To Hartford We Went!

Although not part of the BSU delegation this year, unfortunately, I wanted to share my experience with NGLA. Katelyn Rapoza and I submitted 2 educational sessions last fall in the hopes that we would be privileged enough to present at this conference. Around December we were informed that not just one, but BOTH of our ed. sessions had been chosen. Beyond ecstatic we started to prepare :)

So yesterday we presented... our first session was on "Reaching Out To Those That Need It Most". We were both nervous, and it didn't help that my name was "Alex Kay" in the program. But we were also nervous that no one would show up to our session... turns out they had to bring in extra chairs! It was a full house and I was anxious to start. As soon as we introduced ourselves and stated our outcomes, I was at ease. It was so easy for me to explain how to identify members slipping away from your organization, how to identify that member's strengths, challenge them, and keep them connected! Our audience was actively engaged and we even had some avid note takers in the first few rows. We were even blessed to have had the presence of Maribeth and Sandy Burba, two fellow sisters!

We then had lunch and did a mental check and preparation before our next session, Creating Strong Public Relations In and Out of Letters! We were excited for this session because of the video we had made which was an adaptation from a Delta Zeta video using TJ Sullivan's speech from CampusSpeak. We had another good turn out and only a minor snafu with the projector. The audience seemed a little tired, but we presented in the last ed session block for the entire conference so it was understandable. We even had Tori Ford, a Delta Phi Epsilon in the audience. I met Tori at the New England Greek Summit at MIT last semester and it was great to reconnect with her!

Overall, I had a fantastic day and didn't think that I would be as comfortable as I was in a large group of people who were actively listening to information that Katelyn & I had put together. It was also reassuring and a nice pick me up to see all the tweets from the BSU Delegation wishing us the best of luck! I am so thankful to have had this amazing opportunity and hope that I get more opportunities like this in the future. It was a great opportunity to build on my knowledge base, network with peers, work with a partner and build on my communication skills. I had a great day at the conference and even though we had almost a 14 hour day (including driving) I wouldn't change it for anything :)

If anyone has any questions about our presentation feel free to contact Katelyn or myself! krapoza@student.bridgew.edu and akay@student.bridgew.edu

Much Greek Love,
Lexi