This past weekend I attended Region II’s Fall Regional Conference (FRC) for the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) in Norfolk, VA. From the years of 2012-2014 I had served on the Regional Executive Board (REB) as the O Zone Coordinator and the Vice Chair respectively. I remember the hustle and bustle of planning the conference and then running around like a chicken with its head cut off during the conference. But in the end all the late nights and in conference stress is worth it. However, this is the first time I’ve experienced the conference in it’s entirety on the “other side” of things. I was not a regional board member in charge of things. I was a former REB member with historical knowledge, a current National Executive Board (NEB) member with high level insight, and a student who had various educational experiences to share with those who were interested.
One of the biggest challenges I had was to present information that I had not prepared nor was I fully knowledegable of. I was confused and nervous as I had a duty to present the information but felt no personal connection to what was being presented based on content and lack of thought put into the compilation. And at some point the small rebellious part of my soul came through and I went into teacher mode. I knew the information in general was important so I had to work on my method of delivery in order to make sure that I was conveying the information without losing the audience that it was for.
One of my favorite parts of the conference was sitting on a panel regarding whether or not to go to graduate school. The panel consisted of me, the professional student, and one of the regional advisors, who obtained her Master’s degree and currently works in industry. We got a lot of good questions from the audience – questions that I wish I had known to ask when I was in undergrad thinking about going to grad school. We talked about funding, picking advisors, picking schools, picking research areas, the whole nine. At the end it seemed that everyone got a bit of something that they were looking for by attending the workshop. At least I hope they did.
Being around my NSBE family always brings great, memorable experiences for the scrapbook and this was no different. I was excited to attend this conference as I usually am, and can’t wait to attend the Annual Convention in March 2017!