Rachel Carringer: MC alumnus serves as new RD of Gamble Hall

Rachel Carringer takes the place of Shaun O’Malley as the new RD of Gamble Hall this year, after O’Malley left in May. She lives, along with her husband and two dogs in the hall, where they make it their home. However, Carringer said, she wants to make a difference in the residence hall, referencing the time she had previously spent at MC.

She was a former psychology student at the school. “When I was in college a couple years ago, I was involved in Res Life,” Carringer said. She said that she found her calling to work with college students after she considered the after she had graduated. Carringer said that she had always wanted to come back to MC, and that she was “fortunate” when the job opened back up.

When she moved in, Carringer explained that it was different to adjust to life from a house to an apartment in a college resident hall. She said that she and her husband donated many of their things to organizations like Goodwill. “It was such a humbling experience,” Carringer said. “[To know] how much extra we have, how much we don’t need.” Despite donating many of her possessions, her apartment was still decorated for the holidays, with the usual Christmas tree in the living room. Carringer said that her husband, Reed, supports her decision to work in Gamble Hall. He even works at the hall, happy that the space is larger than his previous office. Her two dogs are important to her also.

“They are kind of like my children,” Carringer said. She told the stories of how one of the dogs, Ziva, would get lonely in her old house before she got her second dog. The dogs have different personalities, with one territorial especially around people she does not know and the other comfortable around the residents, letting them pet him. Carringer compared being a resident director of a male resident hall as opposed to a female resident hall as “definitely different”.

“I walk through Davis and I see decorations and it smells so good. They’re girls,” she said. “Here, I feel like it’s a lot more laidback.” However, she said that it living in Gamble does not bother her, even though some of the male residents frequently pull pranks such as knocking on her door and leaving. When asked about what she wanted to do here at Maryville, she was up in the air. “I don’t know if I can hold that all to one thing,” Carringer said.

In addition to being a resident director, Carringer is currently enrolled a family nurse practitioner program at Lincoln Memorial University. She said that she endeavors to help both the residents of Gamble Hall and her patients the best that she can. “I hope my residents will be like me,” Carringer said. “I hope they’ll want to come back to Maryville College.”