Ashland University’s Residence Life Department participated in the North East Ohio Housing Officers RA conference over the weekend at Mount Union University.

The conference is a chance for AU’s RAs to meet and discuss the different aspects of Residence life with other RAs in the region.

“NEOHO is a chance for RAs in our region to get together and present programs, share ideas and meet people from other universities,” said Director of Residence Life Kim Lammers. “It’s a think tank for RAs in the area.”

This conference is not only a chance for these RAs to meet and share ideas, but also share their passions for working with students and having an impact, whatever size it may be, on their lives.

“During this conference we are reminded that our passion for Res Life is the passion for people,” said Clark Hall’s Assistant Resident Director Kouri Weber. “We just want to be there for people and want to make their college experience better.”

Weber has been an RA for two years on the third floor of Clark Hall where she lived as a freshman as was inspired by her first RA to become a member of Residence Life.

AU also had two teams compete in a case study competition throughout the conference. Mellie Derry and Derek Stallard placed third in the case study competition for new RAs while Weber, along with her partner Rupesh Maharjan, who is the Assistant Resident Director in Kilhefner, won first place for returning RAs.

“Ashland University’s Res Life is worthy to be bragged on,” said Weber. “This specific case study was frustrating and Rupesh and I had a hard time figuring out how to deal with it, but I feel like our training and our intellect is what helped us win. Ashland’s Res Life is of noble quality and taught us so much. That is why we did well.”

Along with these winners, AU had three teams present programs during the conference. Derry, Susanne Silvernail and Emily Kaiser presented “Social Justice in Halls”, and Sharon Jackson and Jessica Reagan presented “Taking a Step Beyond Pizza and a Movie.”

Jackson also presented individually on her topic of “#Blacklivesmatter vs. #Alllivesmatter,” which received the number one vote of the top ten programs and won best “Graduate and Procession Break out Session” recognition.

Jackson has been asked to present this very controversial, yet very relevant topic at other universities around the region.

“Seeing their success and hearing them say they see the value is being an RA makes me really proud,” said Lammers. “Seeing that our students have enough confidence to present and have other universities choose them to win makes me really proud.”

Next year, AU has the honor of hosting the NEOHO conference.

“We want to make sure we represent our university with a lot of pride,” said Lammers. “It is really exciting because we are not just hosting it, we are running it. It is going to be a great time to put a star on Ashland University.”

Next years’ conference will be held on January 28, 2017.

“Bringing home a lot of the awards this year is a very good thing since we are the ones who are going to be putting it together,” said Weber. “It shows that we know what we are talking about.”