Keynote Announcement! We will be joined by Dr. Tia Brown McNair, Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Student Success and the Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Stay tuned for more information! 

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"Unprecedented" is perhaps the most commonly used word to describe 2020. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, we've all had to adapt our policies, practices, and services to best support students through their academics, career planning, and experiential learning. We have also been renewed, reinforced, and re-committed to our equity practices by nationwide protests against the systemic oppression and violence against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). 

Join NYSCEEA for a one-day, virtual conference to discuss, explore, and learn how to implement Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in experiential education and to reflect on how the events of the last two years have altered the face of work-based learning. 

Call for Proposals

Join us for three tracks:

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: As we continue to strive to increase equity in experiential education, we must reflect on the last two years as a watershed moment - a global pandemic that has disproportionately affected Indigenous, Black and Lantinx communities, the historic uprisings and organizing related under the Black Lives Matter banner leading to increased recognition of the impacts of policing and incarceration in Black communities and action to shift this reality, the rise of the right and it's impacts on the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender youth, and the backlash against US immigration policy across administrations. How can we use the momentum of this moment and lessons learned to deepen our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as guiding principles for greater access, student success and higher-quality learning? We know that experiential education is a practice capable of closing student achievement gaps for historically underserved populations related to retention, success and completion. How can experiential education deeply committed to equity serve to address the challenges our communities are experiencing today? How can experiential education prepare students to meet these challenges with equally equitable solutions?

The Future of the Workplace: The effects of the pandemic on workers and the workplace were severe. Millions lost their jobs as businesses closed or pared down their labor force.  Millions more suddenly found themselves working from home and juggling childcare or a remote classroom for school-aged children. Still others remained on the job as front line workers learning to navigate often-times unsafe and indeed life-threatening conditions. As we begin to emerge from the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic we know the face of work has been irreparably changed in both negative and positive ways. On the one hand, existing structural inequalities have exacerbated challenged for poor people and people of color, particularly Black women.  On the other hand, workers realized that they can demand more from their employers in terms of safety and recognition of their essential value as demonstrated by the organizing of thousands of workers from John Deere and Kellogg's to Starbucks and Amazon. How will this shifting landscape change how our students approach graduation and entering the workforce? What impacts will this have on the the future of higher education in general? How can we as Career Services professionals, educators and employers better prepare our students to enter this reality? 

Innovations in Experiential Learning: From consulting projects and immersions to capstone courses and action learning labs, experiential learning gives students opportunities to apply what they learn to real-world problems faced by real organizations. In the process, students gain valuable transferable skills such as problem-solving, relationship management, conflict resolution, and creativity. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many experiential activities into a virtual format. What we have learned in the process will likely continue even after face-to-face interactions fully resume. Research shows that many students, particularly students of color, first-generation students and students from low-income backgrounds, lack access to these opportunities - especially opportunities that emerge due to connections creation by higher social capital or opportunities that require funds or that reduce the time that students have to devote to current responsibilities like employment or family. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many experiential activities into a virtual format creating changes that will likely continue even after face-to-face interactions fully resume. Traditional pedagogy, methods, practices, and social behaviors rooted in site-based learning in many cases no longer apply. Our shared situation requires us to think differently about how we learn in the current situation we all share. How do virtual interactions enable us to overcome time and cost barriers, which will allow us to scale our experiential learning opportunities so that more students have access? What other innovations have developed in the last two years that have helped students stay engaged? What new partnerships have these innovations sparked?