Responsible for supervising 10 resident advisors (RAs) and about 264 residents, McCandless Hall and Opus Hall director Kady Shea received the Advisor of the Year award for her work with the College Residence Hall Association (RHA).
Shea has not only managed to keep order in the residence halls, but has helped make some vast improvements to the quality of life on Saint Mary's campus.
"[I really enjoy] getting to interact with students on a regular basis, and getting to know them personally, what's going on in their lives and just being able to help them as best I can with whatever is going on," Shea said.
The award was presented at the Indiana Residence Hall Organization Conference on Feb. 6.
Shea and LeMans Hall director Leslie Robinson co-advise RHA at the College.
Shea was nominated by the members of RHA and was chosen by the directors of the Indiana Residence Hall Organization (IRHO).
"The advisor of the year was pretty cool just because advising RHA is part of my job but its just one small piece of my job," Shea said. "They nominated me for this award and the directorship of IRHO recognized my accomplishment. That was pretty cool to receive that."
Shea began working at the College in August 2008. Since that time she has not only acted as a co-advisor for RHA, but as advisor for McCandless Hall Council as well. Additionally, she has worked to help improve RA training as well as the room selection process.
Shea is also responsible for keeping the Residence Life Web site up to date.
"It's a challenge, but I also find it very entertaining," Shea said. "I try to have a positive look at it. Working with Residence Life and being a hall director, you come into work every day not knowing what to expect. It's not the type of thing where you log onto a computer and start entering numbers all day."
Shea decided to become a hall director during her undergraduate studies at Simmons College in Boston. Shea said she originally wanted to be a teacher.
"I always knew that I wanted to help people in some capacity," she said. "I had a first-year experience class where I had a college administrator who facilitated the class and she actually worked in Residence Life and kind of opened my eyes to Residence Life. That's when I discovered that you can make a career out of this and you can do everything you love, work with students and get paid for it."
Shea said she enjoyed working as a hall director at Saint Mary's. She has had a positive experience with the RAs as well as the other residents in her halls.
"I really enjoy working with first year students just because transitioning into college is not always easy and being able to help them with that transition is pretty awesome, and being able to see them grow through out the year," Shea said.
