Earlier this month, ten of our members had the opportunity to attend the CASE ASAP District 1 regional conference at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. For those who don’t know, CASE ASAP conferences are held biannually at both the regional and national level. The conferences are intended for student advancement and for uniting student alumni associations across the country. Each year, our students attend these gatherings to gain insight and inspiration from other student advancement groups, but also to share some of our own ideas and traditions that have helped to shape our organization into what it is today.
One of the greatest aspects of the conferences is the ability for each school to be recognized for their achievements. Our Vice President of training and development, Natalia Trikoz, applied and nominated SAA for three different awards, which were Outstanding Adviser, Outstanding Student Leader, and Outstanding Student Advancement Program, and SAA took home all three! Our faculty advisor, Lindsay Kazin, who has been with SAA for three years now, took home the Outstanding Adviser Award, and the Outstanding Student Leader award, to no surprise, went to our President, Sara Hickey. The Outstanding Student Advancement Program award was attributed to our Multicolor Mile.
Students also have the opportunity to give presentations about different programs and events. Our training and development team, made up of Natalia Trikoz, Kayla Reno, and Anastasia Rastokina, completed a presentation entitled “Alumni Connections: Planning a Networking Event”, about our annual networking night for current students and alumni. According to Natalia, the focus of the presentation was the strategic planning for the implementation of an event that is enjoyable for alumni, while being insightful and opportunistic for current students. The presentation also emphasized suggestions for how other schools could dynamically integrate a similar occasion into their annual agendas.
Other highlights from the weekend included a dinner with alumni, a lip sync battle, philanthropy activities, and guest speakers. Check out what some of our members had to say about the event!
Natalia Trikoz is a Senior in SAA, and is our Vice President of Training and Development as well as an ambassador. She says she “loved learning what other schools our doing.” Natalia notes that “we sometimes get stuck in what the organization has been doing in the past,” so she enjoys going to presentations to get new ideas for creative ways to implement SAA’s programs.
Julia is a current Junior transfer student, and this is her first year in SAA. She enjoyed the teamwork aspect of the conference, citing an activity where schools competed with one another to build the tallest tower as one of her favorite activities. Julia says, “A conference like this means so much. It is a time for students who are so passionate about what they are doing for their school to come together and actually find people from other institutions who are as passionate as they are.”
Brianna St. Don is a current sophomore, and has been in SAA for two semesters. She is now an aspiring ambassador. Brianna says, She says her favorite part of the weekend was “being able to meet people from all different schools and to see what their organization was doing. As a student/person, it helped me to be more confident. I met a lot of new people and got up on stage to perform our lip-sync.”
Kayla Reno is a current Junior on our philanthropy committee. She says her favorite part of the conference was getting to know other members of UMass SAA. “Whether it was bonding over accidentally ordering spicy food at the dinner with UMass alumni, or being completely silly together in the lip sync battle, I can definitely say that I have a few more friends in SAA, thanks to CASE ASAP,” Kayla says. CASE ASAP also showed Kayla what our SAA is doing well and areas we could improve, and also helped her develop professional skills.
See photos from the weekend below:
