When Malak Hassanein reflects on her life journey that led her to her third year as a resident advisor with University Housing, she’s often struck by the full-circle nature of it. 

Hassanein, a fourth-year student studying psychology with a double minor in French and business, was born in Egypt and spent most of her childhood in Greensboro. However, when her family first moved to the United States when she was five years old, her father was a graduate student at NC State, and her family lived in E.S. King Village. 

So, when it came time to choose a college, the school felt like a natural fit for Hassanein. 

“NC State felt like home and something familiar,” Hassanein said. “It just had a good sense of community. Something about it made me feel closer to my dad. I know there’s a lot of really good community building, and, at that time when I was applying to college, NC State was advocating for a lot of their initiatives.” 

Little did Hassanein know just how central that sense of community building would become for her college experience. 

Building Community as a Resident Advisor

In her first year at NC State, Hassanein formed a strong relationship with her own resident advisor (RA). She enjoyed learning about the elements of fostering and building a community for residents, and that inspired her to take on the role herself. 

““I believe that my job is to be a support for students.”

Hassanein listens to a podcast from Dr. Mona Nour, a licensed mental health clinician who has developed a model of belonging with three elements: feeling seen, feeling celebrated and feeling embraced.

“I believe that my job is to be a support for students,” Hassanein said. “I mostly work in first-year buildings. My role is to be a support in helping students navigate their college experience, helping them feel that sense of belonging. I try to embody all three of those elements in my role. We do something called PackChats which are formal conversations with residents to check in on them, but I prefer to do a more informal approach, so it’s just asking how everyone’s doing regularly. I want to be their go-to person if they need something, not just when something is wrong.” 

Hassanein, who works in Sullivan Residence Hall, focuses a lot on event planning. She explained that RAs are responsible for designing events for students to engage in the community. She also is responsible for duty shifts every other week from 5-8 a.m., in which she answers phones in the building and responds if there’s a problem. 

RAs also cover 24-hour weekend duty shifts, and conduct health and safety inspections of living spaces. 

And, of course, move-in week is one of the busiest times of the year for RAs. Prior to move-in, the RAs go through various training sessions, such as learning about Title IX, how to fill out a CARES report or communicate with campus police. 

During move-in itself, the RAs are responsible for anything from greeting students and parents to checking students in. 

“Move-in is just three days of ‘there’s so much noise happening in the building, everyone’s moving in.’ But it’s also a nice, exciting movement with all of the students’ bright faces. I tell them that it’s going to go by really quickly. People used to say that to me, but I feel it now. That was me three or four years ago.” 

Once the students have moved in, focus quickly turns to planning and hosting events designed to get them out of their rooms and engaged with campus. 

“I really love the sense of community.”

For Hassanein, that sort of event planning and leading is the best part of life as an RA. 

“I really love the sense of community,” she said. “I think I really lucked out with my staff, although they change every year. Sullivan has a really good group of fun people that also can take their jobs seriously. I lucked out with my residents as well. We always have really good engagement and communication. We relate to each other, even though we’re all different ages, majors and things like that. We realize things like ‘oh, we both like the same music group.’ It’s about finding people that you normally wouldn’t have met prior to being an RA. It’s organically made, which I really love.”

In a building like Sullivan, which also houses the Engineering Village, that community building aspect takes on an added importance. 

“With housing, community and belonging is our bread and butter,” said Mikalah Hall, Sullivan’s graduate assistant. “I think for Malak, it’s been very helpful because RAs see that passion and her goals, and they’ve followed suit too. I think that’s our whole space, especially being in an engineering building. That extra care to attention and community is so important. For anyone, it’s easy to isolate yourself in your space, but when you’re in Engineering classes and you have such a heavy workload, it’s easier to say you want to be in the library or your room. It’s really important to have that space of wanting to try to connect with your residents.” 

“Community and belonging is our bread and butter.”

Hassanein has also been part of the RA Council in all three of her years with her role. She explained that this organization works together alongside professional University Housing staff to plan events and exchange feedback on trainings and the program as a whole. 

Last spring, the council started a mental health task force for RAs to promote overall wellness for RAs with the stresses of the job. 

This year, Hassanein has stepped up to lead the RA Council as its chair, and for those who have spent any length of time working with her, that’s no surprise. 

“There are a lot of times I’ve seen students lead over time working with high school and college students,” Hall said. “But Malak leads with so much care and intention. She’s very firm and has very high expectations for other coworkers and RAs, but it’s also done with a sense of ‘I’m doing this because I really care for you.’ Some of the new RAs call her the RA mother of the group. I’ve definitely seen her grow a lot.”

Staying Busy on Campus

In addition to her work as an RA, Hassanein is also involved with the NC State student chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). She’s been with the organization since the spring semester of her first year at NC State, and is serving as the president this year after being on the executive board for two years. 

“I really loved the community,” Hassanein said. “The people there were so kind, and they really wanted to make a difference.”

Hassanein explained that AMA holds two meetings each month in which members learn about marketing terms, job experiences and skills such as resume building or creating a LinkedIn profile. 

AMA also hosts a regional conference in the spring and contests where students compete for a cash prize with four different competitions, network with recruiters at their career fair and learn from notable keynote speakers, such as NASCAR. The organization is open to students from all majors, and teaches participants invaluable skills for their future careers. 

“I feel more confident in expressing my opinions and helping other people who I see myself in.”

“It’s definitely helped with my public speaking,” Hassanein said. “If you talked to me in high school, I would not do any of the things I’m doing now. Even though I was involved in a lot of clubs, I was more of a silent leader type of person. Now I feel more confident in expressing my opinions and helping other people who I see myself in. I’ve learned a lot of invaluable people skills.”

Hassanein is also involved with the Muslim Student Association, previously serving as its publicity chair and now taking pictures at events. 

“It’s really nice to have a club that’s similar to my identity, because I obviously am a Muslim woman. It’s nice to be around people who are similar to me, and, again, develop that sense of community. That’s the big word of my college journey, what that means to me.” 

Hassanein also works in NC State’s Undergraduate Admissions office. 

“I’ve gotten to form really amazing connections with my coworkers as well as help prospective students with their admissions process,” Hassanein said. 

A Community-Based Future

When it comes to hobbies and activities, Hassanein said that she loves to go thrift shopping with her friends. 

“I think that is the coolest thing in the world,” she said. “Every piece has a different story.”

Hassnein also enjoys trying new foods with her friends and exploring different global cultures through trying foods from those regions. 

She also enjoys learning and practicing new languages, and can currently speak English, Arabic, French and Spanish and is learning Korean and German. 

“I love to speak different languages,” Hassanien said. “It goes back to the idea of being seen and embraced. Before I learned English, I didn’t know it that well. Having someone who can relate to you, even if it’s just a couple sentences, makes you feel like ‘Oh, I’m seen. There are people who understand me.’”

Hassanein isn’t yet sure what her future holds post-graduation. She is looking into counseling graduate programs, while also maintaining a focus on marketing and creativity. 

One thing’s certain – she wants to continue driving the passion for community building she’s developed at NC State. 

“I do know that what I want to do is help people and bring that sense of community and belonging into the world,” she said.