Matthew Troioni,  first year occupational therapy major, said he  noticed something important about the many activities that Resident Assistants hold throughout the year.

“It seemed like everyone was bonding together, strengthening their relationships while having a good time and doing something other than just sitting in their dorms or some similar matter.”

Troioni enjoys the activities that Resident Assistants develop in an effort to ensure that residents feel included and less stressed.

Adam Myers, an R.A. and sophomore mass communications and design major, said Resident Assistants are supposed to create a safe, happy, and healthy environment, to make sure residents “are thriving, not surviving,” and there are many ways to do that.

Activities like self-defense classes and egg drop challenges have been part of R.A. programs.

Some activities though, are not only beneficial to the residents; they help the community, too.

For example, the “Make a Pillow; Take a Pillow” activity provides pillows for both the resident and a woman staying at Ruth’s Place, a local women’s shelter.

Myers said that every R.A. is required to have at least one mission program, which is one that “really exemplifies the charisms and the critical concerns of the Sisters of Mercy,” he said.

“You got to have that wow factor,” Myers said about how RA’s attract residents to their programs.

He said popular inducements include free food and items, like pillows, that residents could take back to their rooms with them.

“We’re really trying to reach out to the greater student population and are trying to do different things so that different people can be involved in them,” said Stefany Krasson, R.A. and senior history major.

“I think that when the R.A. hosts the events, it definitely bring the community together,” Troioni said.

Troioni said he supports the mission programs because they have double the benefit.

“Even the smallest things in life could mean something huge to someone that doesn’t have much,” he said. “It’s the kindness that counts, not the monetary value of something.”