Brandon Jacob has served as the resident director (RD) of Noordewier-VanderWerp for four years. As RD, he supervises RAs and leads dorm programming. He talked to Chimes about the joys and challenges of being an RD.

Chimes: How did you become an RD?

Jacob: I was an RA [at Taylor University] from sophomore through senior year, and when I got to the end of that experience I thought, “I really enjoy higher education, I enjoy working with college students and helping them learn and grow,” so I got my master’s in higher education and student development with the idea that I would love to be an RD and lead a residence hall of students at least for a few years.

Chimes: So what does it take to be an RD?

Jacob: A lot of institutions do require or prefer people to have a masters level education either in higher education or in higher ed administration or counseling. Some people have masters of divinity or social work, so there’s some of those educational requirements that sort of help people think about this role in a formative and educational type of way. We’re helping students learn, so having that framework coming in is really beneficial. What it takes honestly on a day-to-day basis is a lot of counseling experience; we spend a lot of time meeting with students one-on-one.

Chimes: Can you describe a day in the life of an RD?

Jacob: I meet with my RAs on a very regular basis as well as students who are going through challenging times in the building. Counseling is a big part of it. The resident directors meet together as a team a couple times a week to think about our work holistically instead of just isolated to our own buildings. On top of those experiences it’s kind of a mixed bag: a student walks in and says, “I’m having a roommate crisis” or “Hey, I’m really depressed,” or “I’m struggling with this or that” or “I’m failing my classes, can you help me out?” Things like that come up all the time and so a lot of it is reactive, but we also like to do proactive things like programming or getting people to connect with each other and have really good community.

Chimes: What is it like living in a dorm with a bunch of college students?

Jacob: Some of the really rich parts of this job are finding those times when we can have meetings with students in the evening, attend dorm worship or just see students in their natural living environments having fun, playing games, doing Bible study. It’s always a balancing act. RDs really have to try to figure out how to use that time well while also protecting their own time and space.

Chimes: So do you have to be an extrovert to do this job?

Jacob: Absolutely not, I am an introvert. Yeah and I would say being an extrovert can be helpful in terms of always being around a lot of people all the time but I think I do my best work in one-on-one situations and small group situations. So instead of putting myself in situations where I’m always around a lot of people, I intentionally try to find those times when I can interact with a smaller group. And I love those opportunities, I love those times, and when I have to lead a large group I can do it right. It’s the day to day that we just sort of shift our styles.

Chimes: What are the biggest challenges to being an RD?

Jacob: The biggest challenges, for me at least, are striking a good balance between my personal life and my own boundaries and feeling like I live amongst my work because there’s always something more that I could be doing. Secondly, I think our work provides us with ample opportunity to work with students who are hurting and those are challenging moments, but that’s also where a lot of the richness of this work comes from. We are working with students in crisis, we are helping them when things aren’t always going great, but sometimes that is the most fertile soil for growth.

Chimes: What are the best things about being an RD?

Jacob: Working with an amazing student leadership staff. I would highlight the RAs in particular. They are a fun, delightful, passionate group of people that I love working with day in and day out. Second would probably be that it is fun work. It is fun to be able to enjoy time with students and to do the types of programming that we get to do. Working in residence life in general is incredibly invigorating. Also, I can’t say enough about the other RDs on campus. Having them as a community of not just colleagues but friends is just delightful.

This interview has been condensed and edited.