Join TEXAAN

TEXAAN Vision

TEXAAN views sound academic advising as a critical component in higher education and instrumental to student suc-cess. TEXAAN encourages academic advisors to create a supportive environment in which they may challenge stu-dents to take responsibility for making appropriate academic and career decisions.

TEXAAN Mission

To serve as a professional representation of academic advising in Texas by providing professional development, net-working, recognition and information.

TEXAAN Strategic Goals

1. Maintain a communication network for advising professionals in higher education

2. Assist with the implementation of professional standards as defined by NACADA core values of academic advising

3. Serve as a liaison to Texas professional, governing, and education agencies

4. Maintain active affiliation with regional and national NACADA Organize and offer an annual conference for academic advisors, counselors, and other higher education professionals

across the state of Texas

www.texaan.org

Schedule and Map Thanks to Our Volunteers

Registration 8:00am—9:30am Guadalupe

Breakfast 8:00am—9:30am Carlisle Suite

Welcome 9:30am-10:30am Rio Grande

Keynote 9:30am-10:30am Rio Grande

Break 10:30am-10:40am Rio Grande

Concurrent Session 1 10:40am-11:40am 2nd Floor Rooms

Lunch 11:45am-1:20pm Rio Grande

Break 1:20pm-1:30pm Rio Grande

Concurrent Session 2 1:30pm-2:30pm 2nd Floor Rooms

Break 2:30pm-2:40pm Rio Grande

Concurrent Session 3 2:40pm-3:40pm 2nd Floor Rooms

Bottled water and snacks will be available in the Guadalupe room

throughout the day.

Wi-fi Network: UTA Web Login

Username: EVT-UCG or ECT-UCG2

Wi-fi Password: 20FYEucg

www.uta.edu/utaaa/conference

@UT Arlington Advising Association

Emmanuel Garcia

Melissa Rose

Ginger Dickens

Diego Ramirez

Thelma Cabrera

Rebekah Chojnacki

Holly Fortes

Amanda Houdashell

Chelsey Payne

Anna Hollis

Steve Kirkindall

Pauline Mason

Valerie Adame

Mark Frazier

Lisa Rose

Ampadu Christiana

Bianca Upshaw

Luena Wilson

Dariela Pena

Soli Beran

Natalie Stephens

UTAAA Executive Board Members

Libby Carroll

Courtney Jones

Eric Etheridge

Serina Davenport

Teaira Little

Megan Vargas

Betsy Parchem

Breakfast

Keynote and Lunch

Concurrent Sessions

Registration

Restrooms

April B. Napier is a Wellness and Strengths Coach, writer, transformational speaker, and photographer. She holds a Bachelors in Social Work and Criminal Justice from The Ohio State University, a Masters in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate of Social Work from the University of Southern California. Coming from a diverse background, she utilizes the collaboration of research and life experiences to implement therapeutic strategies, empowerment, education, awareness, and restoration through societal challenges. Napier has conducted work in juvenile justice and adult male incarceration reform, individual and institutional wellness and identity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, cultural awareness and trainings, and community efficacy and reform.

Napier was previously the Director of Multicultural Affairs at Abilene Christian University, focusing on developing programming and initiatives that address diversity and inclusion, and develop strategic plans and facilitation for faculty, staff, and students. Napier also was a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Social Work at Lincoln University, serving to enhance the academic and personal experience through training, facilitation, education and advocacy.

Napier is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RAW Honey, Wellness and Coaching, LLC. RAW Honey is a platform that utilizes artistic expression and person-centered strategies to induce liberation from societal barriers and produce a state of holistic wellness and self-alignment. She uses her artistic nature to share her testimony and energize all to collectively reflect, express, and heal. Napier joins the movement of “artivism”, in using artistic expression to address social justice concerns within society, as well as shining light on bridging the gap in identity disparities. Napier believes in the power of everyone’s light from within, even from the darkest tragedies. She works consistently, in any setting, to activate this light for every individual and for every institutional structure through empathy, connectedness, and authenticity.

Keynote Speaker

NACADA Core Competences

For more information about the NACADA Academic Advising Core Competencies Model, please visit

nacada.ksu.edu/resources/pillars/corecompetencies.aspx

1. The Golden Rule: Self-Efficacy and Student Development April Napier, RAW Honey Location: Rio Grande This session will focus on the intricate connection between self-reflection and community success, specifically in relationship to academic development for students. Participants will learn about the psychological process and how it relates to emotional intelligence to induce self-efficacy. This will then connect to empathetic and strategic practices that cultivates collective healing, educational enrichment, and professional development that is sustainable and most well for the student population. Professionals will learn how their personal awareness and efficacy directly influences the success of students.

2. It takes a (Olympic) Village to get Students to the Finish Line: How Graduate Advisors Can Help Each Other Emmanuel Garcia and Amanda Houdashell, University of Texas at Arlington Location: Palo Pinto & San Saba All advisors are welcome. This is the beginning of the Council for Excellence in Graduate Advising. We plan to be a branch of UTAAA. It will be a discussion about issues that graduate advisors deal with daily and how we can help each other. We need to establish a way to communicate and meet every semester to share ideas on how to stream processes.

3. Being the Perfect Leader and Other Myths Students Strive For Veronica Guzman, University of Texas at Arlington Location: Red River With leadership being endorsed as a strong asset for success, students are looking for a one-stop answer on how to be the next great leader. UTA’s Follett Student Leadership Center staff has observed some unhealthy, unrealistic, and ineffective ideas of leadership. This presentation will highlight the myths about leadership, how they hinder students from moving forward and the true value of leadership development. A brief overview of leadership theories provided.

4. The Nightmare Before Burnout Sarah Romack, The University of North Texas Location: Concho Advisor burnout impacts not only the individual, but the students, offices, and institutions they are connected to. Incorporating themes from a popular Tim Burton film, this session will explore this phenomenon and practical strategies that advisors can implement with themselves and their employees. This session will explore the psychological, emotional, and physical toll of burnout on an individual. It will also equip supervisors with ways to encourage employee retention and development through authentic engagement.

5. Creating a New Legacy of Excellence: Building a Sense of Belonging for Students of Color in a

Racially Diverse Honors Program Rebekah Chojnacki, University of Texas at Arlington

Location: San Jacinto

One way that students can feel supported is when they have a sense of belonging and

connectedness to a group (O'Keefe, 2013) and a way to meet that need for some students is to become

active in an honors program (Wawrzynski, Madden, & Jensen, 2012). Conclusions from this study include

the importance of inclusion, the need for academic challenge and support, and connecting Students of Color

in honors programs with students from similar backgrounds.

Session One 10:40am-11:40am Notes

1. Opening Ceremonies: Developing and Assessing Meaningful Orientation Programming for Online Students

Jeffrey Taylor and Charles Johnson, University of Texas at Arlington Location: Red River This session will present the evolution and development of orientation

programs for online nursing students. It will share initial results from a study

measuring the sense of belonging in students that have attended online

orientations. It will conclude with discussion about the utilization of resources

and possible approaches for other programs. This session will challenge attendees

to think creatively and critically about the ways in which they engage their online

students upon matriculation.

2. Inclusive Excellence: Best Practices and Reducing Disability Stigma in Student

Advising Tracey Hoiles and Mikila Salazar, University of Texas at Arlington Location: Concho Academic advisors can assist educating students about disability rights,

correcting misconceptions about disabilities and accommodations thus

encouraging the use of resources such as the Office for Students with Disabilities.

Drawing on training in Disability Studies and case studies, we will introduce

disability-inclusive language and advising strategies. We will also discuss red flags

that may indicate an unrecognized or unaccommodated disability as well as

techniques to help students engage in discussions about their specific educational

needs.

3. Factors That Cause Crises for Students Dr. Bao Tran, Mountain View College Location: San Jacinto When students are in crisis, they are the most helpless and defenseless.

Students are prone to make rash decisions if they feel isolated and unsupported.

If students have even one person within the institution on whom they know they

can rely or trust, it might make all the difference in students’ retention. Being able

to have that conversation effectively and candidly with an at-risk student at the

most critical moment is the key.

Session Two 1:30pm—2:30pm Notes

1. Going the Distance from a Distance: Building Intentional Interventions for Online Students Jeffrey Taylor, Danielle Rugg, Lauren Vanpool-Cobbs, University of Texas at Arlington Location: Concho How can an academic advisor maintain a personal touch while working with online students? This session will provide practical strategies to engage students in critical moments: admission into the program, intervention when students receive poor grades, and the final approach to graduation. It is the intention of this session to provide attendees with ideas applicable to any online program and the encouragement to proactively engage their online students. 2. Does Your Student Know Who Their Advisor Is? Alicia Krenek and Kimberly Barge, The University of Texas at Tyler Location: San Jacinto At the University of Texas at Tyler, we have developed a way to automatically assign advisors in our student information system, PeopleSoft. Academic or specialty advisors can be assigned based on many factors. By creating this new functionality, we significantly reduced countless hours of manual entry, increased the turnaround time of mass changes, and lowered the chance of human error. Most importantly, this process makes it easy for the student to find their advisor. 3. Using the UTA Maverick Transfer Pathway Portal to Help Transfer Students Cross the Finish Line! Liz Richter, Kimshi Hickman, and Nicole Mancone Fisher or Kim Tate, University of Texas at Arlington Location: Red River Helping students succeed and stay on track towards graduation is every academic advisor’s goal. UTA’s new Transfer Portal teams students and their advisors so they can work together to help students "earn the gold"! In this session, you will view the UTA Maverick Transfer Pathway, powered by Transferology. This portal allows advisors and students to easily see how courses apply to UTA degree plans. Plan your journey! 4. The Ultra Critical Job Binder Ginger Dickens, University of Texas at Arlington

Location: Palo Pinto One of the advising best-practices I have found is making a job binder. It allows others to be informed on how tasks are performed and completed, therefore helping to avoid processing roadblocks if an employee is out of the office or if a process is not done regularly. After presenting my information, I will open the floor so that we may share our best practices with each other in a round table style discussion.

Session Three 2:40pm—3:40pm Notes

Notes Notes

Notes Notes