NEWS RELEASE

Communications and Marketing Office
600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114-3900

For more information, contact:
Phone: 386-226-6157
Fax: 386-226-6158

Contact: Mary Van Buren
Phone: 386-226-6525

Embry-Riddle Hosts Florida Resident Advisor Seminar

Daytona Beach, Fla., Jan. 19, 2006 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will welcome more than 325 resident advisors and 50 professional student affairs representatives Jan. 20-22 for the annual Florida Resident Advisor Seminar (FRAScar 2006). The event is hosted by the university’s Housing and Residence Life Office.

Resident advisors are college student leaders who lead a wing or a building of 30-60 residential students. They are typically responsible for educational programming, peer counseling, enforcement of policy, and building a sense of community. They also respond to campus crises and other emergencies.

“On most college campuses, the RA staff is the cream of the crop among student leaders,” said Cathy Downes, director of Residence Life at Embry-Riddle. “They receive extensive training at their own schools, and the FRAS conference is an extension of that training. For most of these students the FRAS conference is the highlight of their year.”

The students, who will stay at the Plaza Ocean Club in Daytona Beach, will introduce themselves to the other Florida colleges Friday night through a “roll call” -- a short skit or commercial depicting a NASCAR product sponsor and their own school. Afterward they will spend time getting to know one another in the hospitality suite sponsored by the Daytona Beach News-Journal at the Plaza Resort and Spa. There the students will play board games, compete in DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), or just talk shop about their schools.

All day Saturday the students will be on the Embry-Riddle campus for concurrent educational sessions led by RAs from all of the schools represented at the conference. More than 55 programs will be offered, covering such topics as how to lead your residents during a crisis, how to program for success on your wing, and how to market your RA job for a future career.

Saturday night the students will return to the Plaza Resort and Spa for an award banquet, a dance, a swap shop, and another visit to the hospitality suite. Schools will be awarded prizes for the most spirit, best roll call, and best program. The keynote speaker, Korry Franke, is an Embry-Riddle graduate, a former RA, and now flies for American Airlines.

For more information, check out www.FRAS2006.com or call Gonzalo Canseco at (386) 295-8478, Jason Chokel at (386) 323-8002, or Cathy Downes at (386) 323-8005.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates more than 32,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Extended Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, and through distance learning.