ABQ Times

Three University of New Mexico employees will attend and present at a national conference this fall. Shannon Saavedra, Catherine Young, and JJ Conn, all UNM Academic Advisors, were selected separately to present during the National Academic Advising Association's 2024 Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., this October.

According to NACADA, the conference promotes and supports quality academic advising in higher education institutions.

Young, a senior academic advisor, advises undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering and Nuclear Engineering. Her presentation during the conference is called "Microsoft Excel for Advisors: An Interactive Tutorial to Streamline Spreadsheets and Save Stress."

“Last year I took the 'Intermediate Microsoft Excel' class through UNM’s Continuing Education, and it made me think how helpful it would be to have advisor-specific training, as many default Excel trainings are geared toward more business fields,” Young said.

While Young has been to the NACADA conference three times before, this will be her first time presenting. She says she’s feeling both excited and nervous ahead of October.

“I was excited to learn that my proposal was selected, and then about two weeks afterward, I learned that it was chosen to be sponsored by the Technology in Advising Community,” she said.

Conn, a senior academic advisor in Mechanical Engineering, will be doing a poster presentation called "Taking the Trolley from AS to PhD: Conducting Multi-Level Advising."

“The presentation is about working with diverse populations and being with students through multiple degree levels,” Conn said. “It maps the processes and knowledge needed and outlines the benefits to students as well as the issues that can arise when having such a broad student base.”

Conn said she was in awe when she heard the news. This is the first time she has presented at the NACADA annual conference since the early 2000s when she worked for a college in Atlanta.

“I have been applying for several years now as I am finally in a department that supports sending advisors to the conference.”

Saavedra, a university advisement specialist under the Office of Advising Strategies, will present "Won't You Be My Savior: Alleviating the Burden of Advisor Vacancies" at the conference. She says the burden of advisor vacancies can be felt institution-wide.

"We are using a new approach to vacancies by hiring newly graduated professionals passionate about careers in Higher Education but currently lack experience," Saavadra said. "These Professional Interns are trained to serve as academic advisors in any college at our institution, lessening their burden by providing student support during high-traffic times while they seek to hire new advisors."

The conference will be held inside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center from Oct. 27-30.