Conference Schedule

8:15-9:00

Conference Check In

UMC Ballroom Lobby

8:30-10:00

Light Breakfast

UMC Ballroom

8:30-9:00

Welcome

UMC Ballroom

9:00-9:50

Partnership Expo

UMC Ballroom

10:00 - 10:50

Concurrent Sessions I

Real Talk: The (not so secret) Secrets Behind How Things Work
Presenter: Shelly Bacon

Have you ever wondered who’s who on this campus, how the advising community fits into campus leadership structures, or how decisions get made? Part information sharing and part interactive discussion, this session will include a high-level overview of the initiatives and structures that impact the advising community, followed by a mini town hall. Topics will include:

–campus organizational structures

–campus initiatives like BUS-LIT and the CRM Roadmap

–advising community structures, including fiscal and HR

–topics being discussed in the Campus Advising Leadership Council (CALC) and the new Advisory Board

UMC 247

What is CMCI? How majors in Media, Communication, and Information are relevant to student interests.

Presenters: Jill Jones, Rick Stevens, & Susan Avila

Think. Innovate. Create- CMCI

Learning session, resources, and presentation: CMCI majors and minors are relevant for students interests in a variety of topics: sports media, social media, media production, sound practices, gaming and virtual reality, storytelling through data, storytelling for business, personal branding, public relations, organizational communication, and more.

We will provide some early talking points to help advisors direct students, a map of courses to get them started, and practical skills to help identify students who should explore CMCI.

UMC 382-384

Silents, Boomers, X, Y, and Z -- Learning, engaging, and supervising, across generations

Presenters: Jasimine Evans & Kathy Noonan

With nearly 50,000 CU Boulder students, staff, and faculty, there are five generations to navigate every day. What do we have in common, how are we different, and why does it matter? Let's talk about the priorities and culture of each generation and learn tools to use in our work and our relationships on campus and in our lives after 5pm. 

UMC 235

Nurturing Inclusive Learning Environments: A Comprehensive Exploration of Disability Services and Advising Community Collaboration

Presenters: Ulises Mendoza, Scarlett Ponton de Dutton, Eva Lacy, & Jack Elkins Nesheim

In an era of diversity and inclusion, it is imperative for higher education institutions to provide robust support for students with disabilities. This session aims to enlighten participants on the multifaceted roles of Disability Services, fostering a deeper understanding of academic support and allied services. Furthermore, the session will delve into the art of making appropriate referrals and facilitating effective communication about disabilities. Lastly, we will explore the potential for creating and sustaining a strong partnership between Disability Services and the Advising Community.

UMC 415-417

11:00 - 11:50

Concurrent Session II

Money Matters: The untold story of Continuing Education tuition

Presenters: Graham Douglas & Blazey Heier

Students want flexibility in their schedules and Continuing Education (CE) courses can provide that flexibility. This session will focus on case studies where we will present situations commonly encountered in academic advising appointments in which a student expresses an interest or need in taking Continuing Education courses. We will help advisors understand how CE courses can impact a student’s tuition bill and how CE may raise or lower their tuition bill, given each student’s specific situation. We will also discuss the big picture impact of taking CE courses and the long-term value of these courses relative to their cost. 

UMC 247

WorkWell at CU: How Employee Wellness Supports Student Success and Helps our Campus Thrive

Presenter: Jess Morris

Well-being is the foundation of success for everyone on our campus – students, staff, and faculty. CU’s Employee Wellness program, WorkWell, strives to advance a culture of whole-person wellness for the university’s faculty and staff to further promote employee well-being and engagement. When employees are both aware of and able to utilize programs, events, and services on campus that foster a sense of belonging, they are best positioned to thrive at work and support students in doing the same.

Jess Morris, program director for Employee Wellness and Engagement, will guide the conversation about initiatives at CU Boulder that strive to create a culture of well-being on our campus. This session will provide an overview of Health and Wellness Services and will encourage employees to develop an individual strategy to enhance their workplace well-being.

UMC 235

Thriving 101: How to Confidently Advise Clients Regarding Enhancing Life & Career Wellbeing

Presenter: Jordan Maness, M.Ed.

It happens all the time. You’re leading and advising session and the topics of well-being, career, or both are brought up. You want to provide sound advice but may not feel completely comfortable doing so. You wonder if you’re just giving your own opinion. What if there were some science-backed, data-driven principles you could share that were easy to remember and digest? Jordan Maness is the Career Advising Specialist for the Division of Continuing Education at CU and has recently finished creating a Coursera course entitled, “Thriving 101: Designing a Fulfilling Life & Career.” In this workshop, he’ll share nuggets from his course that you can apply to your own life as well as to your advising sessions. You’ll learn the key components to becoming a thriving individual and you’ll discover the way in which career plays a role. Additionally, you’ll hear about how to coach clients through finding career alignment via the design thinking process. Let’s all help contribute to a thriving community at CU Boulder. 

UMC 382-384

The Tortoise and the Hare – An Academic Support Application for Thinking, Fast and Slow

Presenter: Jordyn Dwyer

Do you find yourself wondering why students act in a particular way? Or maybe you wonder this about your coworkers or yourself.

We have two brain “systems” that explain how we think and form conclusions. System 1 is responsible for the quick, immediate thoughts and actions of our day-to-day lives, while system 2 is our slow and meticulous thought system. This presentation will explain the basic principles of system 1 and 2 thinking, as well as explain how these systems show up in our biases and heuristics (mental shortcuts that our brains develop so we don’t have to think so hard about every decision). Student support examples will be presented in the context of these biases and heuristics, and participants will be invited to develop potential solutions and strategies to combat these thought shortcuts.

UMC 415-417

Advising in a Boulder Way

Presenters: Marlene Goldman & Stephen Jackson

We’re reframing what it means to be out of the office with opportunities to connect outside of your unit office! Come learn more about how you can engage with Ralphie’s Advising Help Lab and explore ways to support students in their residence halls. Attendees will have space to connect with campus partners and discuss ideas to literally meet students where they are. 

UMC 245

12:00-12:20

Awards Ceremony

UMC Ballroom

12:20-1:20

Lunch

UMC Ballroom

1:30-2:20

Concurrent Session III

Values-Based Coaching: Aligning What Matters Most to Achieve Your Goals

Presenters: Anna Hemming & Maurissa Moore

As a participant of this session, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your own values, core values, and how those values can help you make informed decisions as you take action towards your individual goals. You will engage in a values-based group coaching session based on current research and best practices in coaching.

The main objective of this session is to offer you time to focus on yourself and your values as you create an action plan to take steps towards a personal or professional goal. In doing so, you will also experience techniques you can use when working with students to help them to do the same.

UMC 247

Helping Students Navigate their Scholarly Identities

Presenters: Kevn Mason, Stephanie Colunga Montoya, Karen E. Ramirez, & Katharine Semsar

"How undergraduate students conceptualize and talk about themselves as scholars matters. Students’ sense of belonging is impacted by their sense of “fit” into an area of study and the perception that their academic work matters to others at the university and/or to reaching their career goals. Yet, students often struggle to recognize themselves as scholars, especially in their first years while taking core requirements and competitive introductory courses. A lack of scholarly identity can contribute to students’ experience of imposter syndrome, which is often more pronounced for first-generation students and those from historically marginalized identities.

This session considers ways to lead students to practice seeing themselves as active scholarly contributors at the university. We particularly discuss how to help students integrate their personal values, along with their individual “cultural wealth” (Yosso), into their evolving scholarly identity. We introduce Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program (MASP) programming directed to linking first-year students, who are first generation and/or from historically marginalized backgrounds, into disciplinary areas and share tools we use to help students integrate their personal values and their evolving scholarly identity. The session will also invite participants to share ideas and experiences for aiding students to perceive themselves as emerging scholars. "

UMC 382-384

Empowering Students with the Challenge Mindset: An Accessible and Inspiring Approach to Major and Career Exploration

Presenters: Brian Hand & Kristi Wasson

Current graduates will have 17 jobs within 5 different industries during their career and the traditional method of job searching based on job titles is not best suited to inform students of the vast number of opportunities available (there are over 20,000 different job titles that are ever changing) and help them find work that is most meaningful. In this session, attendees will learn about the Challenge Mindset, a more equitable and comprehensive approach to major and career exploration, including what it is, how it can be used to help students, as well as the benefits of this approach. Research suggests the Challenge Mindset can help students identify and better engage in a major while at CU and find work that is more meaningful to them upon graduation. This approach helps empower students to explore the vast number of opportunities that match the challenges they want to work on in the world.

Attendees will learn how to implement the Challenge Mindset to help guide their students with major and career exploration. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an activity to identify the challenges most important to them as well as engage in follow up discussion.

UMC 235

Debunking Transfer Student Myths: Bridging Realities and Perceptions 

Presenters: Carly Pruiett & Jessica Drelles

During this presentation, we will explore the prevalent myths and misconceptions surrounding CU Transfer Students. Through data-driven insights and personal narratives, we'll confront common misunderstandings head on while shedding light on the realities, challenges, and unique strengths that this growing student population brings to our campus. This interactive discussion will equip attendees with practical strategies and actionable steps to challenge these myths within their departments or units, fostering a more inclusive environment for transfer students at CU Boulder.

UMC 415-417

Improving the University with and for Students: Incorporating User Experience Research into the IUT Roadmap

Presenters: Jenna Kirchgasler, Courtney Fell, & Shane Ross Schwikert 

We all want to keep improving CU Boulder for our students. How do we know where to focus our efforts to have the most impact? Where and how do we start? In this session, you’ll learn how the Intra-University Transfer (IUT) Team partnered with the Office of Information Technology’s User Experience Research & Design (UXRD) Team to better understand, assess, and identify areas for improvement in the student experience. The result was the creation of the IUT Assessment Roadmap, which provides an example of how to inject the student voice throughout the process of developing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn how to question your own assumptions about the student experience in your work and gain tools to learn more directly from students about what we can do to improve.

UMC 245

2:30-3:20

Concurrent Session IV

Inclusive Communication: Maximizing Connections with International Students

Presenters: Barbara Flocke & Luke Coffelt

International students often encounter challenges beyond those that domestic students experience, including navigating a new educational system, understanding unfamiliar classroom dynamics, communicating with professors and advisors, and overcoming language barriers. Applying the principles of intercultural communication, this session explores the rationale behind the need to adapt communication styles to better interact with international students in both oral and written contexts. Attendees gain a better understanding of cultural orientations through reflection on their own communication styles to maximize effective communication with their international advisees. The presenters provide real-life scenarios for attendees to discuss and reflect on through the lens of intercultural communication competence that they can immediately apply to their own professional context. 

UMC 247

An In-depth Look at Strengthening the Student Relationship Though Nonverbal Communication 

Presenters: Danielle Hartman & Loren Jackson

Our nonverbal communication plays a vital role in building relationships with our students by influencing trust, understanding, and rapport building but is an often-overlooked part of training and everyday student interactions. Professionals and students pick up subconsciously on this communication which can strengthen or weaken the trust we seek to build as well as allow us to recognize that there may be information the student does not share. Students of traditionally marginalized populations tend to be more attuned to reading nonverbal communication so investing in our nonverbal communication will help increase these students’ sense of mattering and belonging on campus which we know is vital to success from Schlossberg’s Marginality and Mattering theoretical framework. This session will explore the 7 states of tension and our energy expression of them through the Laban Movement Theory and how we move through space and what that communicates to our students and how we can use that information to understand them better as well. The session will include opportunities to move around and physicalize these ideas. While gaining an understanding of Laban Movement Theory, higher education professionals can enhance the student relationship, foster more effective guidance, and support their students holistically through any student development theory. 

UMC 382-384

A therapist’s approach in non-therapist roles on campus

Presenter: Natalie Driscoll

In this conference session, I will share my own personal experiences as a therapist, and how my individual background informs my advising practice. I received a master’s degree in counseling and am a licensed marriage & family therapist and professional clinical counselor in California.

I will begin with an overview of my personal background, and my personal theoretical approach to advising based on what worked for me as a therapist, including my strengths.

In my career as a therapist, I learned a lot about myself, including what NOT to carry with me in the next part of my career. I will go through my personal pitfalls as a therapist and what I learned from them.

Incorporating feedback from other therapists who work in higher education, I will provide suggestions for ways student success professionals can continue to improve their practice and take care of themselves personally.

Participants will be able to reflect on the space they want to create with students, areas for self-improvement, and ideas for self-care. We will have a chance for community building with participants sharing their responses in pairs or small groups before ending with questions and answers.

UMC 235

Broadening Horizons: Studying Abroad in Non-Traditional Locations

Presenters: Adilene Garcia-Aniles & Megan Henning

Want your students to study in Costa Rica, Samoa or Tanzania? Education Abroad offers programs on all 7 continents and we want to encourage participation in these non-traditional locations. We will explore the data of where students are studying, how that correlates to where underrepresented students are going, and how these programs work for students academically. We will also share resources available to students including scholarships, flight vouchers, academic credit, internships, and in-country support. 

UMC 415-417

3:30-4:30

Mingling and Snacks (Optional)

UMC Ballroom

3:30-5:30

Bowling (Optional)

The Connection