The newest area director for Residence Life may be new to the position but is a familiar face to Linfield College.

Nick Domenichini started his new position earlier his year as an interim Residence Life director after the position was vacated by Mackenzie Larson who became the Residence Life director for the nursing campus earlier this year.  

A self-proclaimed ‘townie,’ Domenichini grew up in Mcminnville before he went to Pacific Lutheran University in 2013. After graduating PLU in 2016 Domenichini went abroad and became an English language teaching a

ssistant in Spain. That same year he began a program to earn his master’s in arts and education, which he completed in 2018.

Domenichini said had decided to leave Washington, and return to Oregon.

“So after I completed my master’s, I was like everyone else in higher education and was like, ‘Okay I need to make a decision. I need to find a job,’” Domenichini said.

Looking for a job in higher education, Domenichini looked back home and saw a position at Linfield’s Multicultural Center as a programming assistant. “I decided that I needed to leave Tacoma for a little bit and come back to Oregon,” Domenichini said.  

His mother, Kathryn Martin, began working for Linfield as a coordinator for Learning Support Services, which gave Domenichini a connection to Linfield.

Domenichini said while he was working as assistant multicultural programmer, he received a job alert saying that an  area director position was open. Domenichini took the opportunity and was in an interview that seemed to appear as sudden as the alert on his phone. And not long time later Domenichini found himself himself in this new position.

Domenichini is in a position that has him regularly interacting with resident advisors.

Domenichini said that “My duties are based around the management of the medium halls on campus, [Terrell, Elkington, Hewitt, Larsell, and Miller]. So I manage all 15 of the RAs in those halls. Besides that, I follow up, with students in the [Residence Life] office, and assist other area directors the best I can.”

Despite the new title giving him plenty of responsibilities, Domenichini is still aware that his position is a temporary one.

“It’s a reduced role for what an area director would normally be” Domenichini said. “That’s because it’s interim, it’s the middle of the year so it’s hard to train someone in that time frame.”

Domenichini said he has no plans as to what happens in the long-term, but he does have his sights on re-applying for the job at the end of the semester to make his position permanent.

“In the near future, it’ll be the typical daily work of disputes with students and helping my RAs,” Domenichini said. “I hope to have a good rapport from my RAs so that when this position re-opens, that they will see me as a good candidate [and] stay in this position. I have really gotten to like this job.”