Month: June 2018

Kudos

SoACE Kudos: June 2018 Edition

June 29, 2018 by 0 Comments

Every other month, we do a call out for SoACE members to submit their anonymous Kudos to colleagues that have gone above and beyond in the office, as part of a professional association, or in other ways that make life better for others.

Amanda Johnson, Arkansas ACE
She has served on the Conference committee and brought new energy and and corporate leads to the AACE community

Tiffany Johnson, Arkansas ACE
Tiffany always tried to find ways to recruit new members and retain current members. During the fall of 2017, she won the contest for recruiting individuals to the Winter Conference.

Brittany Straw, Arkansas ACE
Brittany Straw, the Past-President, for improving conference participation and redesigning the conference fees for increased income.

FloridaACE
Congrats to FloridaACE for another amazing conference! It was great to learn from peers, network and have so much fun! Can’t wait until next year!

FloridaACE
Congratulations on an amazing conference and thank you to everyone who had a hand in making it such a phenomenal event: John Sheehy, Megan Hollis, Matina Wagner, Stacy Lanigan, Devyn Montalvo, Harold Shaw, Bill Blank, Tara Stevenson, Jennifer Fonseca, Michele Groves, Valerie Mandel, Ben Heins, Erin Minta, Carmen Carter, Teri-Anne Brennan, and all of the committee members who made it all happen! It has been an honor to work with you all and I hope to continue to do so for many more years to come. Thank you for making my last conference on the board so special. I am so proud to call FloridaACE my home.

Kim Satz, SoACE Employer Relations Summit Committee
The Employer Relations Summit was held this past week in Charlotte North Carolina. The event was a huge success with the largest attendance to date! Thank you to all that were involved in the 2018 Summit – from the committee, presenters, and volunteers, to the attendees. Kudos and special thanks to Kim Satz for her involvement in the selecting the employer panel and site visit. We can’t wait until next June!

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Career Services Team
Thanks for being strong partners and great friends at NACE. #RecruitLouisiana

Tara Stevenson, Flagler College
Congratulations on completing your term as Information Management Director and being elected to serve as Vice President/Conference Chair for FloridaACE. Your outstanding leadership, visionary thinking, and ability to get things done will make 2019 an amazing year! I can’t wait for #FloridaACE19 in Daytona Beach!

Lauren Cavicchi, Florida International University
Always early, always taking on those extra programs and presentations, and always ready to help our department grow. Thank you for working hard, it is noticed.

Carmen Carter, Florida International University
Congratulations on receiving the FloridaACE New Member Award this year! You are doing incredible things with our social media presence and it’s great to see your talent and hard work be recognized!

Carmen Carter, Florida International University
This KUDOS goes out to Carmen Carter at FIU Career & Talent Development! Her creativity and adaptability have helped her to activate and launch the On Campus Recruitment “Street Team” to get the word out about our career office Services and employer on campus recruitment program! You can always depend on Carmen to create new ideas that will generate traffic and attention to the office. One excellent example is the Snapchat Story Takeovers on social media that she promotes to employers. Carmen’s spark is contagious and it is illuminating the light for FIU students!

Sonia Gonzalez, Florida International University
Congratulations on being elected to the FloridaACE Board of Directors! You are a superstar and I can’t wait to see the great things you will achieve in your time serving our great state association!

Elery Rojas, Florida International University
Great work on all the dedication and effort you put in keeping our students clothed via our Career Closet! Thank you for making sure they look sharp!

Martha Rosa, Florida International University
HUGE KUDOS to Martha Rosa at Career & Talent Development, FIU for taking the leap to launch Panther Shadows in 2017! In one year, the program has taken off and shown an increase in student and employer participation. Martha’s initiative, creativity and her hard work ethic to launch this program has opened doors for our students in more ways they could have imagined!

Leandria Vickers, Florida International University
Congratulations on completing FIU’s President’s Leadership Program (PLP) for 2017-2018!

Kimberly Ryan, Florida Institute of Technology
Congratulations on being elected to serve as Information Management Director for FloridaACE! You are going to be great!

Steven Hatchett, Huston-Tillotson University
Mr. Hatchett is amazing! He is getting the Career Services department back on track and I appreciate him letting me be a part of the experience this year. He is smart, talented and a positive mentor. Thank you for all you do Mr. Hatchett!

Troy Autin, LSU Olinde Career Center
1 year in and we’ve come full circle on comprehensive first destination survey plan and execution. Thank you for your persistence and patience in this process. Kudos, Dr.!

Jessica Glasgow, LSU Olinde Career Center
Thanks for your flexibility and consistent focus on making our office better!

Erin Warns, LSU Olinde Career Center
Your organization and professionalism shined through as search committee chair – thanks so much!

Sara Concini, N.C. State University
Sara was conference chair, leading a cohort of North and South Carolinians to successfully pull off a great 2018 annual conference! I’ve served with Sara on several committees over the years, but bringing together two state teams with a unified mission, was a monumental task, one that she did with grace, tact, and energy! She deserves much more than KUDOS, and sincere appreciation from both states for her dedication to the career education field!

Jennifer Fonseca, Palm Beach Atlantic University
Kudos for providing FloridaACE with one of the best closing keynote sessions I’ve ever attended! The reflection, the storytelling, and the tangible way you demonstrated purpose vs. problems were all so real and provided so many takeaways. I’m still reflecting and every morning I come in to work thinking about my purpose, thanks to you.

KayLee Simmons, UA Career Development Center
UA Career Development Center won the the Arkansas ACE (AACE) Diversity and Inclusion Award for taking careful considerations to not only enhance usability for all students, staff, and employers, but to reach our goal towards becoming a 100% ADA compliant website.

Bethany Mills, UGA Career Center
Shout out to Bethany Mills for transitioning into the Director of Career Development and Programs role in our office and already doing an amazing job!

Ashley Byrd-White, University of South Carolina Career Center
Ashley goes above and beyond in her work with students at the Career Center. Recently, she gave a fantastic presentation at NACE on her new faculty/staff collaboration program, Career Champion. Keep up the great work, Ashley!

Ray Rogers, St. Edwards University
Ray, thank you for service to SoACE as President. You have been an outstanding leader and mentor who gets things done. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to work with you again this past year and look forward to the year ahead. You have done many great things and worked many extra hours for SoACE and it is appreciated more than you will ever know.

Stephanie Rettig, Tarrant County College
Stephanie Rettig has done an amazing job meeting the students where they are. She has created a mobile career services with a large pop-up tent and her team has set up shop on various locations around campus. They have provided resume development, given out career services information and event flyers, provided refreshments during finals week, and continue to find ways to connect with students where they are to meet all career needs. She has actively collaborated with student services and academic departments across campus to provide tailored services for all students and partner on fun events for students to ensure they know career services is here to help! Her energy and enthusiasm, along with her dynamic leadership skills have allowed career services to be a part of student’s academic path from beginning to end. Faculty, Staff, Administrators, and Students have all shared that they were unaware of career services and it’s location, but now they are excited about what the team is doing!

Charles Jennings, Tennessee State University
Charles Jennings is a though leader who works from sun up to sun down assisting students to their highest career endeavors. He is a career leader who deserves recognition for all of his outstanding work implementing programming and activities that will engage student and employers!

Tim Harding, The University of Tampa
Congratulations on receiving the 2018 John T. Brownlee Award, FloridaACE’s most esteemed honor! You are so deserving of this award. Thank you for being the mentor, leader, friend, and confidant that you have always been to me and many others. It is a privilege to know you.

Katie Ramirez, Trinity University
Katie has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication as associate director in the Center for Experiential Learning & Career Success. While serving as the San Antonio Colleges & Universities Career Centers Associations’ president she was also responsible for leading planning for Trinity’s fall and spring career fairs last year as well as leading the Center’s transition from one CSM platform to another this summer – the latter two with the invaluable support of the Center team. She has done a great job leading and collaborating. Kudos!

Sheena Jacobs, UNC Chapel Hill
Kudos to Sheena for stepping into new leadership roles. Students and career professionals will benefit from your work with NASPA and as the new president of NCCDA.

Mary Mahoney and Rob Morris, University of Tennessee
Thank you to Mary Mahoney and Rob Morris for taking leadership on our transition to Handshake. A big high five to the rest of the UT CCD team for their positive attitudes during our second year of transitioning to a new platform!

Mark McCloud, University of Tennessee at Martin
Dr. McCloud completed his doctoral program in May. He headed the establishment of the Office of Career Planning and Development at UT Martin–all while driving to Ole Miss to complete his degree. This took tremendous effort and time. He has developed a wonderful department and leads a team that is very proud of his accomplishments

Sam Ratcliffe, Virginia Military Institute
Thank you for being such a wonderful supervisor, mentor, and friend. Congratulations on your retirement! We’re glad we could be part of your journey.

Ashley Graham Phipps, Wake Forest University
Ashley is always on top of everything. She contributes so much to the Technology KG and she is always willing to share resources and information about the great work she is doing at Wake Forest. Thanks for being the best force to be reckoned with.

Award Recipients

Scott Maynard, 2017 Honorary Lifetime Membership Award Recipient

June 22, 2018 by 0 Comments

Honorary Lifetime Membership is awarded to individuals who have made notable and significant contributions to the Association over the course of their active membership in SoACE, SACE or SWACE. In order to be considered for Honorary Life Membership, an individual must have been active in SoACE, SACE or SWACE for at least five years, and must no longer be eligible for active membership in the association because of retirement, job transition, or other similar reasons. Scott Maynard, Director Emeritus of The Career Center at Mississippi State, was one of two recipients of this prestigious honor at the 2017 Annual Conference in San Antonio.

Scott was nominated by Charlie Wilder, Assistant Director, The Career Center at Mississippi State, who said, in excerpts of his nomination letter:

Scott Maynard has been actively involved in professional associations holding various leadership positions. He lives the mission of SoACE by getting involved and encouraging his staff to be involved. He co-chaired the 2011 SoACE Conference in Savannah and believed that allowing others to enjoy their work would encourage them to give their best effort…he was going to make sure you got the job done, but you were also going to have fun doing it.

Beyond the association, Scott shows this same commitment to others at work and home. North Mississippi can have some cold times and this person didn’t hesitate to come out in the cold dressed in overalls with a work light and boots to climb into a crawl space and fix a heater for a co-worker. At work, his ability to stay cool and collected paid off when the building caught fire during a job fair. His legacy of developing others and fostering collaborations and the sharing of information live on through those who were fortunate enough to work with him. Whatever the location or situation, he is ultimately concerned for his people. His example is a lesson for us all: take care of your people and they will take care of you. Scott is a valued colleague and friend, and his presence at our conferences will be missed.

Scott Maynard is now President and CEO of The Greater Starkville Development Partnership. He holds Director Emeritus status from The Career Center at Mississippi State University where he retired in 2017. Scott received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing and an MBA from Mississippi State.

He also serves as President of the Cooperative Education and Internship Association Inc., a leading national voice on work-integrated learning.  Previously he served on the Board of Directors for the Southern Association of Colleges and Employers (SoACE) and on the Board of the Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education.  Scott also served on the Board of Aldermen for the City of Starkville, Mississippi from 2013-2017.

 

 

Letters from the President

Letter from the President – Ray Rogers

June 15, 2018 by 0 Comments

The Rise of the KG

While attending the recent NACE conference in New Orleans I found myself reflecting on how specialized our profession has become–developing expertise in the many professional areas that now make up our profession.  The variety of job titles and roles we now see prevalent on the SoACE job board goes far beyond basic career counseling and employer relations tasks, delving into first-destination statistics and analytics, evaluating student learning outcomes through experiential education, managing a multitude of online services available to our students/alumni, and the focus on competency-based education helping students to become career ready.  It is impressive to be sure, but also somewhat overwhelming, especially to those just now entering the field.

Seven years ago, the SoACE board launched the KGs (Knowledge Groups) with the charge to respond to the ongoing specialization that was occurring within our field while also developing venues for year-round professional development opportunities for our members.  Since then, our original eight KGs have changed, grown and redefined themselves, but still continue to provide multiple opportunities for our members to become engaged in both passive and active ways.  They also continue to focus us on those areas and issues at the forefront of our profession and higher education.  Our KGs were built to evolve as the priorities and stresses of our profession change.  Simply put, I’ve come to appreciate the KGs as the grass roots, the lifeblood, and the driver of our association.  They ensure we remain relevant while providing professional development for our members, during, but also in between, annual conferences.  They provide easy access and multiple entry points into the association as well as our profession.  And, they continue to provide us with strong leadership that not only benefits SoACE, but also our state associations, colleges/universities, and employers within our region.

Knowledge Groups are unique to SoACE.  Nothing like them exists in the other regional associations, nor on the national level.  I have to give big kudos to the 2011 SoACE board who gave birth to the KGs, and would be remiss if I didn’t specifically recognize Tim Harding, who was the primary driver and visionary of the KG concept.  My first step onto the SoACE board was at his encouragement, asking me to help lead this new and fledgling initiative known as the KGs.  I’m so proud to see how far they have come.

SoACE is strong in membership and conference attendance.  We are a fiscally sound organization and have some of the brightest minds and strongest leaders within our ranks.  For much of our success, now and in the future, we have the KG’s to thank.  My final goal as your outgoing president is to encourage each of you to become involved with at least one KG, contributing to its mission, furthering what we know about that area, and pushing us to become better at what we do.

Ray Rogers
2017-18 SoACE President
St. Edward’s University