Martina Stewart's Reflection on the National Career Development Association Conference 2013

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.



Another great session was by Karen Chopra, a private practice career counselor.  Her session was on the art of the intake.  She talked about this as a 3 step process: letting them know we exist, setting up the appointment, and the first meeting. She suggested that bios on websites be written in the first person, so that they are more personal. She also suggested that the process of major exploration advising (in our situation), be broken down so that students have realistic expectations.  She also spoke about having success stories, video clips, and not too much text.  She discussed ways to facilitate an “ah ha” moment. She said if the student learns something new about themselves, they are more likely to come back. Seeing new perspectives and possibilities is also an important part of the initial contact.

Sarah and I did a roundtable presentation on decision making and our UC 1050 course.  It seems to be a hot topic, because we filled the seats and had standing room only.  We shared activities in the class that focus on a planful decision making approach, as well as happenstance learning theory.

A couple of themes that ran throughout many presentations were generating hope, and encouraging students to make mistakes and learn from failure.  Both of these themes are also important to our work with undergraduate students in academic advising.

For pictures and more information on this conference please visit the NCDA page here.