Cultural Advisors

One of the five principles of The Richmond Promise — the University’s strategic plan — states as its goal, “A defining spirit of opportunity and welcome to excellent students, faculty, and staff of all means and backgrounds.”

This year, Richmond’s inaugural group of Cultural Advisors (CAs) will serve as ambassadors to promote this objective. These 12 students (11 sophomores and 1 senior) live in residence halls and will work to develop relationships with and among students to create a safe, welcoming, and supportive campus community.

Different from Residence Assistants (RAs) who are responsible for enforcing University policies within dorms, CAs work in consultation with RAs to help make all students feel welcome at UR.

“CAs are an important addition to UR’s emphasis on being an inclusive community,” says Glyn Hughes, director of Common Ground, the office that oversees the program. “… CAs are neither policy enforcers nor diversity trainers; they help residents to make connections with a goal of building stronger, more exciting communities among students.”

Jamaica Akande, ’13, is eager to promote diversity on campus as a Cultural Advisor. “I wanted to do this for personal reasons,” she explains, “so I can give the next generation of UR students more opportunities and to help them feel more included in the community than I did last year. … I have had a pretty good experience here, but I think there are a lot of improvements we can make to make this a more inclusive community.”

Cultural Advisors will reach out to students primarily though programs and social opportunities. “We want to give alternatives to students on weekends who don’t want to party,” says Jordan Yanev, ’13, a CA in Wood Hall. “I see the Cultural Advisor’s role as a mentor. I’m in a freshman dorm. I can give the students insights about Richmond and things I wish I had done differently. I am here to listen to them.”

Aleah Goldin, ’13, is excited to be a part of this new initiative. “We are pioneers,” she says. “We have the opportunity to create what this program is going to be in the future.”

While Common Ground runs the program, it also collaborates the residence life staff of Richmond and Westhampton colleges. “The idea is for CAs to work closely with RAs, Area Coordinators, and Common Ground to enhance the community-building work that RAs already do,” Hughes explains.

"By living with students, CAs “can reach out to students where they are most comfortable — in their rooms and residence halls,” Akande says.  

Common Ground supports the Cultural Advisors with programming budgets and bi-weekly professional development meetings.

In her role as CA, Malori Holloman, ’13, hopes to introduce students to the city of Richmond. “I want to get people to realize there is more to Richmond than the UR campus,” she says. “The city of Richmond has its own culture and I want to encourage students to explore that instead of getting caught in the Richmond bubble, which is really easy to do.”

Hughes says other schools have cultural advisor positions, though their roles vary. At Richmond, “CAs will do things like create Facebook pages for their halls, survey residents’ recreational interests, organize trips to cool local venues, and generally look to facilitate residents connecting with one another,” he says.

Akande plans to take some time to get to know her residents before planning programs for them."I want to see what their interests are, what their cultures and background are, and want to tailor [my programs] to people's interests," she says. "...There is a lot more to diversity than just race."