Conference Registration is Open!

This last year has certainly been one for the books. I have thought periodically over the last several months, what I’ll recall when someone talks about the year 2020, say 20 or 30 years from now. What I’m sure I’ll remember is that it has been a challenging year, in more ways than one, and it has resulted in a lot of heartache and hardships; however, despite all of that, there has been some good to come out of it. For me, it was more time with friends and family (albeit some of it was through a screen!), being forced to slow down and enjoy life’s simple pleasures, and the opportunity to watch teams and departments, such as all of ours, pivot their services and events to be offered fully virtual overnight. While the days have seemed long and, in many cases, like we were ‘building the plane as we were flying it’, it was truly inspiring to see everyone adapt and do what they had to do to make it work.

The end of an academic year is an exciting time and I expect this year to be no different. I always love the buzz around campus before graduation and summer break and hearing where our students are going next – sometimes it’s taking on a full-time job, for others it’s an internship in a new city, and for some, it’s going on to graduate school. It’s also a time where those of us higher education professionals, can finally take a break and recharge. That is at least until we start planning for the next semester, and I’m sure like many of you, of my favorite ways to kick off this time of year, has been attending the PennACE Annual Conference. I’m positive our past attendees would concur that a few days away with colleague across the state, learning and talking about career and workforce development, is a great way to move into a new academic year feeling rejuvenated and re-focused.

On that note, please know that the 19th Annual Conference, while it might look different than years past, is still on! The Conference Committee has been busy working behind the scenes the last several months to provide members with the same engaging, professional development conference that PennACE has hosted in the past, just now it’ll be in a virtual format.

I hope you will consider attending this year’s conference as we tackle the theme, “Surviving, Thriving, and Diversifying” May 25-27. Early bird registration is available now until April 15th.

Feel free to check out this link to find out more information about the conference: https://www.pennace.info/annual-conference

Wishing you all a great spring and I look forward to ‘seeing’ many of you in May!

Kelsey Thompson

VP and 2021 Conference Chair