Centenary student organization receives national honor
SHREVEPORT, LA — Centenary’s National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) chapter won a national programming award in September 2023, capturing the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) “Social Program of the Month” for a program called Featherweight organized by resident assistant Briana Aguirre.
“Of The Months,” or OTMs, are a competition sponsored by the NACURH to highlight and recognize community members on college and university campuses across the country. Centenary has been participating with NACURH for nearly 25 years and has won awards in the past, but hasn’t had a national OTM winner since 2010.
“To get to the national level, an OTM first has to win at the campus level, then at the regional level,” explained Katherine Shamburger, director of residence life and student conduct at Centenary. “Our region (SWACURH) is made up of Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma, and we’re actually the smallest affiliated school in our region.”
Featherweight was a de-stressing, “brain break” pillow-fighting contest staged outside of James Residence Hall that attracted more than 70 students. Resident Assistant Briana Aguirre is in her first year on the Centenary Residence Life staff and works with first-year students living in the James Hall Annex. Fellow RA and NRHH member Coby Harris wrote the OTM nomination for Aguirre’s program, and highlighted the fact that the Featherweight event helped attract attention to another Residence Life program on suicide prevention.
“These two programs complimented each other very well as the fun pillow fighting was a funnel into a more serious topic that college students should be aware of,” wrote Harris in OTM nomination. “The impact of this program (Featherweight) actively added to the sense of community on campus as I noticed people speaking to each other for the first time and introducing themselves. As the week of most students’ mid-terms was coming up, I thought this was a great way for students to find a small escape and potentially get rid of some of the stress students often bottle up.”