NASPA - Western Regional Conference
- Jasmine Nguyen
- Nov 25, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 11, 2021
Date of Conference: November 10-13, 2020
Description: As a part of the MSHE program, students are required to attend one regional and one national conference offered Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) or American College Personnel Association (ACPA). The Western Regional Conference from NASPA is offered for Region V and Region VI each year, territories in the United States start from Idaho Westward and encompassing parts of Canada, China, Guam, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Learning Domains Addressed (Labels):
Leadership
Assessment & Evaluation
Personal & Professional Development
Learning Outcomes:
Evidence:
Reflection:
At my first Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) Western Regional Conference (WRC), my goal was to build connections as much as possible through this year's virtual format. NASPA WRC was scheduled to be held in Anaheim, CA, but it was pivoted to a virtual format due to the pandemic. Although I was disappointed in not being able to attend in person, I found value in how much more accessible the sessions were to the conference participants. In analyzing my Clifton strengths, I realized that I utilize my Includer and Connectedness strength more than I know. Even in virtual work and learning settings, I go to great lengths to be inclusive in my various Zoom meetings.
As a former conference chair and a member of an annual professional development conferences committee at Orange Coast College, I have some knowledge of tools that I have found many participants wanted and deemed valuable. In pursuit of accomplishing SLO #1 (SWiBAT assemble a NASP-WRC session guide for MSHE Students), I took it upon myself to create a simple session guide to help my cohort decide what concurrent sessions they wanted to attend (NASPA image 1). I also added a column to encourage my classmates to see who else was attending the same session. I have found that conferences are daunting in person, with the limited time between sessions to get from one place to another. It's a lot, especially for those who are first time participants. It is always helpful to know a familiar person who you could reach out for help. In our virtual conference, this help was seen when asking for correct Zoom links or having someone else in the Zoom chats applaud your question. I also left a column in our document to encourage cohort-mates to add resources that they obtained from various sessions they attended. This section enabled shared knowledge and prevented everyone from the feelings of missed opportunities due to two sessions happening concurrently.
At NASPA-WRC, I purposely chose sessions with topics that I was unfamiliar with to explore and learn more about different areas of Student Affairs. I attended Data-Driven Coaching: Promoting Socially Responsible Leadership in Tomorrow's Leaders, presented by Bob Just, Shaman Wright, and Jessica Alva from the University of San Francisco (USFCA). In attending this session, I hoped to learn more about how to better lead in Student Affairs with data when speaking with administrators. Especially considering that many Student Affairs Functional Areas have difficulty collecting data due to their work, they are not as easily quantifiable. In SLO #2 (SWiBAT compare in-class learning with a session offered at NASPA-WRC.) Although Student Affairs professionals have a general common goal in helping students learn and achieve, there are few viewpoints that are different. At the Data-Driven Coaching, the USFCA team presented statistical data surveying their student leadership cohort and the growth of their values throughout the program (NASPA Image 2). In MSHE, we emphasize JEIE in many aspects of our program. I realized that when participating in the USFCA session, I viewed their presentation with an equity and inclusive education lens. In their presentation, they emphasized the importance of their survey and how their data drives many decisions made by the program and the student themselves. With my equity lens, I had asked the presenters if they had offered the survey in different languages to see if their data changed. Jessica Alva had answered my question, stating that they only provided their survey in English and that their international students and minority students wrote/speak/read English proficient enough to not require alternative languages for their survey. As someone who speaks a second language, I found it difficult to believe that their standardized test was equitable for all students. There are some words in the English language that do not translate into other languages well. It made me question how accurate their data was and how much more meaningful their data could be if linguistic capital was considered (Yosso, 2006). I realize a survey created in other languages takes resources that their small program may not have at this time. I appreciated learning about student-driven data and how it can be a very powerful tool in student coaching.
In pursuing my goal of building connections, I made sure to attend various virtual socials to network with seasoned Student Affairs professionals, in addition to building new relationships with other graduate students in other Student Affairs programs. In SLO #3 (SWiBAT build a connection with graduate students and professionals in the student affairs field.) In a virtual setting, I challenged myself to find creative ways to network. I stumbled upon an app called Hi.Hello that creates virtual business cards. I incorporated my virtual business card into my Zoom background via a QR code (NASPA Image 4). Anyone seeing my zoom image could scan my QR code and be linked to my email, my E-portfolio and my LinkedIn (NASPA Image 3). This method proved to be quite innovative and garnered a lot of compliments throughout the conference. I saw a spike of 500% of increased views of my LinkedIn profile! I also created a system to keep track of the acquaintances I met in various socials and sessions (NASPA Image 5). I made notes on where I met them, their name, their email, details I gathered from our conversations, and who else in my cohort had met them. I emailed my new acquaintances within 2 weeks after NASPA-WRC and noted where I met them and how much I enjoyed talking to them. I would CC into the email any of my cohort-mates who also met the person to encourage our program's networking possibilities. By the end of the conference, I was able to attend and build some connections at Women in Student Affair (WISA) Social, Asian Pacific Islander Knowledge Community (APIKC) (NASPA Image 6) Social, Region VI Social (NASPA Image 7) and connect with students from the University of San Diego (USD), San Diego State University (SDSU) and University of Southern California (USC). In the Region VI social, I was encouraged by Derek Vergara to participate in the graduate student raffle for a Pillars Coaching and won a one-hour coaching session with Pillars Henry Gee and Ana Gonzales (NASPA Image 8)! In addition, I was able to connect our HELO Program Event Coordinators with the other Student Affair program cohorts to plan a future virtual mixer to help us get to know more future student affair professionals and lament on the woes of graduate school together!
References:
Yosso, T. J. (2006). Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano educational pipeline. Routledge.
Question: How do you network in a virtual environment? Leave a comment down below!
I appreciate your questions at the end of each post, so thought I would join in. I'm responding the your question about a small act to preserve someone's dignity. I think keeping things confidential is a way of protecting dignity, especially around food and housing insecurity. I was struck by the large percentages you reported for these issues at OCC, including the finding that faculty and staff face these issues also. Thank you.