In an effort to provide conference attendees with the most inNODAvative experience possible, the planning committee is excited to offer extended educational opportunities as the annual conference draws closer and welcomes our membership to Boston — America’s College Town. This year, the conference committee is offering a blend of sessions that include a “best-practice” side-trip, an extended education session featuring our plenary speaker on working with presidents and senior administrators, and a wide array of pre- and mid-conference workshops facilitated by an impressive set of scholars and practitioners with extensive expertise in their area. Please take a moment to review the various offerings and learn about our talented presenters and consider enriching your conference experience that is designed to inspire!
Unless otherwise noted, these extended education sessions must have a minimum of eight participants registered by September 22, 2008.
This workshop has a $30 participation fee.
As more and more orientation, retention, and transition professionals recognize the need to embrace multicultural competence as an essential competency for efficacious student affairs work, a clear need exists for professional development programs that provide the awareness, knowledge, and skills to develop such competence. This program will present a detailed overview of multicultural competence in student affairs, discuss and analyze case studies relating to orientation and first-year programs, and offer practical strategies for developing more multiculturally competent programs and professionals.
Presenters:
Amy Reynolds is an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology at the University at Buffalo. She received her doctorate in counseling psychology from Ohio State University and has been working in higher education as a psychologist and professor for the past 20 years. Her work as a scholar, teacher, and consultant focuses on multicultural competence in counseling and student affairs as well as college mental health issues. She has published over 25 journal articles and book chapters and made over 36 presentations at regional or national conferences. She is also one of the co-authors for Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs which was published by Jossey Bass in 2004.
Matt Weigand is director of New Student Programs at the University at Buffalo, where he oversees orientation programs, first-year seminars, and parent & family programs. He received his doctorate in higher education administration from UB’s department of Educational Leadership and Policy, where he currently serves as an adjunct assistant professor. He has written and presented on topics such as multicultural competence in student affairs, creating inclusive orientation and first-year programs, effective student leadership, and first-year student success.
This workshop has a $30 participation fee.
As Orientation professionals, we are often faced with the task of justifying the impact of our programs and effectively measuring that impact. This session will discuss a new campus-wide initiative at the University of Minnesota – Welcome Week and how this initiative has evolved into the efforts of creating a common culture for first-year assessment. You will leave this session with examples of methodology, ways to identify key partners in this process, and tools to conduct assessment with your programs.
Presenters:
Beth Lingren Clark, Ph.D. is the director of Orientation & First-Year Programs. Beth completed her undergraduate work at South Dakota State University, her masters at Western Illinois University, and her Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her dissertation focused on the study of first-year student experiences at a four-year, public institution. She also received the Outstanding Research award from the National Orientation Directors Association in 2002. Beth and the OFYP staff are dedicated to serving the needs of first-year students and ensuring a seamless transition to University life. Beth co-presented at NODAC 2007 in Dallas on Assessment. With the development of a new Welcome Week initiative set to be implemented in the fall of 2008, Beth has had opportunities to help facilitate the process of creating a common culture of assessment for first-year students. Additionally, she assisted with the development of a first-year assessment plan in an effort to identify transitional themes and issues to alter program content and messaging to impact retention.
Laura Coffin Koch, Ph.D. is a Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. Currently Dr. Koch is the Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. In her position, she has the responsibility for Convocation, Freshman Seminars, Student Support Services, the Undergraduate Portal, and the Office of Orientation & First-Year Programs. In 2000, Dr. Koch was appointed by the Secretary of Defense to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. During the 1999-2000 academic year, Professor Koch was an American Council of Education Fellow. She has also had opportunities to help facilitate the process of creating a common culture of assessment for first-year students. She serves on the assessment committee in an effort to evaluate first year experiences and impact on first-year retention.
Chris Kearns, Ph.D. is assistant dean for Student Services in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. In his position, Chris has responsibility for a staff of academic advisors, career counselors, and student support professionals serving some 15,000 undergraduates and has worked with his colleagues to design first-year and orientation programming and outcomes assessment models for liberal arts students. Chris and his staff are dedicated to incorporating developmental theory, social integration paradigms, and innovative data mining practices into cutting-edge models of undergraduate initiation into higher education that operate at the intersection of learning and student development.
Colin DeLong, Ph.D. Candidate, is the coordinator of Technology & Analysis for the College of Liberal Arts, Student Services, at the University of Minnesota. His primary responsibilities include process engineering, strategic planning, and data analysis for the College, as well as several University-wide committees and working groups. Colin is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science with an emphasis on data mining and machine learning, and his research is focused on the integration of search/recommendation engine technology with automatically-extracted domain knowledge.
This workshop has a $30 participation fee.
You don’t have to be a theatre professional to create powerful and effective performances! Participate in this hands-on workshop to see how educational theatre methods can enliven your orientation program. Learn how to engage and inspire new students and orientation staff by using theatre techniques—from complete theatrical performances, to sketches, to training methods. Learn and practice script development, theatre games, and how to coach student performers. Participants will receive a workbook for developing educational theatre sketches and sample materials.
Presenters:
Callie McKee is the Educational Theatre Coordinator in the University of Michigan, Office of New Student Programs. She directs the University of Michigan Educational Theatre Company (UMetc) which performs at all new student orientation sessions, in classes and at special events throughout the academic year. Callie studied drama, literature, and theatre for the young at Eastern Michigan University and completed a stage management and education outreach internship at the National Theatre of Ireland (Abbey and Peacock Theatres in Dublin, Ireland). Before coming into higher education, she was the Artistic Producer of a regional non-profit Equity theatre and has directed, stage managed, or acted in numerous professional productions. She is a member of Actors Equity Association – the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Mangers.
Andrew Tinnin is the Assistant Director of the University of Michigan, Office of New Student Programs. He coordinates the new student orientation and Welcome to Michigan programs. Drew received his master’s degree in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University and studied speech and theatre education at Southeast Missouri State University.
This workshop has a $30 participation fee.
Are you maximizing all the available resources on your campus to keep parents involved? Research shows that an informed, supportive family plays an integral role in a student’s educational success. This session will discuss how to involve parents at your institution through parent orientation, web sites, e-mail campaigns and more. Following the presentation will be a discussion and question and answer period. Participants will learn how to provide parents with the best services possible and explore ways to communicate with this audience.
Presenter:
Susan Brown has seventeen years experience as coordinator of Northeastern University’s Office of Parent Programs and Services. At that university she has developed a highly recognized needs based program involving parents, students and the entire Northeastern community. During her tenure she created the University’s first Parent Advisory Board and Parents’ Association. In addition, Susan developed the national Administrators Promoting Parent Involvement (APPI) Conference. Recently, APPI celebrated its tenth anniversary. Susan has been a national leader in bringing together varied institutions such as Syracuse, The University of Minnesota, and the University of North Carolina in order to share strategies related to parent relations. A prime advocate for collaboration, Susan does not believe in the concept “helicopter parents,” but rather that institutions need to “partner with parents.”
