SALT CONFERENCE

Hello again and welcome to the second annual Zach goes to an event blogpost. For this second event I chose to write about the professional development conference called SALT. SALT stands for the Student Affairs Leaders of Tomorrow. This conference is run by NASPA. See the link below.
http://www.naspa.org/

This conference was for myself and seventy other student professionals who applied and were accepted out of a total of one hundred and fifty. We were going to learn strategies for future job searches, connect with professionals already in the field, and evaluate dozens of graduate school programs within the area of students activities. This conference couldn't have come at a better time. Its crucial that I decide my path before the end of this semester because grad school applications are going to need to be turned in and I need to start planning for after graduation. I can't say that I am one hundred percent ready for the next step in my life but this conference definitely helped. I would like to that Kristen Salemi for helping me through this process because she pushed me into this conference and even paid for myself and another RIC student to attend. She is definitely the biggest reason that I am going to succeed in the field of student affairs and that's because of her push.
http://www.ric.edu/news/details.php?News_ID=1602
The link above is for a picture of Kristen as she received an award from NASPA years ago. Her information can be located on the RIC website.
At the conference we learned how to develop our resumes to attract future employers, we also learned how to interview correctly, and finally we got to talk to two separate panels of professionals about the field. That was only the first day.
We got to spend the night in the Regency Hyatt in Newport for the night and we also got a banquet for all of us future professionals to talk to the distinguished professionals in a non-formal setting. This was extremely beneficial because we got to develop personal connections for the future.
On the second day dozens of grad schools spoke to us about their programs and we got to walk around and talk to each of the programs individually. This was great because for someone who didn't know much about the programs I needed some guidance. This was a wonderful experience.
Since I am majoring in Youth Development, this conference was very beneficial. I plan on working with college level youth and in student affairs this would potentially be a dream job. I want to work with the student in residential life or in the counseling aspect of student affairs. This is important because I don't want kids to struggle through college and I believe I can help them by being the best student affairs person I can be. I may also be able to use my guidance to help mold them towards the future. Potentially I would pushing them towards youth development or other fields that work with youth.
I like to think that guidance during young adulthood benefits the youth the most because they are already questioning what the want to become or which direction they want to take their life. The area that I am working in right now is Life Skills coaching and I have learned that kids need this guidance throughout young adulthood to help push them. It is a wonderful program and it has helped me in my pursuits of a future career.
http://ricorp.org/class-schedule/