campus; hence the term “Community Builders”.

An important aspect of our community development efforts is to ensure that students feel connected to the communities in which they live, including the greater university community. By offering opportunities for residents to be involved with community development, we play an important role in their growth and development. We encourage residents to learn more about themselves and others, by participating in community development opportunities.

The following are some of the elements a Resident Assistant can provide that aid in the development of community:

1. Social contact - get residents together to participate in activities and develop some common experiences.
2. Commitment to mutual survival - impress upon residents that they control the environment of the hall and are accountable for their living environment.
3. Common values/purpose - provide opportunity for residents to work toward some common goal (establish a community living agreement).
4. Identification with the group - try to make sure everyone on your floor feels as though they belong and are part of the group, despite their differences.