The Office of Residential Education proudly presents the Resident Assistant of the Month Award for September 2008 to Taylor Raufus '11. Raufus embodies the leadership skills and spirit that Resident Assistants at Hobart and William Smith strive to achieve. He has "made a family" in Bartlett and continues to go above and beyond the call of duty.
During the recent power outage, Raufus proudly stood post with a lantern outside Bartlett Hall to make sure the Hale, Bartlett, Durfee area was safe from danger. He finally went to sleep after the power was restored on campus. During his short tenure as a resident assistant, Raufus has garnered respect from both his residents and his colleagues.
In addition to being an RA, Taylor serves on the HWS EMS squad and responds to calls all over campus for medical emergencies.
Overall, Raufus has shown extraordinary leadership. He deserves to be recognized for his dedication to his role as a Resident Assistant in the HWS community. Raufus is a leader in every sense of the word. The residential experience at Hobart and William Smith Colleges would not be the same without him! Congratulations!

The HWS First Generation Initiative was created in the 2006-2007 academic year in order to offer programs to support our students who are one of the first in their families to attend college.We welcome participation in the Initiative by all faculty and staff members. We are planning several events for this academic year including programming during Family Weekend in October, a mentoring program and career workshops, and further publicity on campus about the work of the Initiative.At this time, we are specifically seeking HWS community members who could host a family during Family Weekend on October 3-5th. In many cases, this is one family member of one of our current students who is "first generation."  In a few cases, it may be 2-4 people. If you feel you could host a family member of one of our first generation students during that weekend, please contact Lisa Kaenzig at Kaenzig@hws.edu by Friday, September 12th.If you would like to be included in the work of the Initiative, please feel free to contact any of us.