2016 NACADA Regional Conference- Jacqueline Brown

Jacqueline Brown was a recipient of a PACADA professional development grant for the 2016 year. She used her funds to attend the 2016 NACADA Regional Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. See below for more information about her experiences!

 

I had the pleasure of attending my first Region 5 NACADA Conference which was held in April in the beautiful city of Toronto Ontario Canada. It was a great opportunity to go with some of my advising colleagues in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. It started off as an adventure from the very beginning, when we decided to drive to the conference instead of flying. The morning that we were leaving, my colleagues and I decided to meet at the Transportation Service Center to pick up the car. I did not realize that the center had moved to a new location. I was franticly trying to find the place, and I eventually got directions and found my way. My colleagues did not leave without me.

One of the reasons that I wanted to attend the conference was to take away valuable information that I could use at my own institution. I am on a Purdue Polytechnic Transformation Team that was looking at mentoring. Mentoring is not a new concept in higher education and the research does show that mentoring enhances a student’s undergraduate experience. As a result, it fosters retention and a sense of belonging and validation as student’s transition to college. The Purdue Polytechnic has been focusing on transforming how undergraduates learn and the issues facing higher education for several years.

I had the opportunity to attend a presentation presented by advisors from The Ohio State University on how they created their Peer Mentoring Program for first year students in Engineering. The instructors used more knowledgeable undergraduate students in their course as teaching assistants. The students then served as peer mentors to the students enrolled in the course. The mentors were able to provide leadership, tutoring and other support services. They definitely had some positive results from their mentoring model. The mentors had taken the course before and they were well acclimated to campus and campus life. However, the teaching assistants were involved in grading and reporting grades of undergraduate students. They also reported that the roles that the teaching assistant played in the classroom had a negative effect on some of the mentees. Supervision collaboration and formal training are key to a successful peer mentoring program. I realized while listening to their presentation that our mentoring model is very different but I greatly appreciated their insight on mentoring.

The conference was a great opportunity to network and learn about best practices from across the country. I want to thank the PACADA Grant Sub Committee for the opportunity to attend such a diverse topic and I would encourage other advisors to consider applying for professional development opportunities to attend a national, regional or state conference.