Wow. First, let me apologize for the lack of blog posts in the past few months. I don’t know about you guys but it has been a whirlwind year on the country roads of Ashland, VA. Seriously, where did the time go?!? I’m going to try to crank out a few here in the next week to catch you all up to speed… enjoy.
Sometime last year, I received an invitation to attend an event in Southern California called Decemberfest. For those of you who have never heard of it, Decemberfest is a week-long all expenses paid trip to Southern California hosted by 9 private colleges, where counselors from all over the world are brought together to learn about post-secondary opportunities for our students. The schools involved include Cal Tech, Occidental, Scripps, Whittier, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Pomona, University of Redlands & Harvey Mudd. To say this was the trip of a lifetime is an understatement.
“How did this guy get invited?” you may be asking yourself. To be honest, I had no idea at first. Decemberfest is very specific that an invitation to their event is counselor-specific and cannot be transferred to someone else. A committee meets about potential invitees and decides whether or not they should be invited. What?!? How the heck did I get passed through on a committee of people in California when I work at a medium-sized rural school in Virginia?!?
During our first college visit at Cal Tech, I was seated next to the person who suggested my name for an invitation to this amazing opportunity. Let me back track a little bit…
During the summer of 2016, I was fortunate enough to attend the ASCA conference with the Coordinator of Counseling Services for Hanover County. ASCA offers for the opportunity to meet in SIGs (special interest groups) during a breakout session. I attended a SIG meeting for LGBTQ educators; attendance was fairly small (about 20) so we each stood up and introduced ourselves and where we were employed. When I got up and introduced myself, a woman with a Cal Tech polo on was taken aback and shouted, “I graduated from Patrick Henry High School!” The two of us shared stories about her old alma mater. She informed me that she was now an admissions counselor for Cal Tech. We snapped a selfie and said our goodbyes.
Fast forward to the first morning of Decemberfest and lo and behold, there she is! That moment really showed me just how important it is to make connections in this field. Go to conferences, network, talk to people! The world has a funny way of showing you just how small it is sometimes. The trip was phenomenal, the hospitality was amazing and the connections were real. I still text with some of the friends I met on that trip almost daily.
The true takeaway from my experience is to not be afraid to put yourself out there and make connections with those around you. You never know what might happen if you do!
VSCA Secondary School Counseling 