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In student housing, many things clamor for our attention day in and day out. Sometimes it is something small, while other times it’s more challenging like working with a student/parent on a concern or tackling increasing retention on campus. Though it often feels like trying to juggle about a dozen balls at once, there are things that happen, or people that come along in our careers, that can help us refocus on what is most important: our students. This summer, we hosted our first ever ACUHO-I intern here at Marshall. We were very fortunate to have a great pool of candidates and even more fortunate when Ryan Lloyd decided that Marshall was his top choice and joined our team. I believe Ryan was exactly what we needed. Not only did he bring strong knowledge and understanding of what we do, he brought with him a lot of passion in working for and with students. One of the things I believe Ryan really reminded us all of was, staying focused on our student population and how to go about meeting their needs. The passion and insight that Ryan brought with him has proved to be very valuable in many ways, but has particularly been valuable while working on significant departmental initiatives such as: diversity, founding a National Residence Hall Honorary, restructuring our hall governments as well as increasing and retaining an international student population. Ryan and I wrote some thoughts on specific challenges that need to be tackled within Housing and Residence Life here at Marshall in order to increase and retain an international population. Though general in nature, some of the simplest operational aspects had to be examined so that we can effectively meet the needs our ALL of our students. Check it out! Click here to read Ryan’s full report