Resident Assistants

What do a skater, a red neck, and a cheerleader have in common? They are all common stereotypes that we come across in all Universities. Have a fashion show of all types of stereotypes and teach others how to deal with diversity and misjudgment in the residence halls.

The purpose of this program is to help Residents and Resident Assistants deal with the diversity we confront everyday and the judgments people make about each other. This program helps teach people not to judge a book by its cover.

Set up a run way with rows of chairs on each side so everyone can see the show. Have RAs be your “models”, and walk the runway dressed up as different stereotypes.

While the RAs are walking you can either give the residents a piece of paper where they would write down the stereotypes they perceive, or you can have signs with common stereotypes on them that participants raise to tell what stereotypes they are perceiving.

After the runway show, have a discussion on the stereotypes seen and commonly encountered in our lives. The discussion should also include ways to deal with people misjudging and stereotyping.

This is a fun program to do at anytime of the year. To make it even better you can take residents from the audience and have them walk in the fashion show, while others guess the stereotypes that they represent.