Webinar Scholarship winner Melissa Gallagher - Sharing Virtual Professional Development

The following post was written by Melissa Hediger Gallagher, Assistant Director of the Center for Academic Achievement at La Salle University and the winner of our 2020 Webinar Scholarship. Her work focuses on supporting students through overseeing and providing academic coaching and tutoring support services, participating in various student success and retention initiatives, and coordinating first-year advising services on campus. She also has served as a first-year Undecided Liberal Arts adviser. She earned her B.A. in English from Franklin & Marshall College and her M.S.Ed. in Reading/Writing/Literacy Education from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a NACADA member for two years and participated in the Region 2 Mentoring program as a mentee this past year.

Throughout the month of April, we'll be featuring our Region 2 Award winners on our blog and social media. Don't forget to join us to celebrate our winners on Tuesday, April 21! For more details, visit https://www.facebook.com/pg/nacadar2/events/. To learn more about the awards and award winners, visit https://nacada.ksu.edu/Community/Regions/Region-2.aspx. 


I originally was going to write this blog post a few weeks ago, and so much has changed since my initial brainstorming about how and why the NACADA Region 2 Webinar Scholarship benefitted me and my colleagues. The current need and focus on online education and resources speaks to the value of webinars and how they can connect people and information, and I’m glad I was able to use my scholarship last month in the company of my colleagues to view the February webinar “A Deeper Look at Incorporating Coaching Conversations into Academic Advising Practice.”

As student success professionals, advisers often are so used to serving students that it may seem unnatural to nominate one’s self for an award. I had to move past that initial discomfort to self-nominate for the Webinar Scholarship. I knew that my past experiences in hosting these webinars on campus was valuable to me and my colleagues, and I wanted more opportunities to gather with colleagues on shared topics of interest. I took a little time one night to write my self-nomination letter and fill out the information online, and I was done submitting my nomination!

Coaching is an area of interest on campus currently, so I signed up for that webinar soon after I was notified of my award. I invited advisers of first-year students and other interested professional staff. Eleven advisers and professional staff representing all three schools gathered to view the webinar live, and I was able to share the recording (available for one month) with first-year advisers for them to view if they wished at their convenience.

One colleague remarked that the handout from the University of Oklahoma was especially detailed and helpful. She found the webinar covered many ideas in a short amount time. She wishes there was more time for the presenters to go into even more detail, but it was good to have a nice overview that sparked areas for future research. I also found the handout helpful and found a range of perspectives useful given how differently institutions operate.

The award application process was easy, and I wish I had considered applying for this award before. I encourage all NACADA members to review the awards when the call for nominations go out, whether for themselves or a colleague. I have participated in the Region 2 mentoring program this past year, and I was pleased to learn that my mentor won an award herself. She was very encouraging when I shared that I nominated myself for this award before results were made public and then was happy to hear I won it. It was another reminder of what supportive community NACADA is and how there are ways for us to remotely connect and celebrate the successes of our fellow professionals.

Best wishes as you, your campuses, and your students navigate these challenging times.