As a VA, I live in my job quite literally. 

At Augustana, VA stands for Viking Advisor. These positions are held by students and at other universities are often called RAs, or resident advisors. VAs live in residence halls and are each assigned a floor to supervise.

This means that I’m never not a VA— partly by choice because even when I’m not on call, my residents are fully aware that they’re welcome to reach out to me any time, anywhere.

I want to write about my experiences because I want to show others the importance of having VAs— that we’re not just floor police, that we’re there to make a difference. Perhaps I can also create some change— whether that be internal change within Campus Life or simply change someone’s opinion of what we do. As one of my hall directors from last year said, “if you help just one person, you have still helped one person.”

My first week as a VA, when I was given the names of my residents, the first thing I wondered was how I managed to have so many women with the same names on my floor. Three Maddie’s, two Alexa’s, two Sydney’s. 

Then I wondered if even one of these women would be a good resident. Freshman students are notorious for getting their first tastes of freedom and subsequently losing their minds. 

Instead of hanging informational posters on how to contact Campus Safety and where to dump garbage, I grabbed my phone and immediately began to look the women up. I went one by one hoping I could judge how nice, responsible and (most importantly) quiet they would be based off an Instagram or Facebook profile photo. 

Halfway through the list, I psyched myself out and dropped my phone on the floor of my shoebox-sized dorm room. I picked up my scissors and continued to cut out door decorations in the shape of whales. My floor theme was “Finding Nemo” but my artistic skills did not actually include being able to draw Nemo. As I wrote each of my future residents’ names on the whales, I hoped, not for the first time, for an easy, or simply tolerable, first year as a VA. 

As I cut out those whale-shaped door decorations, I wondered how I would initiate communication and influence with 32 people I hadn’t even met yet. I knew that I could change their college experience, but I had no idea how much they would shape mine.

As it turns out, a lot.

Now, I’m in my second year as a VA, and I’m still surprised day after day by how much these first-year students teach me. 

Not only do they teach me the newest slang words and show me what the “kids” (as I like to call them) are listening to these days, they teach me resilience, positivity and courage. 

In the coming blog posts, I’ll expand on these life lessons and the valuable, incredibly bizarre experiences I have had. Some of my topics will include homesickness, mental health and vomit… so, stay tuned 🙂