I spent last week in Durham, NC at the NASPA Region
III/SACSA New Professionals Institute, held at North Carolina Central
University. After working with 41 fellow
new professionals from across the South, six wonderful institute faculty, and
one amazing institute facilitator in Brit Katz, I am so energized to do
wonderful work from this point forward. I don’t think there’s any way to convey
the depth of what I got from the experience, so I will share the highlights.
The Location
I have never gotten the opportunity to spend time in
Raleigh-Durham, and have had very limited experience on the campus of a HBCU.
Getting to see both was a great change of pace from what I’m used to. It was
relaxing to get to go for runs each morning around a campus that wasn’t my own
(and in an environment that wasn’t a million degrees), and Jody Conway has made
sure that I have a deep appreciation for exploring other campuses :)
The few forays that we made into town revealed lots of things I like in an area- diversity, several college campuses, culture and exposure to nature. I don’t know that I would live in the area, but I would definitely go back to visit.
The few forays that we made into town revealed lots of things I like in an area- diversity, several college campuses, culture and exposure to nature. I don’t know that I would live in the area, but I would definitely go back to visit.
The Knowledge
NPI challenged me to think in a way that I haven’t been
challenged to think in a while. More than just digesting conference content the
way I have at NACA or previous NASPA conferences, the Institute encouraged us
to think through each session we were presented with, to ponder how it applied
to us, and to consider what we would do with the information.
And that knowledge didn’t just come from the facilitators,
it came from my fellow Institute attendees. The fellow professionals in Durham
were thoughtful, reflective, and so knowledgeable. So often we’re too buried in
work to maintain learning about the profession; if we manage to read it all,
there’s not much time to digest everything. When challenged to do so, the full
group shone. I loved learning from everyone, and hope we get to continue to do
so with one another.
The People
I have alluded to this in the rest of this post, but I had a
wonderful time meeting people at NPI. I’ve wanted to make new friends and find
people who understand the work I do for quite some time, and have relished the
relationships that I got to create in Durham. They are enthusiastic and
diligent, smart and entertaining. We worked together and played together for a
week, and I hope that our seeds of friendship and professional affiliation will
only continue to grow as we continue our journeys. We planted seeds of
relationships this week- I know I will do what it takes to help those seeds
grow, and I hope my new friends will too.
When I look back on the formative experiences of my career,
I can tell that this is going to be a significant experience for me. It allowed
me to make new connections in my work, learn more about how to be successful at
this stage of my professional life, and to truly reflect on what my next steps
will look like. I am so excited to start putting the new lessons to work, and
even more enthusiastic about keeping up with the new friends I made. I will
leave you now with a selection of quotes from our fearless leader, Brit Katz of
Millsaps College. He might be my new spirit animal- when you read the
selections, you’ll understand why :)
“Let the smiles be our umbrellas.”
JUSTIN: My name is Justin, and I’m passionate about
Superman.
BRIT: Who isn’t?
BRIT: Who isn’t?
“Look for me, I’m one of [Beyonce’s] backup dancers. I’m
passionate about it.”
“Is this a good dance move?”
“It just amps me.”
“Love it, mean it, never change, sign my yearbook!”
“It’s not who you know, or what you know, but what you know
on who you know.”
“SSAOs: Are We Fractured or Whole?”
“Why don’t you love this? God, we do!”
“Why don’t you love this? God, we do!”
“Demonstrate effective syntax!”
“After six and a half years, I finally got the down payment,
moved into my place, and promptly turned the stereo up to 6, lit nine candles,
and propped open the front door.”
“If we weren’t inside the building, I’d light nine candles
in your honor.”
“Money isn’t gonna bring you happiness, but boy it’ll make
you comfortable while you’re looking for it.”
“Thank you so much.”
This sounds like such an amazing experience! Sounds like you met some wonderful people and learned a lot--more Regions need something like this.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds awesome! You bring up a great point about needing to do more with content and information than simply digesting it. Sometimes at conferences (or even during regular work days), we are bombarded by so much information that we accept it and move forward without really taking time to process it and see how it applies to us. I feel that we should be more reflective and share our reflections with others more often. If we take some time to really think about content at conferences (as well as our own experiences) we will be better able to figure out what we can take from these presentations and experiences for the future.
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