Having attended two professional conferences in the city of Chicago and in Providence (Rhode Island) this past May and June, I had the opportunity to tour a total of 8 university campuses, attend two university fairs, meet with admissions representatives from various colleges and universities as well as network and exchange ideas with independent educational consultants from across the U.S., Canada and overseas. Another aspect of these conferences are the Vendor Halls, where consultants like myself take time to chat with providers of services which help us support the needs of our students with resources such as DuoLingo and LanguageBird which deliver online world language courses via private tutoring and conversation lessons.
I attended a number of interesting educational sessions. The workshop on perfecting the art of essay-writing has enabled me to tweak my summer workshop presentation to make it more interactive. Breakout sessions on topics such new developments on standardized testing, gaming disorder in students, mental health issues and managing anxiety in the application process, how colleges count demonstrated interest, all have informed my knowledge of university planning and advising.
Finally, the keynote speakers, Dr. Robert Zimmer, President of the University of Chicago, spoke about Productive and Unproductive Change at Universities, and Patrick Schwarz spoke on the essential tenets for supporting learning differences. The most dynamic speech, however, was given by Dr. Michele Borba, who spoke on the importance of nurturing empathy in youth and mesmerized the audience. Her book, Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in our All-About Me World, is one I recommend to all parents of young kids.
Universities I visited during my two trips were: The University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Lake Forest College, Loyola University Chicago, and DePaul University as well as Brown University (where I spent my four undergraduate years), Salve Regina University, Providence College, Sacred Heart University, and Yale. Despite the fact that for some of these universities, it was my second or third visit, campus visits are always an opportunity to learn about new programs and policies that will suit my students and are, therefore, a very valuable undertaking that I look forward to every year.