Residence Life professional and student staff reap awards

Amy BrownBowling Green State University residence life staff demonstrated their excellence at the Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers (GLACUHO) annual conference last month, coming home with a number of honors.

GLACUHO is the regional association of the Association of College and University Housing Officers International and comprises member universities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

Amy Brown, graduate leadership coordinator in the Office of Residence Life, was named the Outstanding Graduate Practitioner for Ohio. The award is presented to a full-time graduate student in their final academic year of graduate studies who has greatly contributed to the institution at which they work.

Since the first semester of her graduate program, Brown has proved herself a tremendous asset to Residence Life, said nominator Jennifer Grulke, BGSU coordinator for leadership and administration. She has taken on additional responsibilities and sought to broaden her experience, helped other students with important initiatives, stepped in numerous times when needs presented themselves and shown maturity and capability in handling serious circumstances.

“Amy Brown’s dedication to BGSU and the students she interacts with is inspiring,” Grulke wrote, also noting Brown’s “kindness, care, academic prowess, and positive attitude as a team player.”

Brown is the second BGSU Office of Residence Life graduate student to win the award in the last two years. SJ Wilhelm, a graduate hall director, won it last year at the 2017 conference.

Tim Shaal, senior associate director of residence life, and Adam Wood, residence hall director, won a Top 10 program award for their presentation titled “Surviving the Blades: Working with Parents and Families.”

“The ‘blades’ refers mostly to the ‘helicopter parents,’ who hover,” Shaal said. “But now we also have the ‘lawnmower parents’ who run over you and the ‘bulldozer parents’ who push. Luckily, the vast majority of our parents are not like that.”

His and Wood’s highly interactive presentation on new challenges in college housing was designed primarily for graduate students looking for a career in student housing and entry-level housing professionals with one to three years of experience. In addition to an online survey in real time for participants to submit questions, they shared some of BGSU’s innovations in working with parents and families and led a group discussion. The aim of the presentation was to help build confidence and competence for young staff who are new to helping parents.

In the Case Study Competitions, BGSU students and professional staff also shone. This year’s topic was issues surrounding supervision and management in housing. Sam Clary and Josh Belcher won the Graduate Case Study Competition, and Jorge El-Azar won the Entry-Level Professional Competition in collaboration with a colleague from Ball State University.

In the case study division, entrants are given a case study and have one week in which to prepare a presentation detailing how they would respond to the situation applying theory and best practices.