UNC Pembroke recently won a first-place Roll Call Spirit Award while attending North Carolina Housing Officers’ (NCHO) Resident Advisor Drive-In Conference. Currently, 57 private and public institutions are affiliated with NCHO, including all 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina System.
The event was held on the campus of UNC Greensboro.
All affiliated institutions that attend the RA Drive-In are required to participate in the Roll Call competition. Roll Call gives each attending institution an opportunity to showcase their school spirit–generally displayed in the form of a skit, role play or song. Before the event, teams from each institution rehearse and prepare their roll call performance.
“It felt good taking home the roll call award and being able to say we did it—after hours of practice. We came up with something that instantly gained the audience’s attention,” said Zyreke Ward, UNCP resident advisor. “It was a special moment for me personally, being able to stand up and show my BraveNation spirit,” he continued.
The UNCP resident advisors who participated and won the award are: Brea Brown, Jakael Bennett, Jayla Coley, Kendra Buck, Samantha Torres, Shchiah Cook, Sterlyn Dominguez, Zack Busicnki, Zyreke Ward. UNCP Housing and Residence Life staff members who attended were associate director of Residence Life Cynthia Redfearn and David Brown III, community director.
“As an alumna of UNCP and a former resident advisor, I am always beaming with BraveNation pride. On the morning of the RA Drive-in, my level of pride increased exponentially as I watched our delegation represent UNCP with a spirit of excellence. Even before the announcement of the winners at the end of the conference, I knew hands down we were the most spirited! I am very proud of the RAs and all of their hard work. I am also appreciative of David Brown III and his leadership with the group,” Redfearn said.
The annual professional development opportunity provided an outlet for residence hall leaders to network with others, share resources and present programs on various topics relevant to being a resident advisor.
UNCP resident advisor Brea Brown explained, “[Attending NCHO] drove me to become a better RA for not only the Housing and Residence Life department, but for my residents. I gained new knowledge, made connections with many other RAs around North Carolina and brought back amazing ideas.”
Ward added “I gained knowledge from other RAs who have dealt with different situations than I have in my residence hall. It also helped me view different standpoints on how to handle different situations with my position as a resident advisor.”
