Annual Presentation Experience Post - Jon May

The following post was written by Jon May, who currently serves as Manager, Freshman Programs, Global Education Office (study abroad) at George Mason University. He formerly served as Associate Director, Center for Academic Advising, Retention, and Transitions at George Mason University. Jon is also a previous region 2 conference co-chair and winner of the 2019 Service to Region 2 Award. 

Jon's annual presentations include:
2012, Nashville, Academic Intervention Program for Undeclared Students

2018, Phoenix, Mason Academic Advisor Network: Connecting and Supporting Advisors

To learn more and submit a proposal for NACADA Annual 2020 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, visit https://nacada.ksu.edu/Events/Annual-Conference/Call-for-Proposals.aspx. 

What inspired you to submit a presentation proposal?

There are two reasons why I submit proposals for the Annual NACADA Conference. The first reason is to share my own best practices with advisors from other institutions. The second reason is for me to hear what other advisors are doing that might provide me the opportunity to further improve my program.

Did you receive any helpful feedback from the proposal reviewers that impacted your presentation? Or will influence future proposals?

Proposal reviewers have asked me to expand on certain aspects of a particular piece of information I have mentioned that is central to my overall presentation. So, be sure you are succinct and detailed without being overly lengthy in your proposal.

The most helpful piece of information for me to pass along is to make sure you cite research. This piece of your proposal will get the attention of reviewers because it demonstrates that you have done your own research as part of developing your specific program/topic. That was a piece of valuable information I received when my topic was submitted for a region conference, which I did not have included, so I made sure I did include cited research as part of my proposal submission to the Annual conference.

These people have a lot of proposals to review and you need to stand out. You don’t want to put them to sleep.

What did you do to prepare for your presentation?

Practice Practice Practice. Not only with yourself but with colleagues as well. If you can find a test audience who will be able to grill you with questions about your presentation you will be that much more prepared for the real event, and hopefully a little less nervous.

What connections and further professional development opportunities came from the experience?

Just as the conference itself is a great opportunity to network, being able to network with your audience around a common issue will provide the opportunity to further develop that program for your home institution as well as have future connections to bounce around new ideas. This is also a time when various Advising Communities may invite you to become more actively involved with them because they have found your expertise with your topic to be relevant to their Community.

For myself, leadership from other regions have heard about some of the initiatives I was associated with through my involvement with our region, as such, I was asked to consult with them to develop similar programs for their region.