Excerpts from Terese Pratt's Reflection on the NACADA Region X Conference

May 2013 – Tucson Arizona

The theme for this year’s NACADA Region X conference was “Advising Under the Stars”.   This theme reflects that fact that the location of the conference, Tucson, is considered to be the astronomy capital of the U.S.  This title also seems appropriate to me when considering the conference presentations that I attended.  In each case presenters took a broad and expansive view of the subjects they covered and did an excellent job tying in their specific topic to the underlying philosophy and goals of advising.

2013 Advisor Recognition Reception and Social Photos

The 2013 Advisor Recognition Reception and Social happened on Tuesday May 7th at the Crimson View in the Union building.  Over 70 advisors attended to eat food, mingle, and wait for the announcement of the 2013 UAAC Academic Advising Awards.

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 There was great food options catered by Chartwells.

Bobbi Davis and Jen Wozab grab some snacks during the social portion of the event.

Recent Award Recipients

2013 UAAC New Advisor Award Recipient
Jen Wozab

2013 UAAC Wise Advisor Award Recipient

Bobbi Davis

Recent Award Recipients

2013 Perlman Award Recipient

Terese Pratt

2012 UAAC Award 

Betsy Cook

Heather Crum's experience from the National NACADA Conference 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee

Empowering Student Career Stories in Times of Change and Challenge: Dan Wilcox, Kansas State University

*One of my favorite sessions I attended at the conference was on career counseling.  I found it to be very enlightening.  One reason for this is that my MBTI type is ISFJ.  Attending this session helped me to get a taste of the Intuitive and Perceiving personality types.  I felt energized after attending this session because I feel that the presenter gave important tips for advisors to consider when engaging in major exploration with a student.

Published on NACADA's Academic Advising Today: Be a Part of the Future: Start your Research Today

Jason Barkemeyer , Joshua Larson and Anna Adams, University of Utah

For those who live in the world of research, the notion of research as part of everyday life is a given. But for the typical academic advisor, research is usually not included as part of their job duties. Advising administrators will often take on this role to contribute to the body of knowledge yet it is not always an expectation for primary role advisors.

As the call is sounded for advisors to begin fulfilling the role of “practitioner scholar,” it is quickly met with a myriad of reasons why advisors are not able step into this arena. “How do I get started?” “It is not part of my job.” “I have no funding to support doing research.”  Aiken-Wisniewski, Smith and Troxel (2010) explain the danger of frontline advisors not taking part in research that directly affects their occupation: “Unless researcher-practitioners make a concerted effort to reverse the historical trend, the lack of scholarship in advising, particularly scholarship produced and consumed by professional and faculty advisors, will persist” (p.5). Given the current lack of research on the advising field and profession, if advisors are not to pick up the banner, what are the implications?

Published on NACADA's Academic Advising Today: Advisors on Location: Expanding Advisors' Role in International Education

Vickie Morgan and Terese Pratt , University of Utah

Higher education in the United States is going global. U.S. colleges and universities are eager to increase their involvement in international education and many exciting new programs have sprung up at institutions across the country. These programs serve as access points for an increasing number of interested students from abroad. 671,616 international students studied in the U.S. last year, and the number of new international students (those studying in the U.S. for the first time) went up 16% from the previous year (Witherell and Soman, 2009).