Me, Jorge Velasquez, Rosanna Duran, and Katy Seipel at the NASPA Annual Conference.
During the Fall 2013 semester, I started to develop an interest in Student Affairs as a career option. I loved the energy of the professionals that I saw at George Mason and was super passionate about all of the work that I was doing as a student leader. As I started looking more and more into the career, I found an organization called NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education). I started to look into the association to keep myself up to date and learn more about the career. One day, when searching for scholarships on the Golden Key website, I saw that a scholarship for the NASPA Annual Conference was being offered. I decided to take advantage of the decision and apply, not exactly sure of what to expect of the conference.
In January, 2014, I was awarded the Golden Key NASPA Annual Scholarship. The scholarship covered the cost of both the Undergraduate Pre-Conference and the NASPA Annual Conference in Baltimore, MD from March 14th-March 19th. It also covered my travel, food, and other conference related costs. The opportunity to attend the conference under these circumstances was amazing, and I was extremely thankful to spend the week with some amazing individuals.
I spent the first half of the week at the Undergraduate Pre-Conference. At this conference, I had the chance to meet amazing aspiring and current student affairs professionals. Being one of the younger attendees (I was just a sophomore at the time), it was definitely an interesting experience. I talked to many people about graduate school and their plans for the future: what departments they wanted to work in, what schools they wanted to work at, and in general why they wanted to obtain a career in student affairs. The pre-conference was a great opportunity to learn more about how to maximize an undergraduate career for a student affairs track, as well as how to navigate the annual conference that many of us would attend later in the week. Some of the presentations that I personally attended were Identifying Learning & Skill Building Opportunities in Co-Curricular Activities, Involvement & Engagement in Professional Associations, From Student Leader to #SAPro: Tips to Identifying, Building, & Managing Your Personal Brand, and Social Justice & the SA Professional: Doing One’s Own Identity Work
After the Undergraduate Pre-Conference, I attended the NASPA Annual Conference. Where the Undergraduate Conference was a group of about 150 students who were all n the same page, the Annual Conference was attended by 6,000 undergraduate students, graduate students, and current professionals. Colleagues who knew each other would be full of joy when they ran into one another in the hallway and connect. At first, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I was alone in this. However, it wasn’t long until I connected with some George Mason community members that were attending the conference. While I attended most of the sessions on my own, I was thankful to have this small Mason family to enjoy lunch, dinner, and social events with.
Wes Moore giving the opening keynote address at the NASPA Annual Conference.
During the conference, I attended some amazing and eye-opening sessions. One of the sessions that left the greatest impact on me was a presentation by staff from the University of Maryland, titled An Innovative and Collaborative Approach to Addressing Inclusive Language on Campus. The presentation explained the university’s approach to encouraging inclusive language on campus and inspired me to try to implement something similar at George Mason. I am now currently in the process of working with various offices on campus, as well as a staff member at UMD, to make this project a reality.
Some of the other sessions that I attended were:
- White Privilege 101
- From Keggers to Careers: College Students and Emerging Adulthood
- The Power of the Story: Taking Five Minutes to Make the Case for Co-Curricular Services
- Be Strategic: Shape Your Student Affairs Career!
- “What DIDN’T I learn?” Student Stories of Co-Curricular Learning
- Following is Leading
The conference was an excellent opportunity for professional development and personal growth. Spending the week in Baltimore and navigating both a new city and a new conference experience was both new, scary, and very exciting. I am still thankful to the Golden Key International Honors Society for affording me the opportunity to attend the conference.
