Friday, October 21, I attended my first Academic Conference with the Career Exploration Office. We attended the NCCDA (North Carolina Career Development Association) Conference that was at Alamance Community College.
The day started at 6am when we left from the Stadium Parking lot in the University van. I don’t remember most of the drive because, to be honest, I slept through most of it. But, once we got to ACC everyone was starting to wake up again, plus they provided coffee and breakfast. For most of us in our group, it was our first time at the NCCDA, and our first conference in general. And honestly, it was a pretty awesome first conference. It was only one day and a pretty small group of people.
The conference opened with a welcome and the first keynote speaker. It was a very moving speech about overcoming adversity and how we can encourage our clients to identify their strengths and to help motivate them in their journeys. Most of the people attending the conference were people already in the field of Career Development or graduate students who were in programs to go into Career Development. I was among the few undergraduate students that were there, but honestly I didn’t feel out of place.
The NCCDA had a buddy system at lunch for first time people and that was really helpful to talk to them about what we were experiencing at the conference and just debriefing from the break-out sessions. The break-out sessions were all very unique in what they had to offer as well and I think that is a wonderful aspect to this conference. It prevents people from hearing the same information over and over again in the same ways.
The three break-out sessions I attended really helped me see how I could use the information from this conference for more than Career Development. As a Transfer Student Mentor as well, and just helping people in general. My favorite break-out session had to be the third one, which was how to work with Millennials. The biggest take away from that session was that as Millennials we want to make connections easily and effectively, and we don't want to be bored. The speakers for this session talked about all the good things Millennials had to offer and all the good they are providing to make this world a better place. It was very refreashing to hear good things instead of the normal negative stereotypes.
The conference was honestly a wonderful experience. Even though the target audience was not for undergraduate interns it was still very informative for all groups of people interested in Career Development of any kind. It was also a wonderful first conference experience both for going to that conference for the first time and going to a conference for the first time in general.
I would highly recommend going to the NCCDA conference if you are interesting in any form of Career Development or even just working with people. And don’t be afraid to go to conferences that you don’t think would be geared towards or grade level because you could be really surprised at what you can learn. Starting at small conferences can really help get over the fear of conferences as well.
