Before I continue with the tales of my travel the last few months, I thought it imperative to share the big news of the day. On November 11, the Board of Trustees elected Ronald J. Daniels as the 14th president in Johns Hopkins University history. Daniels, the current Provost at the University of Pennsylvania and former Dean of Faculty at the University of Toronto Law School, will begin his service to the Hopkins community in March. Check-out the Web site created to announce the New President and don't forget to celebrate President Brody's years of service through the President's Web site. Much more to come.
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Welcome back. If you have yet to read Part One of my re-cap of my fall recruitment travels, then click hereto start at the beginning. If you have already read that entry then lets continue. As a reminder, when last I left you, I was sitting nervously at Logan Airport preparing to board an Alaska Airlines 5+ hour flight to Seattle.
Wednesday, September 24 continued...
Whew, I am glad that is all done. Here I am in the Red Lion Hotel in Seattle, WA with a beautiful view of the Space Needle. I have no idea what time it is because I am horrible with time zone changes, but I do know it is late. The last time I was out of the Eastern Time Zone was four years ago when I did some travel in the Midwest (Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland).
I should be getting to bed, but before I forget the experience, I have to journal about my flight. Clearly since I am writing this right now I did actually survive the cross-country flight. However, there were a few moments when my anxiety rose to critical levels. Thankfully I was able to distract myself and calm down a bit -- always be prepared. The 5 hour, 23 minute flight felt like 10 hours though. And since I would not get out of my chair for any reason, my bladder almost exploded. In the end though I do exaggerate a bit ... it wasn't that bad.
I understand that a fear of flying is a bit irrational, especially since I have never had a bad experience with turbulence or a really bad flight (knock on wood). But for me the fear does not just stem from the fear of crashing or fear of a hijacking or fear of some tragedy, though I do think of all those things while in the air. The main problem I have with flying is the inconvenience and lack of control. I think if I was flying the plane I would be better. It does boggle my mind though how small airplanes are and how they pack passengers and bags in as sardines. See I am not a small person and I understand a person of my size is going to be uncomfortable, however it amazes me that even normal sized people don't fit comfortably anymore. Add to that the lack of amenities on board, and the seeming rudeness from the majority of flight attendants ... and well let's just say I will continue only to fly when it is an absolute necessity. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about flying again until Sunday ... oh darn it!
Thursday, September 25
After a good rest and adjustment to the three hour time difference, I am up and about and looking over the beauty of Seattle. The last time I was here in the Pacific Northwest was in 2000 when I was covering some recruitment travel for my colleague while working at American University. I had a great time then and fell in love with the city, despite the frequent rain and overcast skies. I remember expressing after that trip that if Seattle was on the eastern seaboard I would move there in a heartbeat. And now that I am back, that sentiment still holds.
My first reaction on my return to Seattle is how much the city has grown and is growing. I have counted already 7 major construction cranes working on sky rises in the downtown part of the city. As I walk the streets I am reminded by how clean the city is, how friendly the people are, and how there is still quite an alternative (grunge / punk?) youth that occupies the city. The weather is actually beautiful and is supposed to be for the whole weekend.
So what am I doing in Seattle? I am here to attend the four day National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) National Conference. This conference is the largest collection of admissions counselors, high school guidance counselors, independent college counselors, corporate vendors, and other parties connected to the world of higher education admissions. This is the seventh national conference I have attended, and you can read about my past experiences while in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago (click here). Well I best get to the Convention Center and check-in with today's events.
... I'm back. A great first day of the conference. Actually, it was quite a relaxing day, as I took it easy and only attended one educational session and then my state and regional membership meeting. The educational session I attended was about recruiting at Engineering Schools (representatives from MIT, Rose-Hulman, and Cornell were panelists), and since I am the Engineering liaison at Hopkins I thought I should go and hear what was discussed. I had high hopes for the content of the session, yet in the end I learned very little and really was upset that the session turned more into promotion for the specific schools on the panel and not an open dialogue of key issues and ideas on how to connect with prospective engineering high school students. Oh well, strike one.
The state and regional membership meeting, PCACAC (Potomac and Chesapeake Association of College Admissions Counselors) specifically, was more enjoyable. It was fun to connect with others in the profession from colleges and universities as well as high schools throughout MD, DC, VA, and WV. The PCACAC leadership includes many national level leaders in our profession and networking with them can never hurt. Plus, PCACAC is all excited at this conference because next year (2009) the National Conference is coming to Baltimore ... more on that later.
Friday, September 26
Today was a busy day. I returned to the hotel quite late in the evening, very tired with a strained voice, but overwhelmingly professionally developed from the day's sessions and conversations. The day consisted of a number of educational sessions followed by the Counselors' College Fair and then a lovely dinner with friends I haven't seen in some time.
The sessions today were much more informative and I actually learned a lot. One session featured four current guidance / college counselors working at high schools across the country who all previously worked as college admissions counselors. The session was titled "If We Know Then What We Know Now" and the presentation included a top ten list of advice for today's current college admissions counselors on how to interact with prospective students and guidance counselors. The list was so well put together, that I am going to have to type up my notes and share with all my colleagues when I get back to Baltimore. I also attended a session on the Education Conservancy that I will need to write more about in the future. It raised a lot of interesting questions about the state of college admissions today.
The day ended with the Counselors' College Fair. Not your normal college fair ... Imagine 400+ colleges and universities in alphabetical order lined up in an exhibit hall. Then imagine that the attendees of this fair are not high school students but rather 1000+ high school guidance / college counselors. The fair is a chance for high school counselors to meet with the admissions counselors and get updates and ask questions. As well, this is a time to talk about potential applicants and make contacts. This is always a highlight for me, but this year was even more exciting because we got these little scanners and could scan the ID badges of the counselors who were interested in receiving more materials. I let my colleague Amy field most of the questions, and I just played with the scanning machine as much as possible.
OK, off to hang with friends and have some good Seattle food and drinks.
Saturday, September 27
As I was walking to the Convention Center this morning I was reminded by what a unique event the National Conference has become. Nearly 5000 people invade a metropolitan city for four days to share stories, advice, and thoughts on our shared profession. The educational sessions are a great time to learn new skills or heed advice from one's peers. The evenings are a great time to catch up with old friends and make new acquaintances. And the rest of the schedule enables for all kinds of professional development.
I also realized that at this conference I have been spending a lot of time learning more and more about how we can use new technologies to connect with the current generation of prospective college students. I spent a good amount of time walking the vendor exhibit halls to learn about all these new initiatives. I learned a lot about new social networking college admissions sites like Zinch.com and Cappex.com, and also checked out a lot of these new video college search sites like universitytv.com. A lot of things to think about in the coming year.
As I departed the convention center for the last time, I made sure to stop at the NACAC Baltimore booth to get a cool little crab sticker, check out the cool crab hats, and start networking for next year's conference in my home city. This is going to be a ton of fun, and a great opportunity for us to show off the Homewood campus to thousands of college counselors.
Sunday, September 28 (3056 miles by plane; 29 miles be rental car)
Well here we go again. I am in the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport awaiting my return flight on Alaska Airlines to Boston, MA. My amazing adventures in Seattle have come to an end, and now I have to return to New England for another week of high schools visits and college fairs. Boy do I miss my own bed ... and I really miss Soze too ...plus the laundry is piling up.
The conference came to an end with the Conference Social last night at theExperience Music Project / Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame at the base of the Space Needle. The museum was amazing, the food was good, the drink was great, the karaoke corner was interesting, and the live band was quite good. Of all the Conference Socials I have ever attended, this was hands down the best that I remember (the one in Salt Lake City was good too but I don't remember everything from that night).
In reflection, not only was the Conference Social excellent, the whole conference was exceptional. The city of Seattle was a great host, the logistics of everything worked so smoothly, and the sessions were pretty much all worthwhile. In my ten years, this was the second best professional development experience of my career -- nothing will every top the Enrollment Management College Board program I attended at the University of Central Florida in 2001. It is great that the conference was such a success, however that puts the pressure on the host city in 2009 --- BALTIMORE.
The planning will begin as soon as I return to my home city ... but that won't be until another week. First, I have return to the Eastern Time Zone and that means getting back up in the sky, so my anxiety levels are increasing. Fingers crossed ...
To be continued...
Check back at the end of the week for Part Three and to see if I survived my second cross-country flight in five days.
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