LEADERS Institute

I actually am liking this conference more than I thought I would. I had no idea really what to expect. I applied for the scholarship in February; I had randomly come across it from the AAWCC website, an organization that I am the chapter president of at Heartland this year. I thought, "Hey, why not? Free trip to SLC and I've never been there." Besides that, I believe in the mission of AAWCC and the conference sounded like a great thing, even though I didn't know much about it. I put heart into my application. And I couldn't believe that I actually got chosen!

I am the youngest one here (from what I can tell) and I feel a bit out of my element. My "I don't know why I'm here" and "I don't feel like a leader" mentality has been met with a lot of the women saying to me, "Everyone's a leader in their own way," or "You just don't realize the potential you have," or "You never know what opportunities might come up during your career." These things are true and it feels good to have that affirmation from women who are chairs, deans, vice presidents, or even presidents at community colleges across the nation. They are kind of getting me interested in a doctorate. But... no. Haha.

It's also interesting some of the... resistance... I've felt from other women. From a few I've gotten the "You're only an academic advisor" vibe. I just ignore it, but it's an interesting dynamic.

I'm really just trying to treat this experience as a sponge and absorb as much information as possible. At the very least, it's been fascinating to learn how other community colleges run things, what their state politics/policies are like, and what their challenges are. I've gained some ideas and strategies that will keep me motivated and inspired and even help the students in my classes.

One of the organizers of the institute is a true believer in the power of journaling. We got a copy of a book on it and a leather-bound journal for the conference. I've wrote a little in it so far. I think my blog is sort of my form of journaling. Yesterday we talked about communication, Strengths Quest (which we did in grad school and 3 of my 5 strengths are the same... interesting) emotional intelligence, and what we desire to feel every day at our jobs. Today we talked about mission, the federal community college agenda (and its positives and negatives... lots of negatives--let's be honest here), the demographic changes of Utah and really the entire United States and how it affects community colleges and our communities, in general, and diversity. Such a broad range of topics and it's all been so interesting!

So besides the meat of the institute being amazing, the facilities, food, and experiences have been awesome too. This hotel is historic and houses the (literal) best restaurant in Salt Lake City, called Bombara. Tonight we went to another restaurant called Franck's that was the best meal I've ever had. I've been so lucky!