The National Association of Communication Centers

National Association of Communication Centers

6th Annual Excellence at the Center Mini-Conference

Friday, April 13th & Saturday, April 14th 2007

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Conference Theme: Putting Students First: Valuing the Need to Create Sites for Collaboration and Ownership

Tutors, consultants, coaches, and mentors of speaking centers and communication labs across the country are helping student clients increase self esteem and self-confidence by assisting students to recognize the notion of self-validation. Not only can consultants, coaches, mentors, and tutors aid their clients with oral presentations, but they can build upon their own critical thinking and listening skills and expertise in interpersonal and extemporaneous speaking situations. Future successes of centers and labs depend on the skills of their student employees.

Sessions will focus on ways to provide student employees with the skill set needed to have ownership over the work they do and to ensure that through this collaboration process, all feel valued. As directors, how can we train our consultants, mentors, coaches, and tutors so that they can empower their clients while improving their own self-awareness?

This conference will feature interactive workshops, roundtable discussions, competitive student paper competitions, and other presentations on such topics as developing and creating communication centers, program assessment, strategies for integrating communication centers into the curriculum, and tips on how to modify and adapt our own signature services to fit into the basic course and beyond.