The Residential Living world can be an intimidating, exhausting, and time-consuming place for
anyone. Even with this in mind, it has not stopped the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point’s
nominee for the WHIL CC of the Year award, Rachael Switzer, from sticking around for a total of
five years. The following bid will embark on the perilous adventure that Rachael had gotten
herself into a distant five years ago when she decided to say “Yes” to a position offer and focus
on the past year that she has been my faithful sidekick.
How It All Began
Page 1
Duties and Responsibilities of the NRHH/WHIL Communications
Coordinator
Page 2
Campus Involvement and Achievements
Page 3
Cooperating Officer
Page 4
State, Regional, National Involvement
Page 4-5
UWSP Representation
Page 5
Letters of Support
Page 6-8
We’ll start this adventure with some background information about the lovely Rachael
Switzer. She was born and grew up in Idaho, but moved to Wisconsin with her family when she
was eight years old. She found herself at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point years later
for our spectacular education program. She currently is a triple major (because she just loves
being here oh so much!) in Elementary Education, Special Education, and Psychology and has a
minor in Emotional Behavioral Disorders. With all those majors, she plans to continue on to get
her Master’s in Student Affairs and dreams of becoming a college Chancellor in the future. She
quickly rose through the ranks of UW – Stevens Point’s Residential Living community from
being a Front Desk Receptionist. Once a part of Residential Living, she quickly showed just how
committed she was to making this campus the best it could possibly be. With that enthusiasm
being difficult to ignore, she was an easy nominee for the Julie E. Zsido Chapter of the National
Residence Hall Honorary at UWSP. Once inducted she became the WHIL CC after finding
interest in the conference world when she attended GLACURH 2013 at Michigan State
University.
Page | 1
As the WHIL CC, the Julie E. Zsido Chapter of NRHH bestows many responsibilities
according to the NRHH Constitution. The following are the specific duties asked of Rachael in
accordance with the National Residence Hall Honorary at UWSP:
The duties of the NRHH/WHIL Communications Coordinator (CC) shall be:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
Attend the Great Lakes Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls
(GLACURH) conference, No Frills (GLACURH business meeting), Wisconsin United
Residence Hall Association (WURHA) conference, French Dip (WURHA business
meeting), Bringing Leaders Together (BLT), and NACURH conference to represent
the UWSP Chapter of NRHH, or designate a proxy from the Executive Board, and
Executive Board-Elect, or an active member.
Maintain contact and communication with the state, regional, and national office of
NRHH/WHIL (i.e. email lists, groups, etc.),
Serve on the state OTM Voting Committee along with all other WHIL CCs,
Maintain contact and communication with the RHA N/WCC,
Attend all conference delegation meetings with preparation for GLACURH, WURHA,
and NACURH, and assist the RHA N/WCC in various conference tasks,
Meet with the NRHH Adviser as deemed necessary,
Write a transition report and meet with the NRHH/WHIL CC-Elect at the end of the
school year.
Shall serve at least one (1) hour per week and at least eight (8) hours per month in
the NRHH/RHA office while the regular classes in session; this does not include finals
week, winterim, or summer sessions classes.
Page | 2
Now let’s move on to the plethora of other organizations and positions that Rachael has
held over her time here at UWSP. Along with the WHIL CC, she currently is the Desk Manager
for Hansen Hall, alum for the Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, member of the Social Justice Outreach
Committee, and still has time for intramurals. It was not easy for Rachael to get to these
positions though. She went through a lot of different positions and had an extensive amount of
experience under her belt to gain these achievements. Over the years, she has held over 15
positions in different aspects of Residential Living and extracurricular organizations. To name a
few, she has been: President of Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, Baldwin Hall Government
Coordinator, Baldwin and Burroughs Hall OTM Coordinator, Alternative Spring Break Leader for
Campus Summit in Dallas, Texas, volunteer for Community Restoration in Trinidad and Tobago,
Poverty Volunteer in New York City, New York, and student volunteer for College Day for Kids.
She has also had many achievements over her time here at UWSP. She has been on the Dean’s
List for a total of six semesters, won the University Leadership Award, won the Robert E. Mosier
Scholarship for Student Affairs, achieved the WURHA and GLACURH Four Year Service Pins, is a
part of Kappa Delta Pi Educational Honor Society, and many more. With all of these
experiences, she has easily become one of the most well-rounded individuals I have ever had
the pleasure of knowing.
Page | 3
Being the cooperating officer to the RHA NCC is
never an easy task, but Rachael makes it seem
like a walk in the park. She goes above and
beyond what her responsibilities are, and it is
clear to everyone around. For every conference,
she works closely with the RHA NCC to create
applications, select the individual delegates,
attend and give advice during the preconference meetings, help plan out every
conference, assist in bid and legislation writing,
correct the RHA NCC when they are wrong, keep
the RHA NCC sane before and during
conferences, and help to make sure everyone in
the delegation is comfortable and prepared with
this amazing experience. She works with such
enthusiasm and dedication that it creates an
inextinguishable environment of positivity and hard work for everyone around her. Rachael
works extremely well with the chaos that is the current RHA NCC (i.e. Collin) making one
unstoppable power team!
Not only does Rachael have an amazing amount of dedication to her university, she also
works incredibly hard to make the state, regional, and national organizations spectacular. By
herself, she has written multiple pieces of legislation and bids for awards for the WURHA
organization over the past year.
At the Bringing Leaders Together
2015 conference, Rachael made
the difficult decision to bring
back previous pieces of
legislation that would change
the face of the WURHA and
WHIL organizations for years to
come. With the dedication and
knowledge she had, she was
able to make successful pieces of
legislation that changed how the
Page | 4
French Dip conference was hosted and bid for and orchestrated the future of the WHIL
conference. It was also at the prior BLT conference, BLT 2014, which Rachael worked diligently
to complete and present a bid to host the French Dip 2015 conference at UWSP when there
was little interest to be found in other institutions. With no question, Rachael has showed an
immense amount of support for the WURHA organization and that she only wants the best for
it.
Rachael represents the University of
Wisconsin – Stevens Point at conferences in one
of the best ways possible; presenting programs
to other institutions. Presenting programs is an
amazing way to give back to other institutions at
conferences because it allows a presenter to
give useful information and ideas to another
institution that can be passed on throughout
that institution in the future. Rachael has
presented a large amount of programs at RHA
conferences, as well as other Residential Living
conferences. She has presented programs at
previous WURHA, GLACURH, and NACURH
conferences, the University of Northern Iowa
(UNI) Resident Assistant conference, and
UWSP’s Residential Living winter training miniconference.
Rachael really does it all, and there is not a single challenge that has come her way that
she not been able to tackle head-on and do wonders with. She’s been a spectacular WHIL CC
for UWSP for two years now, been involved in many other organizations and volunteering
opportunities, won many awards, and she has no plans of stopping her success anytime soon.
With all of these reasons and countless more, the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
believes without a doubt that Rachael Switzer is more than deserving of the title of WHIL CC of
the Year.
Page | 5
Page | 6
January 23, 2016
Dear WHIL CC of the Year Selection Committee:
It is with great enthusiasm that I write this letter of support for Rachael Switzer’s nomination
for WHIL CC of the Year. I have worked with Rachael in a number of capacities on campus over
the past two years at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and feel she is extremely
deserving of this award.
As soon as Rachael was inducted into the Julie E. Zsido National Residence Hall Honorary
(NRHH) Chapter she hit the ground running by being elected as our NRHH/WHIL Conference
Coordinator (CC). Rachael’s first conference as CC was NACURH 2014 and it was pretty clear
that she was nervous to go into her first boardroom. When I saw Rachael at lunch after being
in the boardroom the excitement radiating off of her was contagious. She still had a bunch of
questions for being new to the position but she was extremely excited about being called on to
give her opinion about the topic being discussed. Ever since Rachael’s first NACURH as a CC,
she has kept her excitement alive and continues to share her opinions by writing legislation and
helping to make lasting impacts on the organizations where she has gained her passions.
In addition to Rachael’s conference passions she is also a passionate student leader at UWStevens Point. Rachael has held numerous student leader positions on campus while also
juggling an extensive course load. During NRHH Executive Board meetings this past semester
Rachael has done an amazing job of helping start ideas with the President to help move the
organization forward. Rachael helped implement the idea of getting the NRHH name out to the
campus and Stevens Point community by having our organization team up with her sorority to
help collect food items for our on campus food pantry. This program was wildly successful and
helped benefit the students in need on our campus. Rachael is also working with fellow
Executive Board members to help with recruitment activities for our NRHH Chapter. It is clear
there is an extreme amount of passion for the organization with hopes that we can grow our
membership. With Rachael and the other members behind these efforts, there is no doubt we
will have the best leaders in our organization.
Rachael is a phenomenal student leader on the UW-Stevens Point campus. She is always ready
and willing to step up to any task given and will follow her ideas to completion. I feel Rachael is
extremely deserving of this prestigious award and it is my hope that she is given every
consideration.
With sincere regards,
Alison Chapman
Suites@201 Hall Director-UWSP Residential Living
Page | 7
January 24, 2016
Dear WURHA Board of Directors and WCCs,
It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of support for Rachael Switzer, the WHIL
Communications Coordinator(CC) for the Julie E. Zsido Chapter of the National Residence
Hall Honorary(NRHH), here at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The CC of NRHH
has main goals that involve attending the state, regional, and national conferences on
behalf of our chapter. The position also requires the CC to serve on the state OTM voting
committee and maintain contact with the RHA N/WCC.
I have had the pleasure of working with Rachael for the past two years that she has held
this position. When Rachael is collaborating with an individual, she is organized and
prepared for any situation that may arise which makes completing a task straightforward.
Throughout this past year specifically Rachael has gone above and beyond within the CC
position. Rachael has helped out in all areas whether it is recognizing members of the
organization or students here at UWSP, taking over responsibilities of other board
positions when another is unable to fulfill it, or writing bids to modify legislation and push
it to succeed within boardroom.
Rachael represents this chapter of NRHH and the UWSP campus as a whole through her
position and leaves a lasting impact. The quality of leadership that Rachael possesses is
one-of-a-kind and has inspired others to reach their goals and aspirations similar to the
manner in which she has attained hers. Rachael’s leadership extends throughout her
WHIL/CC position to construct a great living and learning environment for the students
here at UWSP.
Sincerely,
Molly Thome
National Residence Hall Honorary President
Page | 8