Photo Courtesy of Audra Nemirow

“When I’m home in Massachusetts, I work with adults with ranging disabilities, and one of my jobs is to council and help them navigate through everyday life situations to make them more comfortable. I figured that being an RA [resident assistant] on campus would be another way for me to access people’s lives and help them go through their transitionary period. I think being an RA has given me an interesting behind-the-scenes perspective [on] Hofstra’s campus because there’s a lot that goes on with planning and policymaking that residents don’t know. There are reasons for everything; we follow the rules that we have to follow. [I now understand things], like not having tapestries and big coffee makers and stuff like that. Sometimes [it’s] hard being an enforcer of rules you may not agree with, but you still have to do it. It’s hard to draw the line between being friends with your residents and also being an authoritative figure on the floor because, ultimately, your job is to make sure that everyone’s comfortable. If your residents want to be friends with you, that’s awesome, but you also need to enforce “The Living Factor” and it’s hard finding that balance. Especially because I’m a sophomore and some of my residents are my age and some are older, it [can be] hard to be that figure when some of them have been here longer than [I have]. But I’m excited that being an RA has not only made me closer to the campus and accessible to students, but it’s also made my educational aspirations possible.”