Foundation Update

As your Foundation Ambassador, I’d like to ask one last favor from you.

 

We are just 12 donors shy of meeting our goals for this year. We already met our “amount raised” goal for the year, so even a small donation of $5 (or more!) would be amazing. You could donate towards one of the Pillars of the Profession, one of your favorite initiatives, or even direct your funds toward a Knowledge Community that is important to you or that informs your work. You can donate HERE!

Why give? For me, NASPA has been a labor of love that often required work at night and on the weekends. After years of professional involvement, my term as Foundation Ambassador is ending, and I’m not sure what my next volunteer role will be. However, I will always be grateful to NASPA because of the opportunities that it has afforded me as a first-generation college student from a small town in the middle of Nebraska.

For a little fun, let's walk briefly down memory lane. I went to my first IV-W conference in 1997 in Albuquerque, NM where I was honored with the NASPA Undergraduate Rising Star Award.  My first national conference was 1999 in New Orleans--I haven't missed a NASPA conference since then. I have been involved in three regions, IV-W, IV-E, and III, and served on the national board twice, first as the National Volunteer Coordinator and then as the IV-W Regional Director. I have dedicated 12 years serving Region IV-W as the Research Coordinator (6 years), Regional Director (elect, and past, a total of 4 years), and as the regional Foundation Ambassador (2 years).  Somewhere along the way I also served on 6 conference committees, volunteering with the Case Study competition, registration, programming, and sponsorships. Volunteerism leads to more opportunities, and I was invited to help create the ACPA/NASPA  Professional Competencies Rubrics, and was a reviewer for the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice for 8 years. One of my favorite roles that merges campus life with the professional association has been serving on the national NUPF pre-conference committee and mentoring amazing students on my campus who I now call colleagues.  

I have been privileged to be at institutions that supported this involvement, and I am thankful for the multitude of opportunities I’ve been afforded. I love what NASPA has and will yet do for me personally and professionally, and I want to make sure that others have these same opportunities. Above all else I want to leave the world, especially higher education, a better place. I know that the NASPA Foundation helps to positively touch lives, change institutional culture, and help others reach their full potential. So, please join me in supporting the NASPA Foundation to help provide additional avenues of research, opportunity, and mentorship to countless colleagues.  

In closing--thank you to all my friends, colleagues, and mentors over the years. Please know you can call, email, or visit me anytime--I would be honored to support you in any way I can.