As we work on our new year’s resolutions and look forward to spring, the conference chairs are energetically planning the Annual Conference, Going the Extra Mile for Students. Please mark your calendar for May 4-6th to join us for what promises to be an educational and fun-filled event.
With all due respect to Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code, the Admission Practices Committee is not a secret society that meets in a hidden underground bunker somewhere in Illinois. Committee members are not a collection of zealous policing agents who are constantly on the prowl for violators of the Statement of Principles and Good Practice (SPGP). Instead, it is a committee designed to help educate all players involved in the college search and decision process about the principles and guidelines that have been established by the membership of the National Association of College Admission Counseling.
In the spring of 2010, President Carin Smith created an Ad Hoc Committee to evaluate the IACAC Board Structure. The committee is comprised of Co-Chairs Sandie Gilbert (retired, Highland Park HS) and Maryanne Kelly (Maine South High School), members Nate Bargar (Illinois State University), Bob Murray (Illinois Wesleyan University) and Amy Thompson (York High School). The committee was charged with analyzing the current executive board and committee composition to determine if restructuring would provide a more efficient and organized system that would better suit the needs of our members.
All this and more awaits you at IACAC’s 2011 District Seminars. Check out the District Seminar website for a full listing of seminar descriptions and online registration. Each district has worked diligently preparing informative sessions that are not only educational, but also fun-filled. All of the coordinators and their committees hope that these seminars will spark in-depth conversations as well as intellectual growth. We have a number of dynamic speakers and colleagues to share their expertise. (And who can forget about the great raffle prizes!)
Are you willing to go the extra mile? Each year, IACAC holds a silent auction during its annual conference to help raise funds to support our educational programs. We are now accepting donations, gift baskets and gift cards for the silent auction and would love your support!
“Thanks to all of the generous donations from Project Reach, our homeless students received new book bags with packets of paper, notebooks, pens, pencils and calculators! We were able to stock the English department with Ayn Rand’s book; the library with The Great Books; the counseling and college lab with college and scholarship resource books; the math department with protractors and calculators. We also hosted a school-wide jeopardy contest (with college related questions offcourse) and prized winners with gym bags and book bags filled with lanyards, school supplies, and more!”
Yaneth Bello
College and Career Coach
Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, 2010 Project Reach Recipient
Project Reach is our professional organization’s service project and the recipient of this year’s award will be announced at the IACAC annual conference, Going the Extra Mile for Students. We hope to touch the lives of many students by collecting and donating school supplies and college counseling items to a high school (or high schools) in need. We encourage IACAC members to donate new school supplies that are appropriate for high school-aged students/classrooms. Donations will be collected at each of the seven District Seminars held throughout the state in March 2011 and at the Annual Conference in Itasca from May 4-6, 2011.
Movers and Shakers is way to share professionally-related news about promotions or moves to other institutions. Congratulations to the following members on their achievements:
The Media Communications Committee needs your help!
We’ve received some great submissions for the name of our newsletter and we would love to see more. Keep those creative ideas coming! We will make an announcement of the new name at the Annual Conference in May, so go ahead and send us your best ideas.
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission is on their way to a location near your home or office. The second series focuses on the Expert Guide: FASFA Relevant Documents and Student Eligibility Issues and FAFSA Expert Training: Need Analysis and EFC Calculations. The third series focuses on Financial Aid Packaging and The University Billing Cycle.
It has been a long winter and the fall travel season seems like a distant memory. Why not catch up with your admission colleagues and get a new t-shirt at the IACAC Mentorship Committee t-shirt exchange? It’s being held just prior to the ICE fair at Southwestern Illinois College on February 27th.