I had a fabulous time at the NCDA conference! This is always a high quality conference, and Sarah (Rollo) and I had a great time discussing all we were learning and ways to use this information within our roles in UC. Its also an inspiring conference for me since my graduate degree was in Career Counseling – I feel I’ve come full circle with my career, and its nice to connect back to my roots in advising.
It started with a pre-conference workshop on Happenstance Learning Theory. The session was supposed to be held by John Krumboltz and Al Levin, two major figures in the Career Development world. Unfortunately, John Krumboltz was stuck in San Francisco because of the plane crash, but Al Levin did a great job conveying the theory and how to use it with students. Sarah and I have discussed the theory and ways to incorporate ideas from the theory into our class, so it was wonderful to interact with one of the people that “wrote the book”. One of his main messages was to encourage students to take ACTION. I like thinking about that as my major role, how to get students prepared to DO SOMETHING, whether it be meeting with a departmental advisor, doing an internship or informational interview, or joining a club. Its through doing things that we learn who we are and are given more opportunities to explore and develop skills.
