Professional Travel Grants for Graduate Students
2017-2018
SHAV 2018
7 years
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 60th SHAV Conference in Williamsburg, VA. Throughout the weekend, I was able to attend several sessions focusing on effectively using AAC devices, both low- and high-tech, and including AAC users in social situations. One of my main interests lies in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and I am currently one of the student clinicians running a social group that includes AAC users. Having the chance to hear from professionals specializing in this area of the field was one of the highlights of my trip and I definitely got some ideas to use with my students.
My research partners and I also had the opportunity to present the study we had been working on since last semester as part of SHAV’s Poster Presentations. While we knew our study front-to-back, explaining it to professionals in the field and answering questions about our reasons, methods, and results was nerve-racking! The presentation room was huge and we spoke to more people than I remembered to co
unt. However, we are very happy to say that after a lot of hard work, we took home first place out of the 22 posters presented
!
Speech-Language-Hearing Association of Virginia
7 years
Poster presentation at SHAV 2018.
On Thursday, March 22nd and Friday, March 23rd I had the pleasure of attending the Speech-Language-Hearing Association of Virginia annual conference in Williamsburg, VA. This conference was an extremely beneficial educational experience. I expanded my knowledge on supervisor and making the most of the internship process as a student. I also gain insight into the relationships between speech-language pathologists and nurses in hospital setting during the collaborative care of adults with dysphagia. A highlight of the conference for me was a session that looked at the multifaceted treatment of children was multiple disabilities in a clinical environment. Three professionals from different disciplines presented this session and it was very well done. On Friday, I had the opportunity to present a poster summarizing research that my partners had been preparing since August. I am very thankful for this experience.
Virginia Counseling Association Convention 2017
7 years
Hot Springs, Virginia
Going to the Virginia counseling associations annual convention at the Homestead resort was educational and quite a treat. I was able to attend a session on Friday, November 10 entitled “please don’t forget the T (in LGBTQ, that is!) : Understanding and collaboratively advocating for trans individuals.” The session on Friday evening was presented by Longwood’s own Kathleen McCluskey and Valerie Stolicker entitled “Empowering clients in the face of an uncertain political climate”. I was particularly interested in the discussion surrounding the town in which I call home, Charlottesville, Virginia, and the various perspectives represented. On Saturday morning I went to a session “Trans-affirmative counselor self-efficacy”. The presenter, Cory Gerwe, was extremely knowledgeable about the topic.
I really appreciated the audience participation in each of the sessions and building greater knowledge and understanding of important aspects of the career. I look forward to future conventions, with the chance that one day I may present a topic myself.
VCA Conference
7 years
I attended the Virginia Counselors Association conference in Hot Springs, VA at the Homestead. The conference had many exciting sessions and some so close together that it was difficult to choose which to attend. I attempted to attend in my classmate’s presentations as well as presentations I believed would help me professionally. One of the most interesting presentations that I attended was focused on the riot in Charlottesville, VA. The presentation was given masterfully by Longwood’s own Dr. Kat McCleskey and Valerie Stolicker the audience was so engaged that the presenters went over their time. Another presentation that I believe will help me professionally was a seminar on dialectical behavior therapy, which is primarily used to treat personality disorders as well as mood disorders. Though the technology failed during the presentation, there were a few experts in the audience that gave valuable information to counselors new to the therapy. Over the course of the conference, I learned so many new things about counseling and the clients that receive therapy. The networking opportunities were amazing, and I met counselors and counselor educators from all over Virginia. The conference was also fun; I got to enjoy the conference with classmates and other counselors that I met along the way.
VCA 2017
7 years
This November, I attended the 2017 Virginia Counselors Association (VCA) conference at the Omni Homestead in Hot Springs, VA. This was my second year attending this annual conference, however, it was my first year as a presenter. I presented with Dr. Lauren Wynne on counseling adolescents about sexuality and with Dr. Kat McCleskey on the integration of ASERVIC competencies into counseling practice. Working with both professors was a great experience and it was a very rewarding experience to share my knowledge with other professionals in the field. In addition to my own presentations, I was able to attend presentations on a variety of meaningful and important topics. Overall, the knowledge I gained was very valuable. Even better than all of the professional learning I was able to engage in, I was able to meet and socialize with a multitude of other Longwood students, professors, and alumni. I enjoyed meeting other Lancers and learning more about what others have done in the field with their Longwood training. I look forward to the possibility of attending VCA again next year, but this time hopefully I will be one of the alumni to meet!
VAASL Conference
7 years
I attended the Virginia Association of School Librarians (VAASL) conference on Saturday November 4th. I attended the author breakfast as the first session within this day. The authors in attendance on this day included Meg Madina, Ruta Sepetys, Madelyn Rosenberg, Wendy Shang, and Lamar Giles. I was lucky enough to be seated next to Madelyn Rosenberg so we had a chance to talk about her book “This Is Just A Test”. The author book talk on Saturday morning was especially interesting to me since it covered the topic of diversity and diverse characters from different walks of life, parts of the world, and ethnic backgrounds in books.
In addition to the author book talk, I also had a chance to converse with different librarians from around Virginia and learn about how they conducted different mini lessons within their libraries. This was a great opportunity to not only meet and connect with other librarians but to hear about their different experiences in order to help me to shape my first year as a school librarian.
Additionally, I had a chance to attend a few workshops. One of the workshops was in regards to new technologies which included things from presentations tools, tools to use to create stations (such as QR codes), and technologies that help students to take ideas from a lesson and to place them in chronological order. I had such a great time; what an awesome conference!!!
VAASL Conference 2017
7 years
On Nov 2, 3, and 4, I attended the VAASL Library Conference, Libraries for the People” in Chantilly, Virginia. This was my first library conference. I attended many sessions throughout the conference with my colleagues of the program. Thursday evening many of us attended the alumni event in the Washingtonian Room for the Longwood Alumni and Student Event. Our Professors created a Kahoot full of trivia questions and they offered many prizes if they were answered correctly and if you were able to get through first. I enjoyed this learning experience and conference — Debra Laird.
2017 VAASL Conference
7 years
This was my first trip to the VAASL conference, but it definitely won’t be my last. It was amazing to see Audrey name every current and former Longwood School Librarianship student at the gathering on Thursday night – just one more example of how wonderful and personal our program is. The conference was the perfect opportunity to meet librarians and reconnect with former colleges from all over the state and share some of the innovative and successful things we’re doing in our libraries. As a result of these conversations, I’m going to visit a Hanover County library next week to see how they are mixing it up at their book fair. My two favorite conference sessions were both led by Maura Madigan: Library Centers and Problem Based Learning in the Library. There was not an empty seat, wall, or foot of floor space in either session. What I loved is that I left both sessions with practical ideas about how to implement these programs in my library. My photos are from the PBL session during the hands-on activity that challenged us to build the tallest freestanding structure from newspaper and a very small amount of tape. I’ve done a similar activity with my classes that required spaghetti, string, and marshmallows. I love that Maura’s version had fewer, simpler, and even easier to acquire materials. My group was pretty proud of our stable structure, but as you can see, it was definitely not the tallest. Though we didn’t win, we were thoroughly engaged, did a little self-evaluation, learned some lessons, and experienced first-hand how fun, engaging, and education these activities can be.
VAASL 2017
7 years
The 2017 Annual VAASL conference was an amazing experience on every level. The Marriott Hotel in Chantilly, VA, was beautiful, and the staff of friendly and helpful. On Saturday I attended the Author Panel Breakfast and two sessions. At the breakfast, the authors spoke about how their books encompass the idea of multiculturalism. Meg Medina was the moderator for the event. The authors, Lamar Giles, Wendy Wan-Long Shang, Madelyn Rosenberg, and Ruta Sepetys, talked about their ideas and views on multiculturalism, their books, and their writing styles.
The first session I attended was “Reading Love, A Year of Collaboration”. The session was phenomenal. The presenters Tonya Dagstani and Nathalia Hardy presented information about the collaboration between the librarian and English teacher. They used the book by Penny Kittle, Book Love, to develop their collaboration. In their collaboration lesson, they used different sections of the book like reading ladders, speed dating, conferencing, thematic composition books, and many others to show the ways the library and the classroom can work together.
The second session “Keeping Up With Technology” was innovative and informative. I value myself as technology savvy and this session brought new ideas how to use technology in the classroom and library. I thought Rebekah Hall did a wonderful job showing the different ideas and providing how they could be used in different classes, not just English, but science, world language, etc. I provided the link to presentation since so many great ideas were given: https://www.emaze.com/@AORLOCRZQ/keeping-up-w-technology.
Throughout the day, I felt as if I were in my element. Surrounded by librarians, future librarians, teachers, and authors, I was able to learn so much about being a librarian.
VAASL Conference 2017
7 years
My name is Rebecca Kronthal and I am currently a graduate student in Longwood’s 3rd Prince William Cohort for School Librarianship. I was thrilled to be able to attend the 2017 conference for the Virginia Association of School Librarians from Thursday, Nov. 2nd until Saturday, Nov. 4th in Chantilly, Virginia. I attended sessions on many topics and trends in the field of School Librarianship. I enjoyed sessions reviewing “What’s New” in Children’s literature for 2017 as well as many “How to’s” on topics such as Makerspaces, book clubs, selecting authentic diverse books, author visits, lego stations, fostering a love of reading in a school culture, and judging “Fake News.” The highlights of the conference were the fantastic author visits and keynote speakers. I was very excited to hear Newberry winner Kwame Alexander speak about his journey to become an award winning author. I also got to meet and talk with Donalyn Miller, author of the Book Whisperer. She inspires me to want to create a school full of life-long readers! (See photo.) I enjoyed hearing Marc Nobleman speak about how his investigative research into the origins of Superman and Batman have changed history forever. They were all very uplifting and inspiring stories. Finally, I also got to network and meet many librarians from all over the state of Virginia and talk with them about their school libraries. This is the valuable advice that can’t be learned from a textbook. Hearing from librarians who are doing the job every day really gave me a lot to think about! I also caught up with my fellow Longwood graduate students as well at a Longwood School Librarianship event on Thursday night at the conference. We played Longwood trivia games and learned a lot about our academic department and Longwood, while playing Kahoot! I am excited to try out a lot of the things that I have learned when I get back to my school, such as planning a lego station in my literacy centers and following Donalyn Miller’s advice to allow my students more choice when it comes to the books they read. I hope to do even more when I become a school librarian. Thank you for the opportunity to attend this great conference! I am looking forward to the 2018 conference in Williamsburg!