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 A Message from our President
I hope that travel season and early application submission season was fruitful and fulfilling--it was wonderful to see so many admission colleagues back on the road, visiting high schools and recruiting students at college fairs around our region.
Please join me in commemorating Native American Heritage Month during which we pay tribute to the cultures, traditions and contributions of Native people. We all inhabit land that was previously stewarded by indigenous people. I encourage you to use this tool from Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led non-profit based in Canada, to learn about the land on which you live and work.
I am happy to share that we received notification from the IRS in early October and we are officially re-chartered as a non-profit organization. Please join me in thanking Libby Weith (St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School) for her tireless work with attorneys, accountants and the IRS to bring us to this important place. Thank you for your support as we navigated this journey on behalf of the affiliate. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to any member of the PCACAC Leadership Team.
We are interested in using our PCACAC web-based calendar to post all PCACAC events including committee meetings, NACAC College Fairs, PCACAC Conferences, upcoming SIG events and more. If interested in seeing what is happening or to get involved, please visit the calendar. Committee chairs, please send the dates/times/Zoom links for your meetings to our Executive Assistant, Lynn Lyon-Vaiden.
Our new membership year began on October 1st. If you have not yet renewed your PCACAC membership, we ask for your renewal. If you are unsure if you are renewed PLEASE contact Lynn. Many thanks to our new Membership Chair, Alice Whitener (James Madison High School), Lynn Lyon-Vaiden (PCACAC) and Libby Weith for helping us in our membership efforts.
Kudos to Damian Garcia (Glenelg Country School) & Sanjay Mitchell (Thurgood Marshall Academy) for getting our 2022-2023 Leadership Webinar series up and running. Thank you to our October presenters Fatmata Koroma (Georgetown Day School), Scot Marken (EdRedefined), Nicholas Boyd (Montgomery College) and Alicia Oglesby (Winchester Thurston School) for their time and expertise. If you missed it you can watch the recording and view the documents here. Our next webinar Dollars and Sense: Financial Aid and College Counseling is scheduled for November 17, 4-5pm . Please click here to register.
On October 19 & 20, PCACAC exhibited at the Virginia School Counseling Association’s annual conference in Hampton, VA. Jennifer Scott (Hampton Roads Academy), Rebecca Lilienstern (Cape Henry Collegiate), Ben Rous (Hampton Roads Academy), Mike Caplan (Norfolk Collegiate), Mary Hunter Hardison (Nansemond-Suffolk Academy) represented us well. We are excited to get back to the state school counseling conferences to exhibit, present and hopefully recruit some new PCACAC members!
There is exciting news on the College Fair/College Night front--Margaret Omwenga (Doctoral Candidate-FSA MD)and Chris Gothard (James Madison University) are spearheading our efforts to explore hosting our first PCACAC in-person college fair. Margaret and Chris connected with their counterparts in PACAC and NEACAC to learn about hosting an affiliate college fair. We are moving this train down the tracks and hope to host a mid-April in-person fair in addition to a spring virtual PCACAC College Fair. Stay tuned for more information...we are targeting a few locations in Maryland (around the metro DC/Baltimore area) for this inaugural fair. This is a BIG lift and we appreciate their efforts.
Damian Garcia (Glenelg Country School) and Julia Hixson (The Covenant School) continue their work on our 58th PCACAC Annual Conference in Cambridge on April 2-4, 2023. Registration will open this month. Rosemary Martin Edwards (University of Maryland) is leading our Sessions Committee--Watch for info about session proposals in December. AND--Charlain Bailey (Community Bridges), Professional Development Co-Chair, is working to bring back Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for some of our conference sessions. CEUs are required for our public school counseling community and for our National Board Certified Counselors (NBCC). Thank you to our committee chairs for their hard work on these projects.
Jayne Caflin Fonash (JCFONASH Consulting) and Lisa Hill (Goucher College), our Baltimore NACAC 2023 Conference LAC Co-Chairs continue to recruit volunteers for our national conference sub-committees. If you are interested in volunteering to help us host a fantastic fair—please do reach out to Jayne or Lisa.
As a reminder, there is still time to cast your vote in the NACAC Special Member Vote October 5--November 16, 2022. Please check your email from Election Buddy from October 5 for your voting link. We are voting on three proposed Bylaw Amendments. Didn’t receive the email? Contact [email protected]
Thank you everyone--we could not do this without all of you. #StrongerTogether
Best, Ann Marie Strauss, PCACAC President
 Member Spotlight Nominations
Do you know a PCACAC member who should be featured on the PCACAC social media channels? We want to highlight members who are making a difference in our profession. Please use this form to nominate your fellow PCACAC members.
Volunteer for NACAC Baltimore 2023!
The PCACAC Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) will work alongside NACAC to plan events and welcome conference attendees to Charm City! Our LAC chairs will need members of our profession to co-chair and serve on various subcommittees to make it all happen.
We hope that you will be interested in joining other college admission professionals as a member of the Local Arrangements Committee. Each of the subcommittees listed below needs members to begin the long-range planning necessary to insure a successful conference. You can read more detailed descriptions for each subcommittee here.
Counselors' Preview Day (CPD) Subcommittee
Hospitality Subcommittee
Session Arrangements Subcommittee
Registration Subcommittee
First Timers Orientation & Special Events Subcommittee
College Tours
Advocacy & Community Support
We hope that you reach out to one of us and join the LAC efforts for NACAC Baltimore 2023! NACAC Baltimore LAC Co-Chairs: Lisa Hill, Goucher College & Jayne Caflin Fonash, JCFONASH Consulting
Registration for the 2022 – 2023 PCACAC Leadership Education Webinars
We are excited to provide to PCACAC members and non-members this FREE opportunity to learn about important topics in college and admissions counseling and to hear from various voices and perspectives. Details about each webinar and information about how to earn the certificate can be found here.
New this year! Register at one time for all of the webinars you intend to attend. For your convenience, the webinars, with direct registration links, are:
November 17 – Dollars and Sense: Financial Aid and College Counseling
December 15 – Collaborating with Community Based Organizations
January 19 – NACAC/PCACAC Organizational Leadership
February 16 – Institutional Priorities
March 9 – Intersecting Views of Leadership Please share these opportunities with colleagues.
The webinars are open to PCACAC members and non-members, however, only PCACAC members have the opportunity to earn the certificate. Become a member today for $45! Damian Garcia and Sanjay Mitchell; Leadership Education Webinar Certificate Coordinators
Volunteers Needed for Two Initiatives!
The Conference Planning and the Inclusion, Access, and Success Committees are planning two initiatives around the spring 2023 PCACAC Conference and we need your help! We are pulling together planning teams to support both. If you are interested please email Calvin Wise. More information about the initiatives below:
Coming Together Conference
A diversity, equity, inclusion, and access oriented pre-conference. PCACAC had an Equity Collaborative back in 2017 and a few other regional affiliates offer a Coming Together Conference. We will leverage our experience with the Equity Conference and best practices from Coming Together to launch a pre-conference this spring! We need volunteers to support the logistics, promotion, and session planning.
Student/Family Pre-conference Outreach Event
Last spring, our friends at JMU supported and sponsored a half day application workshop for Harrisonburg students and families. We are hoping to do the same in Cambridge! We need volunteers to help with logistics, promotion, and session planning.
 Fall 2022 College Fairs!
Fall 2022 college fairs are here and we are excited to invite you to register your event via this form. We thank you for all that you do and look forward to supporting your upcoming initiative.
Join the College Fair/College Night Committee
The College Fair/College Night Committee welcomes new members interested in supporting College Fair and College Night initiatives and programs. For more information and to express your interest in joining our committee, please contact our College Fair/College Night Chairs Margaret Omwenga and Chris Gothard.
Chesapeake Public Schools StriveScan Virtual College Fair
Chesapeake Public Schools will be hosting a StriveScan Virtual College Fair on Wednesday, November 9, 2022 6-8:45 pm. Colleges and universities may register through College Registration Letter through Friday, October 28, 2022.
CollegeBound Foundation, Baltimore City College Fairs
The CollegeBound Foundation is pleased to announce that we will hold our annual Fall 2022 College & Career Fairs IN-PERSON from Monday, November 14th through Friday, November 18th. We would be delighted to see you attend this year’s fairs. Please note that this event will include 2-3 fairs per day.
Registration is free-please register here so that we can plan accordingly. For questions: [email protected]
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