For many students, dorm life is a rite of passage—sometimes dreaded, sometimes celebrated—but at WSU, the National Residence Hall Honorary is working to transform it into an experience defined by community and recognition.
NRHH is a service and recognition oriented organization with more than 200 branches at universities across the country. At WSU, it empowers students to engage with the campus community through service. In residence halls, NRHH hosts events that celebrate all students, such as a recent dinner outreach event recognizing a wide range of GPAs, rather than only top achievers.
“We gave our little spiel of, ‘This is what NRHH is. It’s obvious you’re doing really great here and we want to say how great you’re doing and give back to you guys,’” said Chloe Goodenough, NRHH service director.
Goodenough, a seasoned dorm professional, has lived all over campus in her tenure as a resident assistant and senior resident assistant.
“I started out in Stephenson South, then I became an RA because I wanted to get more involved in my community, so I moved over to Duncan Dunn,” she said.
Goodenough said she joined NRHH to deepen her involvement in residence hall communities and the dorm experience is invaluable to a young college student’s growth.
“It’s definitely shaped my understanding of not only what community looks like and what it is, but it’s also given me so many different avenues—not just friends but people I wouldn’t have been able to talk to,” she said.
NRHH-led events help foster community values, strengthening not only dorm life but the broader student experience, Goodenough said.
“We are a community that helps each other and we are a community that does all these big things because we love our community,” she said.
A key feature of NRHH’s service-oriented activities is its “Of the Month” nominations, or OTMs. These small pieces of writing, submitted by students, recognize staff, faculty, fellow students, or other university-affiliated individuals. NRHH celebrates all submissions and sends small gifts to nominees.
OTMs can be submitted by anyone in honor of anyone at WSU, and NRHH’s recognition efforts extend nationwide, with some nominations eligible for national recognition.
The organization also promotes service, recently holding a winter clothing drive that received massive donations from residence halls. The clothing was sent to Spokane to support the homeless population.
“It was just so beautiful to see that people wanted to help,” said Allie Ozmun-Wells, NRHH membership and publicity director. “It helps show that we want to support each other as a whole. There’s not a proximity that’s necessary to want to help each other.”
Ozmun-Wells, who initially joined NRHH at her parents’ encouragement, said she found the experience overwhelmingly positive and now plans to become an RA.
“I got there and really liked what they were doing,” she said.
NRHH membership declined after the COVID-19 pandemic and current executives are working to rebuild participation.
“The organization has been really small the last couple of years because of COVID, but our organization in the past has been really, really big,” Ozmun-Wells said.
Despite recent challenges, Goodenough said she is optimistic about the future.
“I am excited to see where things go. We’re already thinking, ‘Oh, what if we do this? We can make it bigger and better and make it campus-wide,’” she said.
For information on events and how to join NRHH, follow them on Instagram @wsu.nrhh.
