NCMPR BLOG

by Judi Sciple
Delaware Technical Community College
Dover, DE

The final day of the District 6 conference included a keynote on networking, the District business meeting and the much anticipated Medallion, Communicator and Pacesetter awards!

As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I had hoped to learn more about Juan Frausto a student at MiraCosta College who was attending the conference. So I joined Juan at breakfast with the intention of learning about his background, his studies and his career goals.

Juan is in the political science degree program and is a work-study student in MiraCosta’s marketing/pr department managing their social marketing and authoring a student blog. The blog is new to him (just as this is to me!!) and we commiserated about how difficult it can be to come up with interesting tidbits that people might want to read. (Juan gave me his permission to share the web address for his blog: www.miracosta.edu/apps/blogs/jfrausto – check it out!) I promised him he was not alone and we decided that blogs were simply about sharing the “A-HA” moments we experienced in our day, no matter how big or small. So Juan, count yourself as one of the highlights of my day! He talked about his upcoming three-month trip to Spain next summer where he can take courses in psychology, sociology, Spanish and history as part of MiraCosta’s study abroad program and where he will author another blog on his travels. Juan plans to transfer to a four-year institution and get his bachelor’s degree in Communications with the hope of managing publicity for a concert production company, basically promoting music festivals and events. I don’t know about most of you, but my job provides few opportunities to interact with our students, so I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Juan and hearing about his enthusiasm about entering our profession.

Following the keynote, District 6 held their business meeting where attendees shared their thoughts about the conference program and provided recommendations for future workshop topics. These suggestions mirrored the information we learned last year from our national survey – NCMPR members want more sessions related to design and technology. I was also impressed to see about 20 attendees identify this as their first NCMPR conference, some of whom made a point to comment on the quality of the program and the experience.

The conference ended with the Medallion and Pacesetter Awards Luncheon, where attendees celebrated their successes and soaked up ideas to take back to their colleges. My congratulations to Amber Chiang from Bakersfield College for chairing the Medallions Awards, she even committed to handling the massive task again next year!

Kudos to District 6 Director Paula Blankenship, and again to Cheryl Broom for an amazing conference! I had a wonderful time getting to know everyone in such a beautiful setting and hope to see many of you at the national conference in March. Next stop, the District 3 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin!