Workplace Expectations for NYSSSA Residential Life Staff
The New York State Summer School of the Arts is a unique experience for residential life staff as well as for students. Everyone at a NYSSSA School - students, faculty and staff - is expected to contribute to and gain from the intense experience that is created. It is essential to the operation and value of the program that residential life staff strive to live up to these expectations.
Enthusiasm
If you are dedicated to the goals of NYSSSA, you will naturally be enthusiastic about it—we're not looking for fake "spirit." But the residential duration of each school is a long time, and fatigue can make one grumpy. We fight against the grumpiness because it makes the program run more smoothly and because it makes it more likely that we will achieve our goals with the students. Of course if you're not dedicated to the goals of NYSSSA, then you'll find the extraordinary energy and professionalism it requires to be really unpleasant. If you're thinking of applying just to make some money, you should definitely look elsewhere. But if you're like the close to 1000 folks who've been part of the NYSSSA staff since the inception of the program in 1970, you'll fully realize that the investment of energy and professionalism will pay rich dividends in whatever direction your life and career may move.
Judgment
We're responsible for the welfare and security of each and every one of the minors in a school. The way you interact with them and the way you characterize that interaction when you are not around them should always show your understanding of those responsibilities. Many NYSSSA students are extremely mature—emotionally and intellectually—but they are nevertheless minors, and their welfare is always our top priority.
Integrity
From the students watching you do your job, to the faculty and your co-workers—each of them depends on you and needs you to be in place, ready to do your job. There's no alternative here. We have to uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity, on- and off-duty, as role-models, co-workers, and New York State public servants.
Respect
Respect for other individuals, cultures, backgrounds, educational levels, and so forth, is simply and absolutely required for anyone who wants to be effective at NYSSSA.
Teamwork
There's no definition of what we do at NYSSSA that does not involve working together as a team. You should be willing not just to work along side others, but to positively find ways to make your work complement and enrich that of others. Teamwork means not thinking of yourself as having one narrow set of duties. It means actively pursuing ways of working together, it means listening to each other with a willingness to adjust how you do your job, and it means not thinking that your work is done when your official duties for the day have been discharged. If you're looking for a more individualistic, laissez-faire model, you are looking for a different job. It means residential life staff understanding the needs of the faculty. It means faculty understanding that the residential life experience of the students is an important part of what students will remember long after they leave NYSSSA. It means staff and faculty understanding that office staff, program staff, and others who work behind the scenes will regularly need help if all the details that makes a NYSSSA school "work" are to come together.
Service
This program, at its most essential level, is a kind of service. To work at NYSSSA you need to have someone else's--the students'--interests at the forefront of your motivations. If you are in it for yourself, or if you are not first and foremost interested in promoting the interests of this group of young people, then this isn't for you.
Celebration and Encouragement
NYSSSA invokes all of your energy, talents, patience, inter-personal skills, and professionalism. When we see each other doing these things well, we ought to make sure that we note it--lots of our work will go unnoticed, but we try hard to encourage each other when we see a job well-done.