Student Affairs

What is Professional Development?

Professional development is the process of acquiring new skills, knowledge and experiences to enhance your job and or career by attending conferences, webinars, workshops, courses and trainings. It can be delivered in a number of ways through virtual or in-person learning.  Professional development can be improving existing skills as well. Professional development can assist with promotions and often helps with employee satisfaction and morale.

Please take a look at the different professional development offerings o our Student Affairs professional development website.  You can click on the individual link to find additonal information.  I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in some of these opportunities.

• Mid-Level Managers: This group will meet twice a month for 90 minutes to discuss chapters in the book, Mid-Level Managers by Robert L. Ackerman and Larry D. Roper from NASPA.  This group will discuss topics such as, What is a mid-level manager?, Effective Supervison, and Leading From the Middle to name a few.  Other topics will include: performance management, employee motivation and morale and building campus partnerships.
• Taste of Dialogue: In partnership with the Office of Community-Engaged Leadership's Sustained Dialogue initiative, Taste of Dialogue events will begin with a brief educational speaker or video, and then transition to structured small-group dialogue. 
• Staff Wellbeing: These opportunities help to develop space for staff to engage in wellness opportunities that can help with relationship/community building in the Division. They also create a series of social and team-building opportunities during and after work hours for SA staff to gather. Staff Wellbeing will also include topics that will increase the knowledge of certain topics related to higher education and Appalachian State University.
  • SA Meetups: This opportunity is for all SA staff to meet on a regular basis to fellowship at a designated location/area and time.
• Human Resources Learning & Organizational Development (Workshops/Classes): "Learning and organizational development is an ongoing process that shapes the future of our university and provides individual employees and teams with the knowledge, skills, and empowerment to further their career."-Office of Human Resources
• LinkedIn Learning: As a Division, we will use LinkedIn as a learning tool to grow together in different areas. LinkedIn Learning provides access to thousands of high quality professional development courses and videos that cover the latest software, creative, and business skills to help you acquire new skills and advance your career.  Classes include Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Zoom, Website Development and so much MORE!
• Student Affairs Associate Directors Cohort: This group is for all Associate Directors and/or those in roles that would fit under this title.  Meetings will occur once a month with different topics and discussions held at each gethering.
• SA Conference Presentations: Due to the weather, the 6th Annual Student Affairs conference was cancelled.  However, we will be offering the conference presentation workshops throughout the spring and summer to be able to hear fom some of our presenters.

We encourage you to take advantage of these workshops and discussions. Rooms and times (if not listed) will be updated. Also, this page will be updated on a regular basis to add additional experiences. Mark your calendars NOW!