As the orientation leader and RAM supporter application deadline nears, current RAM supporters have spoken to their experience as a student leader and their crucial role in the first-year experience.
From tabling in academic buildings to social media shoutouts, RAM supporters of all focuses have been promoting their positions ahead of the Feb. 18 application due date with weekly information sessions for students to attend.
The role of a RAM supporter is to make the transition as a new student at Suffolk as easy as possible. Each RAM supporter has a commonality with their student, and it’s usually shared between a majority of their roster of those they mentor. It can range from being in the Sawyer Business School Program to both being a student athlete.
RAM supporters go through a training process each semester that keeps them up to date on all the latest resources and programs offered at Suffolk.
“The best way to learn something is to be able to teach it to someone else and I feel like that is applied tenfold to being an orientation leader and a Ram Supporter,” said Adan Alarcon Acosta. “I got to know the resources really well, as well as become a resource myself to Suffolk students, and you just get some kind of joy of giving that back, giving back to the community that initially supported you.”
Alarcon Acosta is a sophomore business economics student as well as a RAM supporter whose commonality is focused on commuters and SBS students. As an Everett native and now a commuter from Revere, he speaks mainly to the commuter experience as well as his experience as an orientation leader and PAO member in Passion Latina.
Like Alarcan Acosta, RAM supporter Eve Bamber spoke to the transformity of playing a role in orientation and how it can be the push that reserved students need to break out of their shell and be involved on campus.
“It really has encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone and make sure that you can connect with people on that one-to-one basis, which is where I feel that I thrive. But still, it challenges you to interact with your peers and work on leadership skills in a more untraditional setting,” said Bamber. “The office is always buzzing, and being able to make connections and see familiar faces on campus, but also as a RAM supporter, I’m someone who is naturally a little more introverted.”
Bamber, a sophomore psychology major with a biology minor, grew up in Australia but calls Houston, Texas, home outside of the academic year. Her commonality with her students is their out-of-region home bases. Besides being a RAM supporter, Bamber also works in one of the graduate research labs.
“[RAM supporting] definitely allowed me to stay involved on campus,” said Bamber. “As I mentioned, I do a lot of stuff off campus, whether that’s working internships or other major commitments outside the campus, it’s really hard for me to be involved in activities period, just because I’m never here. And because of that, I wasn’t really able to get involved in a traditional club setting.”
Orientation and the new student experiences are not exclusively for first semester freshmen, but also transfer students transitioning from a different school, returning from gap years or entering Suffolk in any non-traditional manner.
“When I transferred in, I came in the spring semester and I didn’t really know too much about Suffolk when I came here. I just knew I wanted to transfer to a school that I’d be able to commute to,” said Kate Feldman. “Then, during RAM Supporter training, I learned about all the resources we had at the school, because I genuinely didn’t know about them for two or three semesters before I became a RAM supporter.”
Feldman, a senior business management major, mentors fellow transfer students, walking them through their assimilation into the Suffolk community.
“I didn’t know about half this stuff we had so that was really informative. So by becoming a RAM supporter, and getting assigned specifically transfer students, now I know all the resources we have, and I know what to tell the students when they need help,” said Feldman.
ONSP’s social media will be posting updated information session schedules for all open positions. Attending one information session is mandatory along with submitting an application for the desired position by Feb. 18.
