Disney World – Walk Into the Future

2022 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Conference

NACE2022

The 2022 NACE Conference was held in Portland, Oregon this year. This was our first in-person conference since 2019 and there was a lot of excited and anxious people in attendance. Safety protocols were taken to keep us safe, but you can never truly feel safe with over 1,700 people in attendance.

I have been a member of NACE for the past 15 years and have continued to look for ways to expand my role within the organization. I have served in multiple roles which have allowed me to grow a network with professionals across the world.

I am currently finishing up my role as a Co-Chair for the Mentorship Enhancement Task Force. I received a phone call from the incoming NACE President in July 2021 to talk about the task force and the importance he placed on mentorship. He asked me to Co-Chair this critical task force and work to revamp the program and increase awareness/participation for NACE members.

Fast forward to the NACE conference in Portland and my task force was provided a session to discuss the work we have been doing for the past 12 months and highlight the improvements we recommend to the Board of Directors.

I have attended past NACE conferences in Anaheim, Chicago, New Orleans, Dallas, and Orlando but this was my first opportunity to present to my colleagues. We were given a prime slot on the second day of the conference to present our work and recruit new mentors into the program.

My Co-Chair who is based out of St. Louis, Missouri and I spent multiple Microsoft Teams virtual sessions going over the presentation format, slides, and flow. We decided to give a big overview of the program changes and then jump into a panel discussion with current NACE mentors and mentees to get their perspective on the impact of mentoring for each of them.

We soon discovered the NACE conference committee booked our session in the LARGEST room at the event. We had no preconceived perspective on how many people would attend our session, but we did not imagine we could fill every seat in this large space. NOTE—we did not get close to filling all seats. 😊

No worries! We had a very good crowd, and the folks were able to get a more personal touch from my co-chair and I. These folks were able to ask the panelist questions and we had on the spot sign-ups for new mentors and mentees.

We shared the work of the task force and identified our strategies and marketing plans to create a world class mentoring program.

The new program will have 3 mentoring layers:

1 on 1 mentoring (traditional)
Reverse mentoring (new)
Mentoring Circles (new)

Mentoring research identifies Reverse mentoring and Mentoring Circles are unique ways to increase mentoring awareness and participation. We discussed the benefits of each mentoring model and introduced the software we recommended to match mentors with mentees. The current matching process is manual and does not consider the demographics of the mentor or mentee. This software matching process was a big hit with the NACE board and folks in attendance during our session.

The marketing plan will utilize all social media platforms and the NACE website to promote the changes and encourage NACE members to join the program.

I was excited to see the NACE President, David Ong in attendance during our session. This was his pet project for the year, and he was extremely happy with our progress and excited to roll out the new program to the general membership.

David gave us a by-name shoutout during the general session late that day to thank us for the work we put in over the year. This was the highlight of the conference for me and got more members wanting to discuss the mentoring program and to sign up. I walked around with sign-up sheets for the rest of the conference and got many mentors and mentees signed up.

My official Co-Chair role ends on 7/15/2022 but we still must complete one more project before our term ends. I have decided to take a year off from serving on another NACE committee or task force. This was my second national commitment to the career field in the past two years—time to take a small break and concentrate on my local duties.

I plan to get back into the national work of our career field in 2023 by either serving on another committee/task force or taking a larger step up to become a NACE Board Member. This would provide me with additional leverage within the career field as we set policy to keep us relevant.

Yes, I’m still dreaming big! 😊

My 2023 conference travel plans will be less than this year. The 2023 conference will be held in Lake Buena Vista (Disney World) so I do not have to endure another 7 hours of traveling. My travel time over to Disney World will be just over an hour and I don’t have to worry about flight layovers in Salt Lake City or Minneapolis.

Look forward to getting the band back together next year.

Irie!

1000 North Jupiter, Florida

1000 North

“The smell of the ocean never gets old”.

(Pinterest)

I am always searching for new adventures and ways to leverage my Walk into the Future journey.

Most of my Florida exploits are centered around me heading north to familiar locations: Jasper, Jacksonville, Orlando, Melbourne, and Tallahassee. I have never been a huge south Florida fan, so it never crosses my mind to explore locations down there except when outlet malls are involved. I love outlet malls! 😊

Decided to get out of my travel comfort zone and venture south to explore Jupiter, Florida last weekend. I always heard great things about Jupiter but never made a true effort to visit the area to see what it truly had to offer. The reports about this area are all true; the city of Jupiter and the beaches are well worth a trip down there.

Google maps identified Jupiter was only a 58-minute drive down I-95 from Fort Pierce, so it is extremely close to me so no real excuses for never going there. Got up early on Saturday morning with the intent of driving down and enjoying a day of dining, sightseeing, and walking on the beach. Mission accomplished on all phases of my plan.

1000 North

A good friend in south Florida recommended the 1000 North restaurant as a place to get some great food, people watch and catch nice water views. I never heard about this place, but it turns out to be a very popular spot in Jupiter. It has a diverse ownership group that includes Michael Jordan and several other well-known professional athletes. Did not know this fact until I got there and saw the setup. Nothing over the top but they only have complimentary valet parking—a nice feature but not something I am used to.

There are multiple dining areas to include a members only private dining room. I stayed downstairs with the regular folks and got a seat outside with a great view of the marina. The atmosphere was fantastic and got an opportunity to people watch. There were several large groups outside and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the great location.

The menu provided an eclectic selection, but I decided to get the grilled chicken club with sweet potato fries. Never had a fried egg on a club sandwich but it was a very good addition to the sandwich. I would get this again on a return trip to 1000 North.

https://1000north.com/

Left 1000 North with the intent to explore the famed Jupiter beaches. Made a quick 5-minute drive east from the restaurant and I was at the beach. It was cool by Florida weather standards, but the beach was crowded with folks. Got a chance to walk the beach for a bit and get some great pictures to document my exploration for the day. I did not bring my beach chair or towel, so my walk was the activity for the day. I will make my way back to Jupiter beach so I can enjoy a full day at the beach and relax.

Outlets

My trip to Jupiter put me about 20 minutes away from the Palm Beach Outlet mall. I could not miss an opportunity for outlet shopping so made my way south. I did not need anything but that’s not the point—there are always good deals at the outlets, so it is never a wasted trip.

Hit the Nike store first looking for new running gear. The Nike store is extremely small, so the selection was limited I did not pick up anything during this visit. Visited the Columbia store and added to my t-shirt collection here. Walked around a bit more and visited a few more shops before calling it a day and heading back to Fort Pierce.

Nice little day trip for me to add to my Walk into the Future journal. I look forward to heading back down soon for a longer beach adventure.

What areas will you explore this summer?

Irie!

“In Florida we salt margaritas, not sidewalks”.

(Thewanderlustwithin.com)

Track Shack UCF 5 Miler

5 Mile race

“Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most”.

(Buddha)

Merriam-Webster defines resilience as an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Happy to report there has not been any misfortune for me, but the change has been an adjustment to my training regimen. I am still putting in work but not able to get the same quality sessions I put in pre-COVID. This can be directly attributed to my work role in Fort Pierce but please do not think I am complaining.

We have made some major operational improvements and there is light at the end of the tunnel where we will soon normalize operations and I can get back to putting in more training miles.

The concept of resiliency reminds me of the old saying: try and then try again!

Decided to use shorter races as a bigger part of my training program to get me prepared for the rigors of the half marathon distance. I have the 2021 Rock N Roll Savannah half marathon in November and the 2021 Track Shack OUC half marathon in December. My overall goal is to run a half marathon under 2 hours and the Track Shack OUC half marathon is the ideal setup to make this happen. I need to put in additional training miles to build my endurance back to my 2019 levels.

My fastest half marathon was the 2019 Track Shack OUC half marathon with a time of 2:05:51 (two hours, five minutes, and 51 seconds). 2020 was set to be my fastest year ever but of course COVID-19 shut down racing and my training lagged—that’s on me! 😊

So, what’s my plan to correct my training and speed issues? Well, I check multiple running clubs to see what races are being offered locally and within driving distance to me in Fort Pierce.

I routinely scan the Fleet Feet Stuart and Orlando Track Shack events pages to determine which races are available to help with my training program. I just shared with my best friend I have a hard time training with race pace—it is a mental thing for me since I do not have competitors or anyone to pace with. I am sure I may be the only active running with this issue but targeting real races seems to get my competitive nature going. This may not be the ideal strategy, but I will try this out to get me closer to my half marathon goal.

Made my way back over to Orlando for the 2021 Track U Can Finish 5 Mile race to get some speed work in. I ran this same event when I lived in Oviedo, but this is the first time I tackled the race distance in 8 years.

This is an interesting event because it has multiple distances available for runners to try. The first event is the U Can Finish 2 Mile race and Track Shack has a distance dare. Runners can sign up to run the 2-mile race and then compete in the 5-mile race right after. The hook for distance dare runners is the opportunity to collect 3 medals: 2-mile, 5-mile, and distance dare medals. Runners love their bling and a lot of them took part in the distance dare. I did not—officially. 😊

Did something new on race day to ensure I got in extra training miles. I stay in the same hotel each time I visit the Orlando area and it is down the street from the UCF campus.

I decided to leave my vehicle parked at the hotel and ran the 2-mile distance to the UCF campus for the start of the 5-mile race. Figured this was a great way to warmup and stretch my legs before my race and ensured I would get in a long training session—it was just broken up into segments.

Toed the line for the 5-mile race completely warmed up and excited to run on the UCF campus again. The race village was setup directly in front of the Career Services building where I worked for 4-years prior to moving to Tallahassee and the FSU Career Center. Great being back on the old stomping grounds. 😊

My goal for the 5-mile race was simply to test my endurance and consistently run miles splits with a 9 on the front of them (9:05, 9:10, etc.). Mission accomplished.

The UCF campus is completely flat which helped a lot. Went out with the intent to run my race based on feel and then push myself when I could.

Mile-1 went by at an 8:44 per minute pace and I felt good with the effort. Mile-2 through 5 were: 9:15, 9:33, 9:57, 9:42 which got me to the finish line at 47:29. Targeted 45 flat but happy with my results considering I put in a 2-mile run before my race.

Collected my 5-mile medal and took some pictures to commemorate the race and my time back at UCF. Got some refreshments and stretched a bit before heading out. I tucked my race medal away and began my 2-mile journey back to my hotel—yes, I ran back for a total of 9 training miles for the day. Felt great every step of the day!

I will look for additional races to help me prepare for my next two half marathons. Still have some speed in these legs, just need to release it in my unique way.

FYI—I am still on pace to meet my 2021 goals of 1,000 training miles. Imagine my mileage if I could stay consistent with my training.

Irie!

How do you display resilience in your daily activities? Thanks!

“Life does not get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient”.

(Steve Maraboli)

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