Photo courtesy of Covenant College Marketing
Three of the four resident directors (RDs)are leaving at the end of this semester. Many students have been profoundly impacted by their service to the college.
"If you're going to live on a mountain with a bunch of college students," Hannah Leander, RD of Andreas Hall, said, "you don't get to pick and choose if you're friends—you're just automatically friends and family." Their kids have grown up on campus; they see Andreas as "Knox's home" or Carter as "Jay and Ari's home."
Stephen Dillon, RD of Carter Hall, said, "One of my favourite parts about this job has been that, while we see students come through, the RD team has stayed mostly the same.” He and the Founders’ RD Brett Borland both began in 2019. This is their seventh year in the position. It is Hannah Leander's eleventh.
"I outlived all my other friends who did residence life at other institutions," Leander said. The typical institutional turnover rate for RDs is usually one to three years. "The fact that we've all been here for five to 11 years is pretty unheard of, and I think that is largely due to the student body and that culture," Leander said. "The students are amazing and have made it very hard to leave."
She said the experience of students—especially non-resident assistants (RAs)—seeking out mentorship has stood out about Covenant. "Typically, when a non-RA needed to meet with me, it was because they were in trouble." Here, she said, "[the students] just want to ask questions about the Lord, and life, and wisdom. And that is what is so unique about Covenant that I think has made it more sustainable to be here. If we were just doing discipline … we'd burn out."
"There is really love and care for the students here, and so I think that's a big piece of what has kept them here so long," Associate Dean of Students Si Mitchell said. "All of them really are servant-hearted people … I think it's a credit to Covenant, but I want to give most of the credit to the RDs."
"One of the reasons we love this job is the mentorship we have with RAs," Leander said. "The amount that they have supported us, prayed for us, watched my child … that'll be the piece I miss most. We meet weekly with them. We not only talk about their job but about their life, how we're praying for them, their struggles, their highs and lows, their joys and their sorrows." Emily Whiteman, RD of Mac-Rymer Hall, added that she also works with the RAs under her care to grow professionally and work positively towards their future career goals.
"The RD job and the RA job both are pretty all-encompassing … You don't clock in or clock out for this job," Dillon said. "It's been a really sweet role to walk alongside [them] for so long, especially because I think it feels so similar to the role that we have as well. It feels like a really mutual thing."
Mitchell said that he thinks that the RD role, at its heart, is all about discipling students. "We see the RD position as a ministry," he said. "That's one of the things we're looking for in future candidates … how they see residence life." Covenant's vision, he explained, takes a holistic approach to education. Learning happens all the time—often in the residence halls. "We see [residence halls as] much more than just a space to exist—like for your brain to exist while you wait for the next download of information." Mitchell said, "it's a formative part of the student, so we would want a resident director who understands that."
"We're really excited for who comes after us," Whiteman said. "I think there's really gonna be a good sweetness to having some new RDs who are young and fresh and new in their roles and excited to bring some creativity to campus."
Photo courtesy of Covenant College Marketing.