Ed Cabellon’s session “Campus Recreation in the Digital Age: Reimagining the Capacity and Impact of Our Work” was filled with impact—both for me personally, and clearly for all in the audience as well. Ed entertained and educated attendees in one fell swoop through his humor, expertise, and top-notch digital presentation. Leading by example, he put together a robust session about the use of technology—as a professional and for personal use—and encouraged the audience to adopt his suggestions. He provided practical strategies to implement social media use at other institutions by showcasing his projects, and walked through the steps of starting out small, building a practice at the departmental level, and even growing successes into the divisional tier of student affairs. Ed’s session was so compelling that I was motivated to attend his second session the following day, and saw many other repeat attendees as well.

A standout piece of Ed’s second educational session, “Achieving Your Department Goals through Digital Technology and Augmentation,” was a video that highlighted the persistence, attention to detail, and vigilant management necessary to impact behavior change in others—in our case, students and student employees. Ed stepped through each component of the six sources of influence by noting specific opportunities a manager can design for his/her staff in order to improve behavior and achieve department goals: make the undesirable desirable, invest in skill building, harness peer pressure, find strength in numbers, design rewards, demand accountability, and change the environment.

I attended this session with my future graduate assistant, and we are quite excited to take this process back to our school and see changes in our students and in ourselves as well. Ed achieved his goals by igniting a light bulb in my head, showing me techniques I can use to make my work environment better for everyone. I loved the accountability he inspired me to accept in order to encourage a change in others! Thanks Ed, for two fantastic sessions!

After attending the Research and Assessment Roundtable—moderated by Aaron Kroth, Assistant Director of Aquatics and Safety at the University of Wisconsin-Madison—I was inspired by the transparent conversation and collaboration among collegiate recreation practitioners and researchers. At the roundtable, how to get assessment results to key stakeholders was discussed, and many ideas to address this issue were put up for discussion. Among them was delivering technical reports to upper administration, contributing to the Recreational Sports Journal as well as other appropriate journals, and collaborating with faculty who share similar research interests.

Another interesting talking point at the roundtable was the recent trend of combining marketing and assessment into a single role. While there are practical reasons to align these roles, the limitations of doing so should also be considered—such as an individual’s capacity and ability to have expertise in both functions. The roundtable also provided a helpful overview of the NIRSA Research Grant Program. Overall, it was an invigorating and productive roundtable!

Poster presentations are some of my favorite ways to get ideas. I love seeing the questions that others are examining since they often reflect some of the same questions that I think about. A poster that I particularly enjoyed discussing at the 2016 Annual Conference was titled “Communicating Outdoor Safety to International Students” by Benjamin Wright, Laura Walker, and Joseph Walker from the University of North Texas.

This poster detailed an assessment of the perceived comfort and competency levels of staff when working with international students in the outdoor recreation program area. As the manager of my department’s non-credit and community programs, I find myself working with international students quite often, particularly in swim lesson programs. In swim lessons, as in outdoor recreation programs, communication between instructor and participant is critical for safety, learning, and general positive experiences.

This article held a mirror to my face: how was I preparing my instructors to provide the best communication and learning experiences to a population with whom we frequently experience cultural and language barriers? As the authors noted in their results, there is plenty of room for professional and student staff alike to develop their abilities to work with international students. I had been hearing “multicultural competency” in reference to student-staff skills as a buzzword throughout the conference, and thought that this poster presented an interesting study of the topic.

I spoke to Benjamin Wright, the Graduate Assistant for Outdoor Pursuits at UNT. Interested in this topic partly due to his B.A. in linguistics, he said that campus recreation departments often aren’t doing all that we can to enable international student participation. For example, offering program materials in different languages is one change that he’d like to see more departments make. Benjamin mentioned that implications for further research on this topic include the perspectives of international students on how recreational sports information and services are communicated. As for me, I’m looking forward to exploring and updating swim instructor preparation while keeping outcomes regarding multicultural competency in mind.

I have volunteered in the Career Opportunities Center every year that I have attended the NIRSA Annual Conference as a professional member as repayment for the many hours I spent busily submitting résumés and hoping for responses as an undergraduate and graduate student. Every volunteer position provides an opportunity to repay a favor that was afforded to you: a welcoming greeting to a nervous interviewee, reassurance when an applicant has not received any correspondence quite yet; advice on how to make final improvements on a résumé or interview answer; even just assistance on the computer and well wishes on the job search.

I saw faces of students that became familiar over the course of the conference as they worked fervently to advance in their desired career in the field of campus recreation. I witnessed professional staff volunteers get to know students by name just from the familiarity of trying to help them succeed at the conference. The Career Opportunities Center is a haven of hopeful optimism and endless possibilities—and I wish all the candidates the best in the pursuit of their career aspirations.