Posted Friday, June 21, 2019 @ 8:19 AM Housing and Residence Life staff at UCF provide much more than just a roof over students’ heads. They provide educational resources outside of the classroom, and support for students who are new to campus and college. With over 2,000 first-time college students moving in this weekend for the Summer B semester, they are starting to educate a new group of “BIG” dreamers. In 2016, UCF Housing launched an educational strategy called Residential Curriculum. Over the last 3 years, this has significantly changed the roles of Resident Assistants (RAs) and other live-on housing staff. The Residential Curriculum at UCF is centered around developing active, engaged, and productive global citizens. In essence, residents learn more about themselves, about how to engage in their community and how to support equity and inclusion in that community. What does that mean for my student? What are staff doing differently? It means that expert professional staff put together educational programs and resources, and RAs are in the role of sharing those resources and acting as a supporter and a guide. Remember college pizza parties that included a slide show the RA made about traffic safety? That model puts Resident Assistants in the role of being creators and teachers, while they are still students themselves. With a Residential Curriculum, RAs still host events in the residence halls, but follow a lesson plan developed by an educational expert. They engage residents in meaningful one-on-one conversations, make connections, and show their residents how to find campus experts and resources. That could mean something like accompanying a group of their residents to the health center for a group cooking demonstration from a nutritionist. It could mean having a licensed counselor come into the residence hall to talk about managing stress. It could mean sitting down with a resident one-on-one to talk about study skills, sharing their favorite time-saving planner app, and giving them directions to the university’s academic resource center. It could mean something as simple as sharing a tips and tricks video or being a listening ear. The Curricular Approach is a nationally recognized method to increase student learning and engagement within residential communities. This curriculum is created with consistent learning goals and lesson plans. By participating, UCF residents have shown improvements in GPA, retention, conduct, and engagement. By living on campus, students at UCF are living smarter, getting connected, and learning BIG. Residential Curriculum at UCF is just one of the many ways the incoming class of 2023 are learning to be Knights for life. For more information on residential curriculum or The UCF Department of Housing and Residence Life, please visit their website at www.housing.ucf.edu. Back