Posted by Morgan
Hometown: Suwanee, Georgia
Major: Industrial Engineering
Year: Rising junior
Don’t be alarmed by my title. I rarely choose favorites because I hate confrontation; however, in this case I just had to do a light stab twist at the other RA, Tim, who insists he is the funnier and better Aloes RA. Sorry Tim!
Jokes aside, Rachael is pretty awesome! I might be biased because she is my sorority sister, but if you met her you’d understand why. She has a genuine personality and is easy to talk to which makes her such a good RA. While she doesn’t always know the answers to our questions (it is her first time here too) she has no problem in trying to help us out, even if it means politely asking the French Aloes residents to quiet down at 1am on a Tuesday night…and then staring down the French residents until they quiet down.
For Rachael, her decision to apply as an RA was due to the fact that she felt she would work better if she had more responsibilities. Netflix is time consuming as are those much needed naps, but the light duties of a GTL RA help her keep the Netflix tab closed and the IE 3039 notes open. Maybe I should have applied to be an RA then?
Outside of classes, Rachael leads a busy life. She is very involved in her sorority, Alpha Phi, working as director of sisterhood. This means she helps plan events and keep the documentation organized. She is also secretary for the foundation for international medical relief of children. Next year, she hopes to volunteer at the Humane Society and possibly get a Coop. Clearly she keeps a busy schedule but that doesn’t stop her from working hard in the classroom.
Her favorite part about the GTL classes are the professors, who use the small class size to their advantage. Rachael commented on the professors saying, “I like that the professors are more laid back because they know that you are here to get international experiences and traveling.” That is by no means to say that the professor will exempt you from a test so you can leave a day early for travel, but they will work with the class and discuss a good test day if one week is heavier than the other. Clearly the GTL professors have a good relationship with the students.
But what about travel? Being an RA doesn’t prevent you from traveling or keeping up on your studies according to Rachael. I’ve also learned from her that you don’t have to go very far to have fun; her favorite experience so far was actually going to the Metz fair. A prior French exchange student of her family lives in Metz, so he took her around and gave her the real French experience. She got to go on all the fun rides and get a feel for Metz from a non-tourist perspective. That’s something I wish I could say!
While she didn’t have to travel far for this experience, she does have to travel far to get to Italy, the place she is most excited to visit. “There is Pompeii, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast.” She wants to see it all! This is something I am excited to do with her as we will travel around Italy together. If you can’t tell already, she is a pretty cool person to have as a travel buddy.
All in all, Rachael enjoys being an RA. “Believe it or not being an RA with the Tech students is easy,” it’s “having to deal with the French students who live on my hall that’s hard,” says Rachael. She usually does her rounds around 8pm, making sure there are no problems or disturbances and she keeps a phone on her for emergencies while she studies. Thanks to Rachael though the aloes residents can rest easy, being assured they have an RA to go to for questions, to get advice, and even to help with those “cultural differences”-aka late-night partying French students.