A new program through the University of Nebraska-Lincolns residence halls looks to help students plan for their future.

To Tony Rathgeber, the interim director of residence life and associate director of housing, student life in the residence halls is an important aspect to their time at the university. Thats why he and a team of campus staff worked to create the Nebraska Residential Experience.

The Nebraska Residential Experience works to take traditional practices used in a classroom and utilize those in residence halls, according to Jordan Black, the associate director for Learning Experiences in Residence Life.

In other words, its an intentional, cohesive approach to creating meaningful learning experiences for students based on the Husker Student POWER framework, Rathgeber said in an email.

POWER, which stands for Purpose, Ownership, Well-being, Engagement and Relationships, focuses on students being able to refine what their idea is for their future, discover what resources they can use to help them and realize they have members of their residence hall there to guide them, according to the Nebraska Residential Experience website.

Its a matter of how we are leveraging the expertise of all of our staff, Black said.

Development of the curriculum began during spring break earlier this year with the help of an expert consultant and workshop activities for the Residence Life staff. Twenty members of the Academic Affairs and Student Affairs departments participated, Rathgeber said.

As the interim director of residence life and associate director of housing, Rathgeber leads Residence Life and aids the leadership of University Housing, he said.

Black said he played a role in the creation of the curriculum by overseeing changes in the learning program communities, hall government and evaluation of the apartments.

One obstacle the team faced was working against time, Rathgeber said.

Most campuses spend 12-18 months developing what weve created in five months, he said. And the recommendation from our consultant was to launch at the start of this semester close to 40% completed, which weve done.

The team couldnt be prouder of the curriculum, Black said.

I think the people that contributed to it have made a phenomenal product for our first iteration, he said. I think one of the things that it really shows is the dedication people within the department have.

The team will make continual changes and improvements to the program over the next three years, Rathgeber said.

Its important to note that a project like this is never truly done and lives in a state of continuous assessment, refinement and improvement, he said.

Black said its important to know that students needs are constantly changing.

We want to make sure the curriculum is responsive to that and not that wed develop something and let it sit on a shelf, he said.

Transparency, positive experiences and relationships are all things that the team wants students to see in the residential halls, according to Black.

The curriculum is allowing us to create an intentional, holistic experience within the residence halls that we know is consistent across every one of our halls and that all of our students are benefitting from, Black said.

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Student resident life improved through Nebraska Resident Experience - Daily Nebraskan