RA SPOTLIGHT: PAULINE FROM UTOWN RESIDENCE

On 2 April 2016, Residential Life had our annual Appreciation and Awards Night. Stealing the spotlight (no pun intended) was Pauline Luk, an RA from the UTown Residence (UTR). In this next installment of the RA Spotlight series, we get Pauline to share her journey with us, which we’re sure would definitely leave no one in doubt of her commitment and contributions as an RA!

Pauline at the RL Appreciation and Awards Night

Pauline at the RL Appreciation and Awards Night

Can you first tell us about yourself?

I am a PhD candidate from the department of Communications and New Media, currently in my fourth year. I came to Singapore from Hong Kong about three and a half years ago. I’ve served as an RA from June 2013, so this coming June I would have completed three full years of service!

Why did you want to be an RA?

Ever since I came to NUS, I’ve been staying on campus in UTown Residence and I liked it, so I wanted to continue staying on campus. Also, my character is such that I really enjoy talking and working with people. So I thought being an RA was very beneficial for me because I get to stay on campus, meet a lot of people as well as serve the community – all in all, a good fit for me!

So you recently swept some awards at our Residential Life (RL) Awards night. Can you tell us about the awards?

That night I went on stage three times, but not all for awards. The first appearance was because I had an exchange opportunity last year – the RA Exchange Programme (RAEP) 2015 – to La Trobe University in Melbourne. So that first appearance was just a sharing session I had to do about the trip.

For the exchange programme, we stayed on La Trobe University’s campus for seven days and had meetings with  the RAs and staff there to find out about their structure and how they run their programmes. (Check out Pauline’s write-up on her RAEP experience here! https://blog.nus.edu.sg/reslife/2015/10/20/blog-takeover-2-pauline-luk-utr/)Part of our deliverables after going for the exchange is to share our experience with our peers after returning, and to give back to the residential community by organizing an event or programme. It just so happened  that on the same day of the RL Appreciation and Awards Night, I organised my event, ArtJam 2016, which was the first ever art jamming event organised on Town Green where we had 100 residents joining us. Art jamming is a social activity where a group of people come together to paint freely – you don’t need to be an experienced artist in order to participate in art jamming! I was actually inspired by La Trobe University for this – they have art therapy events as a part of their focus on the holistic wellness of their residents. So I borrowed the idea and brought it back to UTR!

Pauline at ArtJam 2016

Pauline at ArtJam 2016

The second appearance was because I’ve served as an RA for quite some time. After four semesters, an RA would be entitled to receive a long service award. Since I’ve been an RA since 2013, I was presented with a long service award – so were many of my peers!

As for the third appearance, it was because I received the award for Outstanding Accolades by Residents. I was lucky to have quite a number of my residents mentioning my name and leaving me some warm messages in the annual Residential Life Survey. I am very heartened to receive appreciation from my residents!

In the RL Survey, residents also have the opportunity to mention an event that they like. One of the events they mentioned is the event that I founded in 2013, called NÜSycle.

Can you tell us more about NÜSycle?

It is an environmental sustainability project which was started by me and some of the other residents in May 2013, when I was not an RA yet. When I first came from Hong Kong, I discovered that it was difficult to buy household items as a foreign student in a new country. Not only do you need to spend quite a lot of money, you’re also unsure of where to go to buy them since you’re still unfamiliar with the country. So from this experience, I thought of the NÜSycle project. At first I just posted on Facebook, asking those who are leaving the country (mostly the exchange students) to donate their stuff, in order for me to redistribute to the incoming batches of residents. From there, some UTR residents who had the same idea contacted me on Facebook and offered to collaborate. It was their idea to approach the UTR management office and to get a storeroom for the project. We collected a lot of items – it was amazing! By the time we distributed the items I was a full-fledged RA already, so I got my RAs peers to work together on the project. It has now become a semester-based event and it was selected as one of the most popular events in the Residences.

So this was why I went on stage for the third time that night. But I felt like I was stealing the credit, because this is actually a large-scale team project. Our team of 24 RAs in UTR have to all chip for this project as a residence event – I couldn’t have done it alone! .

Pauline during the collection for NUSycle

Pauline during the collection for NUSycle

What are your motivations behind your perseverance and success as an RA?

I think my sole motivation is happiness. I want myself to be happy and I want the people surrounding me to be happy as well. So my motivation to continue serving the community and the residents as an RA comes from the fact that I really enjoy making others happy, and allow them to have fun and connect with each other. Especially since many of us stay on campus without our families around, I think it’s important to build our personal network to support each other. Being an RA also allows me to meet a lot of new friends which I’ve come to consider as my own family members. We’ve worked together for so long that we know each other very well. Even after they leave the campus, we still keep in contact. We have a strong connection which makes me feel that I’m not alone here and that motivates me!

Do you have any words for those who are just joining us as RAs?

I think one needs to be open. Open up yourself to meet people, learn new ideas and perspectives, and learn about the different working styles that comes with each person. You need to learn by actually getting involved, instead of just observing, because everything needs practice. The more you do, the more you learn and the better you become. I would suggest that new RAs always try to make themselves available and participate in the events and activities beyond what’s required of them because that’s how you can have fun and also bond with your team. It’s a precious opportunity – don’t waste it!

 

Thank you Pauline for all your hard work and initiatives in serving the NUS residential community! 🙂

Arintha

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