With a new school year, there are often new faces around the building. This year is no different – however, this year includes a new residential life coordinator who hopes to make the ASFA dorms feel more like a home to our residential students.
Chris Schreiber, better known as Mr. Chris to students, started as residential life coordinator this semester after last year’s departure of Jason Akins.
Mr. Chris and a current graduating senior and his family have been friends for a long time. Mr. Chris came to hear that student and the Music department play in a performance here at ASFA. Wanting to know more about this school, he researched it online, and while reading and learning about the school’s different programs and curriculums, he stumbled onto a job opening. He felt the residential life coordinator opening was a perfect match for him, he said, because he missed his opportunity to attend a fine art school, and now it was his time to influence and be influenced by all the creativity ASFA has to offer.
At the time he applied for the job, he was working with the juvenile correction system in Ohio. He said that he felt he was a perfect fit, having previous experience working in an environment where kids are housed without parents. And while ASFA students are not delinquents, both programs require patience, structure and expectations for a good environment.
During our interview, we asked Mr. Chris what changes he wants to make to the third floor. He said, without hesitation, “My first goal was to make the dorm's students feel lucky to be here.”
To accomplish this goal, he’s already started planning — and implementing — changes meant to make the dorms feel more like a home. This includes everything from the addition of an entire board game room to much smaller things, like ensuring that simple maintenance requests (things like making someone’s room warmer) are seen to in a timely manner.
Of course, running a residential program isn’t possible alone. Luckily, Mr. Chris has already been working to fix the recent shortage of ASFA Resident Advisors. One new hire has just begun on the girl’s side, and another male RA is meant to start before the end of the month.
As this school year continues and new dorm programs become easier to manage, Mr. Chris said that after-school events catered towards dorm kids are likely to return. Eventually, it’s even possible we’ll see joint dorm-commuter activities, with Mr. Chris stating that he has “a long term goal…to keep providing opportunities to connect the dorm with the entire community.”
Although it’s still early in the year, it's already obvious that the dorms are going to be pretty different. From what changes have been implemented so far, that’s certainly for the better.
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