In the years between the Biennial Conferences, NAFA offers summer workshops that provide valuable opportunities for professional development and community building.

NAFA offers focused workshops for graduate advisors and new advisors every year, either through the summer series or Biennial Conference. Descriptions for the 2022 summer workshops can be found below. NOTE: priority is given to active members of NAFA.

2022 Summer Workshops

June 8 at 2:30 pm – June 10 at 12 pm
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX

Registration Page:   https://cvent.me/dKY9mb

Registration: $300, includes: Essential Partners grad advisor focused workbook; Assessment materials; NSF-NIH Fellowship materials; Networking event; Two breakfasts; One lunch; Parking on campus. Limit: 35 participants.

Workshop participants can make reservations at the Lumen Hotel for $169 per night (+ tax). Reservations must be made by individual call-in (469-941-7878), referencing the room block for NAFA before May 18. The Direct NAFA Booking site: The Lumen – Reservations – Room Availability (synxis.com)

Description

This workshop focuses on ways graduate advisors can reach and advise students and assess their programs. This interactive and intensive program includes:

  • Essential Partners Academic Associate teaching Reflective Structured Dialogue (RSD), which advisors can use to build trust with their students and help students develop stronger personal statements. The curriculum will be developed specifically for personal statement advising for graduate fellowship awards.
  • Assessment experts (one focused on academic assessment and the other on administrative assessment) working with advisors on what they can measure and the best ways to implement a reporting system. Participants can expect to walk away with tangible tools for measuring success within fellowships.
  • Grant consultant Lucy Deckard discussing the differences between the NSF and NIH and how those differences impact the fellowship programs each agency offers.
  • Foundation representations, including ORNL, explaining their fellowships for graduate students. Other invited foundations include Fulbright (joint Fulbright Student/Fulbright Post-Doctoral presentation), Soros and the NSF.

Between these presentations by external speakers, attendees will have opportunities to present their work and insights to others in poster sessions. There will also be networking time among advisors and with foundation representatives.

Attendees will leave with tools they can implement immediately to help improve their work with graduate students.

Please note: all speakers are developing material focusing on the needs of graduate advisors.

June 15-17, 2022
College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA

Registration Page:   https://cvent.me/QqwrY5

Registration: $300, includes lodging and meals. Limit: 35 participants.

Description

Holistic advising has been named as a particularly effective strategy for working with underrepresented students, bringing our attention to the whole application process, shifting attention away from the external benefits of a “win” to the internal benefits—opportunities for growth and self-knowledge—that are inherent to honest exploration of one’s motives and experiences.

But how can we pass something on that we don’t have ourselves? This three-day immersive workshop will be held at the College of the Holy Cross’ Joyce Contemplative Center in the countryside near Worcester, Massachusetts. Each day will offer periods of reflection, meditation, and optional yoga to give advisors both an opportunity for personal and professional development as well as experiential familiarity with the benefits of holistic advising, allowing participants to craft their own advising practices to best reflect their skills and values.

Participants will be housed on-site at the Joyce and will eat together in the dining room overlooking the Wachusett Reservoir Valley, and all food is made in-house. And with an eye towards professional development, we will host an advisors’ career discussion to help you think about paths towards greater job satisfaction and/or career transition.

June 13-14 2022
Hosted by Clemson University

Registration Page:   https://cvent.me/rqm1gV

Registration: $60, includes copies of three books including Bridging the Gap, NAFA’s At-A-Glance scholarship guide.

Description

This annual workshop offers an overview of issues faced by newcomers to the field of fellowship advising, including setting up a new office, assessment, learning about major awards (Fulbright, Goldwater, Truman, Rhodes, Marshall) as well as lesser-known opportunities (Humanity in Action, FAO Schwarz, NY Urban Fellows), and helping students manage failure/rejection.

Additional Past Workshops

  • Fulbright U.S. Student Program: Program Basics, Virtual
  • Reapplying for Fulbright: Assisting ’19 and 20’ Grantees Impacted by COVID-19, Virtual
  • Trends in Higher Education, Virtual
  • Successful Online Strategies for Recruitment, Social Media Referrals, and Cohort Advising, Virtual
  • Creating a New Fellowships Office or Program, Virtual
  • Tough Truths in Personal Statements, Virtual
  • Virtual Skill Share, Virtual
  • Ask Me Anything! New Advisor Workshop, Virtual
  • New Grad Advisor Workshop, Virtual
  • Using Science Communication Principles to Teach Proposal Writing in Any Discipline, Virtual
  • Advising a Personal Narrative, Virtual
  • New Advisor Workshop: Foundation Roundtable, Virtual
  • Graduate Funder Roundtable Session 1, Virtual
  • Graduate Funder Roundtable Session 2, Virtual
  • Best Practices in Virtual Advising with Graduate Students, Virtual
  • NAFA Research Symposium, Virtual

  • New Advisor Workshop, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
  • Graduate Student Fellowships Focus, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  • Assessment – Re-accrediting – Justification, University of Portland, Portland, Oregon

  • Our Changing Demographics and Roles: Diversity and Nationally Competitive Scholarships, Claremont Colleges Consortium, Claremont, California
  • Public Service and Nationally Competitive Scholarships—Government, Social Activism, Research and Advocacy, American University, Washington, D.C.
  • New Advisor Workshop, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 
  • Midwest Fellowships Advising Symposium, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

  • Large-School Summer Workshop, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
  • Small to Mid-Sized School Summer Workshop, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
  • New Advisor Workshop, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa

  • A Holistic Approach to Fellowships Advising, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
  • Developing Expertise: NAFA Workshop and Resources for New and Seasoned Advisors, Bechtel International Center, Stanford University, Stanford, California
  • Reaching Out and Digging in: Workshop for Fellowships Advisors, Earl Mack School of Law, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  • Beginning with Confidence: A Summer Workshop for New Advisors, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
  • High Tech/Low Tech: Strategies for Identifying, Recruiting, and Keeping Track of Fellowship Applicants, DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana
  • Words of Wisdom: A Writing Workshop for Fellowship Advisors, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania

  • Getting It Right: A Workshop for New Advisors, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas
  • Supporting the Work We Do, Williamette University, Salem, Oregon
  • Best Practices for Campus Collaboration in Fellowship Advising, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York

  • A Workshop for New Advisors, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska
  • Assessment and Professional Development for Advisors, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida

  • University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington
  • Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
  • University of Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas

  • National Fellowships and the Successful Advisor: Introduction and Overview, Williamette University, Portland, Oregon