Mixing It Up: NACA Northeast 2014

Bears on Day 1 - ready to take on #NACAne!

A couple of weekends ago, I ventured down to Hartford with 11 awesome BSU students and 4 other awesome BSU staff members for the NACA Northeast Regional Conference! Because I'm nearing the end of my graduate experience and will soon be on the job hunt, my approach to tackling this conference was a bit different than last year's approach, which was basically "omg I have no clue what I'm doing so I guess I'll just try everything" (my normal approach to anything in life).

This year, with the help of my OSIL buds, I tried my best to become more involved on-site as well as meet as many people as my shy, introvert self can handle. I do want NACA to become a big part of my professional life and because I'm planning to stay in the region, I wanted to be sure I met a good number of my future colleagues while I was there.

My fear of public speaking is written all over my face...

I had the opportunity to present an educational session with my direct supervisor on program board advising, and while I was pretty nervous to share my experiences with a room full of established professionals, I think it was received well and we received many positive comments from those that attended, which is always encouraging!

I also, of course, got to spend a significant amount of time with the BSU delegation (the best part of the conference). They always make me so proud with how much heart and energy they put into everything they do, including attending conferences! They really see the value of attending things like the NACA Regional conferences and know that what they learn will benefit more than themselves, which is pretty amazing in my eyes.

#bearpaws

I'm hoping that I will get the chance to attend NACA Northeast again in 2015 (the way NACA works is that you have to be part of a "member institution", as a student or a professional, in order to be a part of the organization, so if I don't end up landing a job at a member institution before next November I won't be able to go :/) but even if it doesn't work out I know that NACA will be in my very near future regardless!