Southern RA Program (SRAP)

By John Buchanan

One of the great opportunities here at Cal Poly Pomona, and I would say in California in general is how easy it is to get involved with our regional organization for ACUHO-I via various committees. One committee that I have participated in over the last 3 years has been the planning committee for a one day drive in conference known as SRAP. SRAP brings together RAs/CAs/CMs/etc from schools across Southern California for one day of professional development and networking. Attendees are invited to present programs on various topics to help educate, support, and develop fellow student leaders in the goal of supporting students on all campuses. Each year attendees bring their energy, spirit and passion to one specially selected campus. This year was no exception as student leaders from 15 different institutions converged on the CSU-San Bernardino campus for a Super Hero themed day.

For this event I was fortunate to serve as both the registration chair and advisor for the Cal Poly Pomona delegation. As the SRAP registration chair I worked closely with the conference chairs, as well as the regional treasurer to confirm that delegations properly completed registration, that all registrations were paid in full, and to provide delegation information/statistics to the various other committee chairs. Serving on the SRAP committee not only allows me to network with other professionals it provides me a greater understanding of how the work of Student Affairs professionals impacts student across the region.

Each year our department commits to sending and financially supporting any RA who wishes to attend SRAP. This usually results in every RA, minus those on call, being able to attending. This year we were a delegation of 34 strong, the second largest delegation in attendance. The RA team attended countless programs, hosted sessions and round tables, showed their moves at the afternoon dance session, and cheered to the point of voice loss. Their energy and passion was nothing short of amazing!

While not every RA ends up attending the conference the preparation for the event is a department wide activity. Each RA is attached to one of the 4 preparation committees and our Community Development Coordinators (CDCs) chair each committee and direction the overall progress of the group. The goal for the team is always to develop their student leader schools, network, and show the region what it means to be a Bronco. This year are team showed the region by bring home one Top 10 program award, Best Name Tag, Best Character, and an RA from Cal Poly Pomona was select to present as the keynote student speaker at the conference. Pretty good day I would say, right?

While the awards are nice the more important part of SRAP is to promote growth, development, and pride in the work student leaders do on our campuses. SRAP sends a message to our student leaders that they are not alone and that there are some many other doing the work they are doing, and that is an important message. For our campus, this events allows our RA team to come together and share their stories/experiences and as the delegation advisor I would say our campus and our team were even more driven after their time at SRAP. So whether you want to step up to some professional development and join the SRAP planning committee or you just want to advise the delegation, I challenge you to take the amazing opportunities that CPP has to offer to any professional staff member.