While explaining the clay on her pants, which came from ceramics, Hannah Priebe manages to jump from topic to topic without making any of it seem offbeat. She throws in suggestions for bands to listen to, like Family Force 5 and Run Kid Run, while talking about her new position as a resident assistant for Green Residence Hall.

            Priebe, a sophomore, has never lived on campus, even though she has lived close by since she was 3 years old. It is a rare occurrence for an off-campus student to apply to be a resident assistant, said Brian Bollinger, director of Residence Life.

Priebe wasn’t interested in the RA position when she came to Friends in ’06. Her college counselor had talked to her about coming to Friends and suggested being an RA after her freshman year.

“I was like, ‘Ugh, eww. I don’t want to do that,’” Priebe said.

She still considered it her first year but quickly passed it out of her mind.

“I thought RA’s were like the geeky hall guy in ‘She’s the Man,’” Priebe said. “He’s creepy, bad social skills, and totally the guy who’s going to rat you out.”

            “This last year’s RA’s totally changed my opinion,” she said.

            Priebe met some of the current RA’s through the art department and found out that they are not the geeks she thought they would be.

            Priebe, majoring in graphic design and studio art with an emphasis in painting, said the timing was perfect. She hadn’t thought much about applying and randomly asked Grace Langness, a junior and an RA, how to apply. Langness told Priebe that the last interest session was that night.

            “The timing really was perfect,” Priebe said. “I wouldn’t have thought about it normally, but then I was like, ‘OK God, I’m listening.’”

            Priebe said she was nervous and worried about the process and the interview.

            “I thought, ‘If I’m the only person that doesn’t live on campus and is applying, people will think she’s a geek, what is she doing?’”

This year one other off-campus student applied for the position but didn’t get it, Bollinger said.

It is a plus to find an upperclassman such as Priebe who can handle Green Hall and the conflict that it often provides, he said. Green Hall houses freshmen and new transfer students.

            With the worries of being seen as a geek over, Priebe sends out thanks to her college counselor from her high school.

            “I think she planted the seed in my head,” Priebe said. “I would have thought about it, but I wouldn’t have thought about it as much or even seriously considered it.”