Hannah McBride, who has attended NW as a student as well as worked here as an admissions counselor and a resident director will be leaving after this semester to take a position at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.
After serving four years as the resident director of Stegenga Hall, Hannah McBride will step down at the end of this semester to take a position at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Penn.
“I will be working with the government and the Messiah community to improve and grow efforts in addressing sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, interpersonal violence and stalking on college campuses,” McBride said. “It is part of a grant-funded international program, and I will run the grant and prevention programs, as well as the assessments of our work and the community response.”
McBride’s history at Northwestern began when she transferred in her junior year, hoping to change her major and study in a Christian environment.
“When I spoke with professors at NW, they spoke very clearly to my desire to grow as a whole person,” McBride said. “They specifically told me another school would teach me the same skills, but that they could teach me how to use those skills to live a fulfilling, challenging, creative life.”
McBride later worked as an admissions counselor at NW for two years, moved to Louisiana for a year, and then returned to NW to take the position of RD in Steggy.
“Coming back to NW to work in Residence Life was entirely providential,” McBride said. “I was pretty unqualified in terms of direct experience, but the staff saw my passion for supporting students and my love for building into a place that is intentional in every piece of forming identity.”
As her final weeks at NW draw to a close, McBride anticipates missing the people. Specifically co-workers, professors she has come to treasure as mentors and friends, her supervisors, and the women of Steggy.
“I [cannot] emphasize the women of Steg enough. Those women, and my RAs, have time and time again reinforced why we do this work and why I am here,” McBride said. “We have laughed, cried, struggled, and grown together. There are people from that hall I will never forget or lose touch with. I have been totally blessed by being a Steggy girl.”
Junior Cayla Slattery, RA of Steggy 1N, described McBride as fun and full of laughter.
“She’s a really awesome boss because she makes it seem like she’s a boss, but she’s also an older sister and mentor at the same time,” Slattery said. “It’s a cool mix to have, especially when it comes to college employment.”
Slattery also noted McBride is easily frightened. “Sometimes the RAs like to scare her. It’s quite funny to frighten her and videotape it.”
With McBride leaving, a search process has begun to fill the position of RD in Steggy.
“We began the process by posting the job on NW’s website as well as the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and the Association for Christians in Student Development’s websites,” said Marlon Haverdink, director of Resident Life. “Through prayerful consideration and quite a few calls to references, we narrowed the pool to our top eight candidates.”
After several phone interviews, the RDs gave Haverdink their top four candidates. “I averaged each candidate’s score and there were three candidates that clearly distinguished themselves,” said Haverdink.
The three candidates were then invited on-campus for an extensive two-day interview, including involvement with current and future RA staff in Steggy, residents in Steggy, faculty and staff.
The search team hopes to have a new RD hired by Friday, April 22.
