My collegiate athletic experience was unconventional. Hesitant to continue track and field, I turned down an athletic scholarship. Missing the sport I’d known my whole athletic career, I walked on to the team my sophomore year of college. That first season was humbling, to say the least. I picked up throwing equipment for the first time ever. A former sprinter turned thrower. I failed, multiple times. Fast forward to my junior year- I was the outdoor conference champion and school record holder in shot put, and made my mark as a top 5 all-time performer in three throwing events. I was not a NCAA Division I, a Division II athlete, or even an athlete in the NCAA. But the opportunities, connections, and skills I gained along the way I will be forever grateful for.

As the Admission Professional of the Year recipient, I was given the opportunity to attend this year’s NACAC conference in Los Angeles. While the schedule was very robust with lots of awesome sessions and events, it was a bit overwhelming. Reading all the options and coming up with my game plan felt a bit like cramming for a test. I’ve made some cliff notes (does anyone even use these anymore?) so you won’t need to cram for a NACAC conference in the future.

• Step 1, open your NACAC emails.
• Step 2, actually read said emails. No really, pre-conference emails have a wealth of information, and it helps to look at your options in snippets and come back to it often.
• Utilize the conference app. It allowed me to filter sessions specific to the content I wanted to learn about and build my own schedule. It also sent me reminders of the things I was most interested in doing.
• Don’t be afraid to walk out of a session- Yes, I just encouraged you to leave but for good reason! There are many things happening at the same time such as sessions, learning labs etc. I found myself wanting to attend multiple things and since I was flying solo, I cut out early to make it to everything on my list.
• Take the initiative to introduce yourself to someone new. I promise, the benefits far outweigh the fear of talking to strangers! I met two counselors from Vancouver Island, Canada, we had invigorating conversations that branched outside of just ‘work talk’ and now it’s on my travel bucket list. You should Google it; this place is like visiting Europe without flying over an ocean to get there.
• If you’re invited to an after party (most are hosted by sponsors/exhibitors), go! While these events are not hosted or sponsored by NACAC, they are another great way to network and have fun and, let’s be honest, having fun with our colleagues is icing on the conference cake!
• 

Looking at colleges for the first time was not the experience that I thought I would be having. Instead of taking in the schools and hearing about  classes and activities, I was worried about something that most kids don’t have to worry about.

On the morning of May 14, 2024, I was a little preoccupied with my 28^th birthday coming at me quickly. Reviewing my work inbox, I read a subject “Re: Iowa ACAC – Congrats!”. My IT department has put me through lots of training on what to do with spam. So, my first thought was to do some research on what this ‘ACAC’ acronym is. My research concluded that the Iowa ACAC was pretty legit and the conference seemed real. The email even referenced making a social media post! Although, for some reason, I made the executive decision that it made more sense for this to be spam, and I ended up deleting the email. A weekend passed, and one day my supervisor, Dana Chrisman, eventually gathered all of my fellow admissions office mates and congratulated me. Dana explained that a counselor I had worked with had written the most thoughtful recommendation about my visit at one of her high schools.

Dear BIPOC Professional, 

"Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried
To tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heart"
Adele really hit me with the feels while I started writing and made it so fitting to share a verse. The other side is almost what we would imagine as recruiters, schedules, emotions, schedules, and future planning. 

On a wintery Iowa day, I attended the virtual Iowa ACAC Winter session of Admissions Counselor University (ACU). During this session, we covered ethics, territory management, building connections, and communicating with gen z. Toward the end of our meeting, we were joined by a great panel of high school counselors and career advisors who provided insight on best practices when talking with students and visiting schools.

This month will mark my 12^th year in Admissions, and while I love my job and working with students, one of the biggest reasons I’ve stayed in  Admissions is because of the people I’ve been fortunate to work with or alongside. Recently, during one of my Iowa ACAC committee meetings some of my committee members remarked about how different the landscape of admissions travel has become over the years. When we had first joined the profession, connecting with admission reps from other schools for lunch in-between fairs or a social hour after a day of travel was the norm. A few of us reminisced about the good ole days in Shenandoah! These types of stories seem to be fading, and it made us all wonder why?

Has your admissions office recently hired new admissions professionals this semester? Are you looking for a way to refresh your basic knowledge on college admissions, tips for the travel season, or admissions best practices? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you need to keep reading!

LEAP was back for 2023 and, oh my, was it missed!  After a 3-year hiatus due to Covid and a shortage of bus drivers, it was great to welcome students once again. LEAP is held on a different campus each year and we were grateful to be hosted by Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids.   Our hope is that students get to know what it is like at each campus and learn about what each institution has to offer.

Over the last three years, the Iowa Department of Education has worked to expand access to professionals who understand the college admissions process for underrepresented students in high schools across Iowa. In the spring of 2021, the department opened up it’s first grant opportunity to allow community colleges and high schools to partner to add College/Career Transition Counselors (CCTC).  Now, 2 ½ years later, there are nearly 50 CCTCs across the state with nearly every community college employing at least one school counselor. By the end of this school year, there are plans to have a CCTC at every community college serving at least one high school. As the network expands, it is important to understand the role of this new person at Iowa high schools and how college admission counselors can partner to increase student enrollment in college.

I want to introduce you to Janine Baeza and myself, Juanita Zavala, Co-Chairs for the Inclusion, Access, and Success committee. Janine is the Associate Director of Freshman Recruitment & Access at the University of Northern Iowa and I am a College and Career Transition Coach (CCTC) at Indian Hills Community College. Our committee works to identify how to better serve and support underrepresented high school students with their post-secondary plans.

Is it summer yet? It’s funny how we work all year long for a very short period of time where we all sit anxiously and wait for the numbers to start going up and can’t wait to just rip the band-aid off. 

Do you work with Latinx students? Or struggle with resources to give them such as scholarships? Or perhaps wonder what terms to use such as Hispanic or Latino/a? Sometimes it can be confusing, especially if working with undocumented or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students. 

Ever want to know more about your fellow Iowa ACAC members? Our regular Get to Know You articles are here to help you do just that!  Learn a little about one of our "star" (literally) members, Gabriel Hernández Acosta.

I don’t think I would be too far off in assuming that everyone reading this has a passion for education and cares about the educational well being of the students we work with. An easy way to put that care into action is to learn more about how legislation can affect the accessibility of education for students in Iowa.

Last week I received a letter in my school mail from a college in Iowa. It was addressed to, “Instructors, guidance counselors, and  administration.” I cringed. Nothing ruffles my feathers more in education than being called a “guidance counselor.”  It is 2022 and the profession of school counseling has been around since the early 1900’s. It has evolved and adapted to modern and current times, yet somehow, the title of guidance counselor has been hard to shake. 

It is the first fall travel season that has been somewhat normal in a couple of years. Or was it? Since my team is wrapping up their fall travel season soon, I asked them to reflect on their experiences. We have a mix of seasoned counselors and new college graduates on our staff, so it has been interesting to see their various experiences when they roll in each Friday. While some of these observations have been happening over time, we have noticed that some are more prevalent now than ever. How does your fall travel compare?

• Students aren’t sure what they are looking for in a school or what they want to study. This doesn’t seem like a big surprise, right? However, it seems to be paralyzing to some students this year. They don’t even know where to start.
• Parents are very involved in the process and doing things for the student. Ah, helicopter parenting at its finest! We know parents have been filling out applications in the past, but it seems to be on a whole new level.
• Students are moving slower in the application process this year and are generally overwhelmed with the thought of college. We have spent the last couple of months trying new strategies for outreach to meet students where they are.
• There’s always a group of highly motivated students. Even though some students are uncertain about the next steps, you can always count on a group of go-getters to be on top of everything. Thank goodness!
• Students are more open to learning about schools they have never heard of. Hogwarts? No, Wartburg. (Like we’ve never heard that one before!)
• College fairs were better this year than last year, but still not as good as they were pre-pandemic. It seems that fewer schools are busing in students, and more schools are having their own fairs. Evening fairs were not as well attended either.
• Students seem less interested or available to meet with admission counselors at the high school. I feel like we’ve been moving in this direction for a while. Students are taking college courses while in high school and getting practical work experience as a part of their curriculum. Others have already been on campus and feel they don’t need to connect.
• Some students think they need to decide on a school before applying. How can we all be more transparent and helpful in communicating application options to students?
• Our school counselor friends are working with more students with mental health challenges than ever. School counselors are juggling so much. How can we assist them with college search resources and take some of their load off? (Please tell us; we all want to help!)

The annual NACAC conference was hosted in Houston, TX. I had the pleasure of taking over our Iowa ACAC social media for a few days to bring you highlights of the conference. I’m recapping the trip in case you missed our stories!