A Look Into Your Resident Director’s Lives
The best roommates. Your favorite couple. The greatest “One True Pairing” (OTP). You know and love them: Young Hall Resident Director Chip Pitkin and his wife, Alyssa Pitkin.
Normally, when you think of honeymoons, you don’t think of Wiley Hall as the destination. The Pitkins, who tied the knot in June 2018, tackled their first year of marriage living in Wiley and Young Hall. Nonetheless, these newlyweds find ways to make their marriage unique and fun.
The Pitkin story begins at PLNU. Chip graduated from PLNU in 2009 and has worked as a Resident Director since. Alyssa was the PLNU Women’s Assistant Volleyball coach from 2015 to 2017. They didn’t meet on campus until Chip’s old Wiley roommate invited him and Alyssa to a Superbowl party in 2017.
“People have tried to set me up for years,” Chip says. “But we met and we really hit it off.” The rest was history: Chip and Alyssa dated for ten months, got engaged then married six months later.
Day-to-day life for the couple looks like finding the balance between private married life and sharing life with the residents. Chip and Alyssa’s apartment suite sits just to the left of the main door to Young, and they often hear the students running around in the wee hours of the night. However, the couple remains welcoming toward the students.
“There are times that can be a little tricky,” Chip says. “If we’re having an argument we’ll like to sit in the car for half an hour, before making the awkward walk from the parking lot to the front door. Sometimes we try to shield our stuff from everyone else, but it’s also good for younger people to see a real example of people who are working towards growth and being better for each other then and in turn be better for our community.”
Baby Got Hendricks: Megan Richardson on starting her family in a dorm
You’ll typically hear lots of crying coming from a freshman dorm. Hey, transitioning into college life is hard and sometimes you need a good cry. But this school year, Resident Director Megan Richardson brings the ultimate freshman crier into Hendricks Hall—her four-month-old son, Ryder Richardson.
The Richardsons are adjusting to starting their family in a dorm. Megan juggles full-time mom and full-time RD.
“I want to be approachable and available,” Megan says. “Yes, this is my job, and we’re just living our life. The other night residents above us were being decently loud and Ryder was asleep and Garret [my husband] was gone. I was kind of stuck because I wanted to tell them to be quiet, but I couldn’t leave Ryder alone. So some of that stuff can be a challenge. It’s a dance.”
In a few years, Ryder will get to experience growing up on a college campus and is already promised an extensive list of babysitters, aunts, uncles and students who already love him. And even when he cries (he has the cutest crying face) he’ll always have a Loma family to come home to.
“[Ryder] has made my job somewhat easier. He’s a great conversation starter and I get to meet a lot of the residents just by having him with me,” Megan says.
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