NASPA 2016: Indianapolis, IN

Hello everyone,

Elenna here again! Conference time is just around the corner and I am excited as ever! This year, NASPA will take place in Indianapolis, IN and there are a chock full of things that I am excited for.

NUFP Buddy

As an alumnus of the M/NUFP program, I get a chance to mentor a current NUFP fellow, just like I have when I went in 2014 in Baltimore, MD. I learned a lot from the experience and I will gladly like to share my experiences with my NUFP buddy.Some of the things that I will do with them are as follows:

• A small gift exchange. We will be exchanging gifts from out respective institutions
• Resume review. I think that this is an important aspect into getting into any program or getting a graduate assistantship. I want to share a few tips and tricks that I have learned and also will print out my own resume from when I first went to NASPA and compare.
• Talk about my experience. As someone who neither has a graduate assistantship nor a job, it is important to let them know that this is a realistic thing that can happen. I will also tell them about what sparked me to get into student affairs and encourage them to continue to press on even if things look difficult. I also want to know more about them and their interests.
• Attend one or two sessions with each other. I think that it's important to learn about the different competencies that are involved in professional development as well as personal development in student affairs. By attending different sessions, we would get to learn about how other institutions approach different problems and maybe take things back with us to our own schools.
• Lunch. This is pivotal because this will give us time to decompress and reflect on the couple of days that we will be there. 

Graduate Mentee

I also signed up to be a mentee as a graduate student. Knowing that I have a lot to give to this field, but not knowing how to express my experience, I think that this is a great opportunity for me to get more help as well as gain insight.

First Time Attendee Mentor

It looks like my schedule is really packed this year. I will be mentoring a first time attendee, who is a professional. I hope to share my experience with them and encourage then to attend their own regional conferences as well!

Graduate Fair

For those of you who do not know I am going to be representing Hofstra University at NASPA's graduate fair. I will be speaking on my experience as a grad student as well as what my  program has to offer.

I will be vlogging some of the things I do at the conference and probably will ask some peopleI know to be in it.

See you all in Indy!