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!

Graduate Internship: 2 Month Update

The SLP Staff (aka the Clark delegation) at NACA Northeast last weekend!

I am currently on week 11 of my 15 week practicum for the fall semester and time is FLYING. I know that I mentioned that only being here 10 hours a week really makes it seem like time is just slipping away, and it still rings true. I'm usually only at Clark two days a week which also contributes to the illusion of the semester going by unusually fast. (By the time I finally catch up on everything I've missed while I was off campus, it's time for me to leave again!) I'm still really enjoying my time here, though, and am finally starting to feel a bit more acclimated to the Clark culture.

Students

I'm getting significantly more student interaction on a day-to-day basis now, which I've been loving. I've been working 1-on-1 with my blog contributors on a semi-regular basis, and have even gotten the chance to sit in on a few Undergraduate Student Council meetings, which has been a pretty cool experience as I haven't yet worked with a student government organization.

I would definitely stick to my first observation that Clark students are very passionate and aren't afraid challenge ideas and face difficult situations. They aren't afraid to really ask questions of the staff, express their opinions on ideas, and make their voices heard. It's a refreshing change of pace from other campuses that I have been involved with, whose students may be a bit more reserved with it comes to difficult topics.

Moving forward, I'm hoping I will get to continue my interactions with Student Council, and I'm going to get to start interacting with the Orientation staff as well, which we all know that I LOVE! Next semester will definitely be much more hands on when it comes to working with students, which I am really looking forward to.

Projects

The SLP blog is officially off the ground! So far we've had 3 posts on very different topics, and I'm excited to continue working with the contributors to bring out their creativity when it comes to approaching leadership topics. If you'd like to take a peak at what we've been writing about, check it out here. (We actually just posted a really awesome infographic that one of the students I work with made today!)

I'm also still researching how other institutions approach leadership programs and how those programs could be implemented here. I'm meeting with a committee of faculty and staff members at Clark next Friday to discuss this topic (which will be really awesome!) and see what its place is here. I'm very interested to see what type of leadership issues are brought up at this meeting.

As I mentioned above, I'll be working more with the Orientation staff, particularly running leadership development sessions with them as they prepare for the summer. I'm going to meet with the Orientation Coordinators (sort of like the "head" Orientation Leaders) tomorrow and I can't wait to get a feel for their personalities and what it will be like to work with them throughout the rest of the academic year!

Tomorrow night I'll be attending my first Clark event - Jay Pharoah - put on by the Major Events Committee! I haven't yet been able to make a major event work in my schedule, so I am very excited to see what a large event looks like on this campus. I know that I'll be present at a few very large events in the spring that are beloved Clark traditions, but I'm glad I'll get the chance to see an event in action this semester as well!

I can't believe I only really have a month left of my first semester here. I'm very thankful that I'll get to continue my internship through the spring as well - one semester is definitely not enough! I'll be posting next month with my next update, so stay tuned!

Run Over by October

It's safe to say it's October, considering what my calendars look like.

What my calendars looked like on the first of the month... they've since gotten more crowded.

This is the month where I typically completely forget I'm a student and am focused mainly on what I'm doing at work. That's not to say I'm not doing my homework, but I often have to remind myself "hey, you've got a 10 page paper due in 2 days... you should probably get on that". This is the month that Homecoming and prepping students for the NACA Northeast tend to collide and explode in a multitude of meetings, emails, Word documents, and more meetings. Oh, and mid-terms too... I guess. #SAgradprobz

I've been staying afloat relatively well this year. Last year, I kind of let it completely break me down, but this year I'm a bit more mindful of what needs to get done and how I'm going to accomplish it. I recently described how I deal with my busy schedule as "completely blacking out and just doing it then waking up and saying to myself 'what just happened'." I think that is the most accurate description I've given to date!

Me either, mystery person. Me either.

I've somehow been able to fit in some personal time in my schedule, and have actually been doing some pretty fun things lately! The weekend I went to NH for the marathon, my parents also ran a 5K called Footrace for the Fallen, so I ran support crew for them in return for running support crew for me the day before. There's so many fun short to mid-distance races in our area of NH, and they try to participate in as many as they can!

I've been making a serious effort to see Brett as often as I can as well. We're both so busy and on completely opposite schedules that it's hard to be able to spend time together that isn't spent sleeping or working on other things, but we've been making the most of it. We went out to froyo the other night (Brett's first time... his mind was blown) and we always have breakfast together in the dining hall at his school after his early morning work outs, so we still get a solid few waking hours together each week!

Yes, that is his school's logo in their waffles... incredible.

Other than spending time with Brett and my family, I've gotten a solid dose of time with my old pal Microsoft Word, cranking out papers like a champ. It's kind of gross that 8-10 page papers are second nature to me at this point when that seemed like such a daunting task a year ago. I'm actually enjoying the things that I'm writing about in my classes this semester, though, which makes it much easier to get through! I guess that's another clue that you're going down the right path, right?

Though October has been stressful thus far, it's been fun as well. We're smack dab in the middle of Homecoming at BSU and we've implemented a Spirit Week component to the mix this year which has been SO much fun! I'll post more about it next week. I'm also really looking forward to NACA at the end of the month. I know kind of know what I'm doing at conferences (I had never been to one before grad school!) and it's going to be a great opportunity to chat with colleagues at different campuses to get a feel for where I'd like to possibly work in the future. It's going to be a lot more than just taking it all in this year, and I'm excited for that!

I hope you all are having a wonderful October as well! (Can you believe we're already half way through? Where is this month going?!) I'll be sure to be posting in the next couple days, but here are two photos that are summing up my feelings on life at the moment...

Talk to you soon! :)

Everyday Heroes: NACA Northeast 2013

Taken by one of our lovely delegates for their conference blog! {source}

Two weeks ago I attended my first National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) regional conference! Bridgewater was super generous and brought me along to enjoy the weekend with them. I advised a delegation of 12 wonderful students, and my awesome supervisor was chair of the conference!

Bears assemble!

Despite being sick for virtually the entire weekend, I really enjoyed myself. I attended a handful of professional development and educational sessions which left me feeling energized and inspired about my jobs and the career I'm pursuing. I got to reunite with my friend Andrew from Lasell and hang out with him for a lot of the conference.

Of course we had to take a picture to send back to our former Director of Student Activities!

I got to see a number of wonderful performers which kept me entertained to no end all weekend long. I got to meet Dan Henig (what?!) and introduced him to one of our students who's actually really interested in bringing him to campus next semester (awesome).

He was so friendly and awesome! (And even retweeted me! :D)

And most importantly, I made some really great connections and met many other Student Affairs grad students that I could relate to, as well as get advice from those that are further along in their program than me. I felt (and still feel) so re-energized about this field which can be rather draining at times. I'm so grateful that BSU took me along with them. I'm so excited for next fall! :)

The Director of Student Involvement at BSU gave me that awesome orange button to wear around the conference, haha.

If you'd like to see the conference from the BSU delegation's perspective, check out their conference blog!

If you want to see more things that I did, check out the #NACANE tag on HESA Life!