ACA October 2015 General Meeting

What an excellent October ACA meeting. Thanks to the Business Foundations Program for sponsoring the meeting and providing breakfast! Additional thanks to the folks at the Texas Union for catering the food.

No shortage of plates!

Tacos and coffee: truly a breakfast of champions

Decaf too!!

Our fearless vice president, Amanda Golden, kicked off today's meeting with a reminder that the November meeting will be starting at 8:00am instead of 8:30am to accommodate President Fenves who will be speaking.

There were other people at this meeting, promise!

She turned it over to Regina Hughes with the Business Foundations Program.

In addition to very helpful information about the Business Foundations Program, Regina told us about the idea of giving a sussy, a small present given to someone just because. BFP was very generous in giving us all wallet toolkits. I learned what a butterfly screw wrench was! Though I am still trying to figure out what the direction auxiliary indication is...

I guess it lets you measure the size of your diamond ring

Regina also talked about the Business Foundations Summer Institute, which as you can see below, gives students an action packed summer learning experience!

On the last day, they climb Mount Everest.

Regina concluded with a delightful video extolling the wonders of Excel. If you didn't get a chance to see Excel Func at the meeting, I highly recommend you watch it now.

Stop, wait a minute

Fill my cells, draggin’ data with it

Dr. David Laude, Senior Vice Provost for Enrollment and Graduation Management, was up next to talk about the work that has been done over the past five years and how we can be part of continuing to moving forward.

Dr. Cassandre Giguere Alvarado and Kathy Uitvligt, also from the Provost's Office, talked about updates in Student Success Initiatives and the importance of getting students to participate in Senior Countdown. 

We ended with kudos and announcements! Thanks again to everyone who submitted kudos.

See other people really were there

In case you missed them, check out the kudos below:

Matthew Haynes & Courtney Sy & the ROAD Committee have put together a great program of learning opportunities for advisors, going way beyond the standard professional development fare of webinar after webinar. The interactive discussion elements of common reads & TED talks & webinar talk-backs have been AWESOME!

Kudos to Mei Lai for being one of the greatest people that anyone could ever know. She's hardworking, her students love her, she's selfless, and never fails to make me smile. Thanks for also being an amazing friend and sister.

Kudos to Kayla Ford and all the work she's doing to lead the ACA Advisory Council and their work to improve the orientation experience for our students.

Kudos to all the new academic advisors going into their first fall advising season!

Kudos to the FUNdraising team for organizing some great opportunities for us this semester to get together outside of the monthly meeting

Thank you Kelsey for setting up the kudos! :)

From Malik Crowder:

Kudos to Melva for being a great colleague and friend. For her service to students, staff and faculty.

To David Spight our new NACADA president!

To my great friends in Discovery Scholars Program (UGS) for their expert support of undeclared students here at UT-Austin.

From Diane Larson:

Kudos to Maggie Rigney for the awesome job advising Public Health and Laboratory Science majors! 

From Theresa Thomas:

Congratulations to Shannon-A'lyce Oulds on your new job!  We miss you an awful lot and wish you the very best in your new position!

From Andrea Gonzalez:

To Casey Butler: You have been here two months and it seems like 2 years or more based on all of the ways you have worked to integrate yourself into the fibers of campus life. Thank you for your efforts to make UT Austin an inclusive and enriching environment!

To Michelle Weichold, working alongside you has been rewarding and fun. I appreciate your unending efforts to maximize our capabilities and laugh along the way. Thank you for being YOU!

Lovelys, thank you for being there whenever I need to pick your brain about something or just blab about whatever. Your support and friendship is something I treasure deeply!

Christine, your efforts to connect us to each other and our surrounding community are admirable. Thank you for investing so much time and energy in your colleagues!

From Lexi Losch:

Since it's my last day here at UT, I want to recognize ALL of the advisors for all the hard work you do (we do!) on a daily basis. Through the laughs and the tears, we support each other like no other staff group. I am so grateful to have met each and everyone of you, especially my Cockrell School of Engineering family and my Platinum Pod family. Please continue to fight the good fight for the future of our students but don't forget to fight the good fight for yourselves. Self-care is vital in this profession. So many hugs and lots of love. Be well my UT family.