They’re leading a wing together not just as colleagues, but also close friends.
Junior Luke Petroelje and senior Casey Bane are personnel assistants (PAs) on Second East Wengatz. But before they took this position together, they were already good friends.
As PAs, some of their basic duties and responsibilities include checking freshmen in when they move in, preparing wing meetings, keeping the dorm clean, taking care of housekeeping, keeping everyone up to date on information, giving out room keys and checking people out at the end of the year.
All of these tasks are given by Jacob Neu, Wengatz hall director.
“I think the transition went well,” Petroelje said. “It’s a gift to work alongside a great friend. I think the part that took some adjusting was the business work side of it, just realizing that we needed to get things done in a timely manner, and work together on some housekeeping stuff, and do that with communication, which takes some professional level of execution.”
Bane said he enjoys working with Petroelje as good friends. Even though they have different ideas and approaches at times, which was a learning curve at the beginning, they have learned to compromise and merge their ideas.
Bane became a PA because he knew it was a need for the wing, though it was not something that he had previous experience in. He wanted to learn from it and use the experience he had as a member on the wing.
“What I found is that throughout my experience, I’ve loved the wing culture,” Bane said. “I love the PAs … who have made a big difference in my Taylor experience. So to be able to do that to a freshman coming in and be the guy for a bunch of new freshmen, especially the 14 we have, I couldn’t pass that up.”
Former Second East PA Trace Muylle said he has had the privilege of serving alongside Petroelje during the previous year, and seeing him move on to serve with Bane.
“It’s just been a really cool perspective shift I’ve seen after coming off of PA for a couple of years,” Muylle said. “And to just be able to see how they've really done the work, done the behind the scenes work that people often don’t see … it’s been really cool to see.”
The role of PA is one of the layers of residence life. Petroelje said that it ultimately goes back to the Christ-rooted community we have at Taylor. Like Bane, he enjoys having the opportunity to invite and guide freshmen and underclassmen into a community he has grown in.
Some of the biggest difficulties of being PAs for Petroelje and Bane are having to limit their time and presence on the wing because of classes and their studies.
“I think another thing with the PA role that makes it different than some of the other roles on campus is that it’s not a clock in, clock out job,” Bane said. “You’re always on the clock. And so you always have to be ready to serve and have a posture of always being ready and putting the other guys in front of you, which can be difficult sometimes … But I’ve never regretted doing a PA role yet, and I think that goes to show how good the community is here.”
Petroelje added that he keeps trying to make sure that his heart is in the right place and that he has the right motives for everything that he does.
His advice for future PAs is to serve the vision of a Christian community before their own idea of what a community is and what it means to serve it.
Bane encourages those who are considering applying in the future to go for it. They will feel like they ended up growing more themselves than helping other people grow, he said.
