NCCWSL

The National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL) took place at Georgetown last week. I worked a few days of the conference and was impressed by the turn out. We had more than 500 college women, undergraduates and graduate students, from a wide variety of institutions. I was particularly pleased to see such a large community college contingent and to hear about what women from two-year institutions are doing on their campuses. NASPA and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) partnered to put the conference together.

The highlight for me was the Women of Distinction Awards. It was awesome to hear from five very cool women leaders. The awards committee did an amazing job of picking a group of women with incredibly diverse experiences and identities. The student advisory committee members also did a terrific job introducing each award recipient.

On Friday, I led a workshop entitled Service and Identity: Examining the Relationship Between Who We Are and How We Serve. The participants in my session were very enthusiastic and willingly shared insights into their own core identities and how they'd like to see service grow on their campuses. I definitely walked away with a bigger picture of volunteerism on college campuses and renewed hope that we can do service in more culturally competent ways.

If you work with undergraduate women I highly recommend that you encourage them to attend next year. The annual conference occurs in June in the Washington, D.C. area.

Getting Started

Welcome! I'll be updating throughout the summer about my experience as a NASPA graduate intern. Hopefully I'll be able to give some insight into the organization, as well as current issues in student affairs. I just finished my first year of graduate school in the Higher Education Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and I graduated from The University of Montana (UM) in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology.

So, why NASPA? As an undergrad I worked in the student affairs division at UM in a variety of capacities. I coordinated the University Center Multicultural Alliance, acted as Service-Learning liaison for the Drama/Dance Department, and took a year away from classes to serve as an AmeriCorps team leader on campus. Now, as a grad student, I work in the Illini Union Office of Volunteer Programs at UIUC supervising undergraduate student employees. I've had great experiences in student affairs and am passionate about addressing issues of access and equity on campus, so NASPA seemed like a natural fit for a summer internship in the field.

I'm looking forward to working on projects like the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL), doing some archiving (I told my mom my anthropology degree would come in handy some day...), and many more. I also look forward to hearing from you. If you have questions or issues you'd like to see addressed, please leave me a comment!