View the Detailed Breakout Session Guide

UC Davis Academic Advising Conference Workshops
“Cultivating Collaboration: Seeds for Sustainable Success”
Breakout Session 1: 9:30-10:30
Conference Room A:
Removing Barriers to Study Abroad: Strategic Approaches to Working across Departments
Speakers: Jennie Moylan, Dana Armstrong, Christina Siracusa, Greg Gundersen
At the workshop, we will go over a four point strategy to identifying and addressing barriers to students
studying abroad. We will also have panelists from across campus who will share a specific barrier their
students have faced (financial, academic integration, outside commitments, student disabilities) and the
initiatives they developed in cross departmental efforts with Study Abroad to remove the barrier. Our goal is
to ask campus partners how we can work together to provide students the opportunity to travel and gain new
perspectives on their academic learning through studying abroad. Participants will leave with an action plan
specific to their campus role that will help identify whether they can address a student barrier themselves and
where they need support from other people and resources on campus.
Conference Room B:
Strategies for Communicating Effectively with International Students
Speakers: Dawn Takaoglu, Brad Horton, Emily Kawahara
As the number of international and ESL students increase on campus, it’s important to have a set of
strategies that you can call on to make sure your message is understood. This workshop will provide those
strategies. We’ll focus on how to adapt your message for an ESL audience and insure comprehension. We’ll
also discuss some examples of social- cultural barriers that cause international students to be skeptical or less
receptive of good academic advice. Finally, we’ll help you recognize and use gestures and non-verbal cues to
better support communication.
Ballroom A:
Using Technology for Collaboration
Speakers: Joanne Snapp, Letia Graening
This workshop will focus on the ways technology can help advisors be more effective in their jobs, especially
in regard to outcomes assessment and collaboration. The presenter will share the technology that currently
exists on campus, and co-presenters will discuss ways to increase ways to implement new technology uses.
Technological processes used at other campuses will be presented as a jump start for the brainstorming
session. We will create time/space for brainstorming ways to use technology to increase collaboration
between both advisors and advisors/students.
(Breakout Session 1: 9:30-10:30 continued)
Outdoor Tables:
Chat with Charlie
Speaker: Charlie Nutt
This is your chance to have a more in-depth conversation with Dr. Charlie Nutt, our keynote speaker and
executive director of NACADA (National Academic Advising Association). Join the dialogue about advising
issues on a national level and learn more about NACADA and how to get involved.
******
Breakout Session 2: 10:45-11:45
Conference Room A:
Cultivating Champions: Advising Student-Athletes
Speakers: Michelle Roppeau, Laura Goldhammer, Amy Soud, Adam Zedonis
Have you ever wondered how to advise intercollegiate student-athletes who show up in your office with an
Academic Plan Form (APF)? Or what to say if a student-athlete tells you she has “excess electives”? When
does the NCAA require a student-athlete to have a declared major? How should you advise a student-athlete
who was admitted into your major but tells you he really wants a different major (or a double major or a triple
major)? How does athletic eligibility fit into UCD minimum progress requirements? Advising NCAA Division I
student-athletes is truly a collaborative effort that involves multiple offices across the UCD campus. In our
session, we plan to answer some of the most common questions advisors encounter when working with first
year, transfer, continuing, and international student-athletes; share information on recent NCAA or
conference rule changes; review the eligibility certification process at UCD; and plant seeds for future
collaboration.
Conference Room B:
Nurturing Outstanding Student Employees through Training & Development
Speakers: Catrina Wagner, Wendy Haws, Brenna Dockter, Anya Gibson
Student employees at UC Davis provide important advising and mentoring to support the academic and
personal growth of undergraduate students. In this roundtable workshop, we will discuss the wide range of
jobs and responsibilities of these student employees (e.g. peer advisors, resident assistants, and peer
educators). What kind of training and professional development opportunities are we currently providing for
our student employees who advise, mentor, and support students? How can we best support the training and
development of these student leaders? How can we collaborate as professional staff to support the
supervision of our student employees? One goal of this workshop will be to create a central clearinghouse to
share student training & development ideas and resources from offices across campus.
(Breakout Session 2: 10:45-11:45 continued)
Ballroom A:
Courage in Crisis: Responding to Distressed or Distressing Students as the First Point of Contact
Speakers: Joseph Spector, Rory Osborne, Matthew O'Connor, Joanne Zekany, Jennifer Chow
As an academic advisor, you play a critical role with students who are seeking help when they are in
distressed or are distressing. You are often in a direct position to observe students behavior either in your
meetings or through a review of emails and academic work. Also faculty frequently come to you for advice
when they are concerned about a student. Students often turn to those close to them, including teaching
assistants, peer advisors, and instructors. Encountering distressed and distressing students can be difficult.
This workshop will provide you with skills on how to handle these situations and inform you about the
network of assistance available at UC Davis for these students and yourself.
Ballroom B & C:
Campus Resource Provider Speed Dating
Speakers: Mara Evans, Jennifer Flood, Connie Tan
To increase the likelihood that academic advisers correctly refer students to the appropriate campus resource
providers, relationships between advisers and service providers are key. The goal of this workshop is to
provide academic advisers with an opportunity to meet campus resource provider representatives, learn
about services provided, and establish personal connections in a fun, lighthearted manner. Using a “speed
dating” approach, advisers will move around the workshop room every 12 minutes to meet with four different
campus resource providers, who will be seated around the room at tables or in clusters of chairs (to seat five
advisers at a time). The session will conclude with an additional 12 minute period for an optional “free mingle”
time. We expect that some, or all, of the following resource providers will be present at this event: Financial
Aid, Student Academic Success Center workshop coordinators, UC Davis CARE, Student Judicial Affairs,
Student Community Center Organizations, Student Disability Center, Athletics, Study Abroad, etc. We
expect to host 25 to 80 academic advisers. We anticipate that this workshop will take approximately 75
minutes, but it can be shortened or lengthened as appropriate. We can also offer the session twice to
accommodate more participants.
*******
Breakout Session 3: 1:30-2:30
Conference Room A:
U+SASC= Student Success: Academic Assistance and Tutoring in the Student Academic Success Center
Speakers: Sara Hawkes, Carol Hunter, Samuel Raskin, Kevin Sitz, Deziree Sutliff
This presentation will outline the services that the SASC offers in terms of its math, science, writing, ESL, and
international programs. Participants will be able to ask questions about the services that the SASC offers for
students as well as hear more about the techniques we use in workshop sessions or one-on-one tutorials. The
panel will address the work done by both the subject specialists and the undergraduate tutors.
(Breakout Session 3: 1:30-2:30 continued)
Conference Room B:
Harvesting Wisdom to Break New Ground: Faculty Master Advisor Panel
Speakers: Brett McFarlane, Facilitator; Faculty Panelists: Dr. Tina Jeoh, Assistant Professor in Biological and
Agricultural Engineering; Dr. David Osleger, Lecturer in Earth and Planetary Sciences, Dr. Robert Kimsey,
Assistant Adjunct Professor in Entomology; Dr. Monica Vazirani, Professor in Mathematics; Dr. Marcel
Holyoak, Professor in Environmental Science and Policy
Panelists will describe the role and duties associated with a "master advisor" position in their respective
Colleges. The facilitator will prompt panelists with various questions related to their roles as faculty advisors
and how they see faculty advising changing in the coming years.
Ballroom A:
Cultivating Seeds of Change: An Introduction to Advising and Social Justice
Speakers: Lili Bynes, Laurie Stillman
Advisers play a key role at UC Davis, supporting students in reaching their goals within the expectations of
our scholarly community. Could we increase our positive impact for students by shifting our perspective and
practicing advising through a social justice lens? What if we viewed our work as an opportunity to create
change and cultivate authentic, sustaining relationships? In this interactive and engaging workshop, we will
introduce several foundational principles of social justice and apply them to the important work of advising.
We will collaborate to shed light on the opportunities advisers have to incorporate values of equity, identity,
advocacy, and inclusivity into our advising practice, and we will offer you tools and resources to support your
own exploration of social justice. We invite you to join us as we sow seeds of change to both sustain and
retain students as they realize their own visions of success.
Outdoor Tables:
Chat with Charlie
Speaker: Charlie Nutt
This is your chance to have a more in-depth conversation with Dr. Charlie Nutt, our keynote speaker and
executive director of NACADA (National Academic Advising Association). Join the dialogue about advising
issues on a national level and learn more about NACADA and how to get involved.
********
Breakout Session 4: 2:45-3:45
Conference Room A:
Exploring Peer Adviser Potential
Speakers: Anya Gibson, Emma Martinez
This discussion will provide a space for advisors to dialogue and brainstorm how to best utilize our peer
advisors, as well as provide a space to discuss the role of peers in departments. Topics will include the
differences of peer participation among departments, how collaboration between staff advisers and peer
advisers can build a better foundation for student advising, and increasing professional and leadership
development in peers. As campus continues to grow, advisors are struggling to maintain the important face
to face contact with students. Peer advisors are a vital part of the advising process and can provide this
(Breakout Session 4: 2:45-3:45 continued)
experience for students. Peers can also provide other assistance related to advising and this workshop will
discuss how programs utilize their peers, will help come up with ideas on what peers can do, and what makes
them successful at doing so.
Conference Room B:
From Roots to Flowers: The Journey of a New Student through our Advising Models
Speakers: Russell Morrow, Leo Alamillo, Hayleigh Harrison
New Student Orientation and the First-Year Experience Advising program play a major role in assisting the
academic transition of new UC Davis students to campus. The purpose of this presentation is to highlight how
these advising based programs support new students from matriculation to the end of their first year.
Through various advising models, intentional relationship building, opportunities for exploration, and
connecting new students to the university, Orientation and FYE provide new students with the tools for a
successful first year and a successful transition to campus resources.
Ballroom A:
Working Together: Strategies for Instructors and Advisers to Assist Students Struggling in Large
Enrollment Classes
Speakers: Mara Evans
Large enrollment classes can make students and faculty feel isolated from each other. Academic advisers can
serve as an intermediary between faculty and students, and work in partnership with faculty to assist
students resolve academic and personal issues before they become too unwieldy. In this workshop, using a
problem solving approach, academic advisers will be grouped with UC Davis faculty who teach large
enrollment courses, to discuss how they each would address a “struggling student scenario.” The objectives
of the problem solving format are: (A) for faculty to learn more about how advisers address students’ needs,
beyond course planning; (B) for faculty and advisers to discuss how best to take a team approach when
helping students enrolled in class with 150+ students; (C) to open lines of communication between advisers
and faculty, especially across academic disciplines.
Ballroom B & C:
Professional Refresh (Your Career Shift-F5)
Speakers: Ariel Collatz, Kathryn Shickman, Kaelin Souza
Are you in your dream job and want to maintain your enthusiasm? Maybe you need to re-energize and feel
excited about your work again. Perhaps you could use ideas to take back to your team to keep them fresh and
engaged. The developmental process of career management does not necessarily mean changing jobs but
can mean simply enhancing, progressing, evolving, and growing both personally and professionally. Topics in
this interactive workshop include identifying values and strengths, developing a growth mindset and using
creativity in your work. During this mini-retreat the facilitators will lead a combination of interactive lecture
and activities including personal reflection and breakout discussions which will help you refocus your future
goals. You will leave with ideas to refresh and rejuvenate your career.