Student Organization Wins Prestigious Award

Pacific University’s chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) has won the coveted “NRHH Building Block Chapter of the Year” award for the Pacific Association of College and University Residence Halls (PACURH) region at a recent conference at University of British Columbia. This award is given to one school each year within the PACURH region, which includes universities from California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska and British Columbia.

All universities with active Residence Hall Associations (RHA) and NRHH chapters send delegates to the business conference each year to vote on bids for a number of awards, elections, and legislation for the region. Pacific's delegation this year included students Briana Springer as Pacific's NRHH representative, Carolyn Cartwright as Pacific's RHA President, April Herr as Pacific’s National Communications Coordinator (NCC), and Advisor Lindsey Blem.

This was the first time Pacific University bid for the “NRHH Building Block Chapter of the Year” award. Pacific's bid was created by NRHH members Madeline Lee, Justin Redona, Kathryn Onley, Liz Quimby, Jordan Kronen, Jordyn Nelson, Mira Starr, Ally Shackelford, and Kate Schiewe. These student leaders serve in many leadership positions across campus and were inducted into NRHH for their service to residential students.

The 19-page bid utilizes the theme of outer space to show how the chapter had outstanding growth and development during the year of nomination. Topics addressed in the bid include programming, membership recruitment, regional and national “Of the Month” awards, budget, participation, and goals. In discussion of the bid, representatives from other institutions in the region commended Pacific University’s chapter for its number of regional and national “Of the Month” awards earned and quality of programming, including the 24 Hour Service Fair. To read Pacific’s bid for NRHH Building Block Chapter of the Year, visit the Pacific University NRHH webpage.

Pacific now competes against the "NRHH Building Block Chapter of the Year" award winners in the other seven regions of NACURH at the national conference at University of Pittsburgh in May. NACURH is the largest student-run organization in the world, and Pacific’s RHA and NRHH have been affiliated and involved with the organization for many years. In 2005, Pacific hosted the annual PACURH No Frills conference in Forest Grove. The last time Pacific won a regional award was the “School of the Year” award in 2006.

For more information about the award, or how to become involved with RHA or NRHH, please contact Lindsey Blem at lindseyb@pacificu.edu