President's Letter: Connecting at Our Conference

Happy winter! I just got back from AkSCA annual conference in Anchorage, November 14-18. This is one of the weeks I look forward to all year! It’s like a big reunion and connecting with my school counselor colleagues from all over the state is my favorite part of this conference! I have crossed paths with so many outstanding school counselors over the years, and it enriches my life so much to collaborate with all of you.

We had the opportunity to learn vital information from some excellent keynote presenters and a variety of breakouts. Topics covered elementary lessons, college access, middle school troubles, how to get to RAMP and more! We had tours to AVTEC, Alaska Pacific University, and Alaska Military Youth Academy. The event offere pre-conference sessions about the 4th R and 4th R Plus curriculums and how to use them, and post-conference sessions covered ethics, yoga for mental health and youth mental heath first aid.

The Alaska School Counselor of the year was announced, and it is Andie Zink from Shungnak, Alaska. She will have the opportunity to be nominated for the national award and will be invited to attend a gala and advocacy events on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. in 2019. Alaska has amazing school counselors doing great things in their schools for Alaska’s children.

We also recognized our Advocate of the year. I am sure that each of us can identify someone like Karen Stephan from Kodiak, who has encouraged us along our journey and helped us in our schools. It is amazing to me how many school counselors and their advocates are doing such good work in their schools and communities! Our profession is making an impact on children, their families and the community.
 

Leslie Fazio congratulates Andie Zink, Alaska School Counselor of the Year, from Shungnak, Alaska, in the Northwest Arctic Borough School District.

Advocate of the Year is presented to Karen Stephan from Kodiak, Alaska, Kodiak High School; pictured with Karen are Sheila Beardsley, Leslie Fazio and Maria Riedel.

It is my sincere pleasure to be part of this association! If you were not able to attend the conference, check out our conference app to look at handouts and presentations from sessions.
 
Enjoy the rest of the school year! Spring is coming!
 
Contact Leslie Fazio, AkSCA president, at leslie.fazio@gmail.com.

Thank You, Conference Vendors

The Alaska School Counselor Association's Executive Board thanks all of our wonderful vendors for participating at this year's Counselor Conference. We appreciate the time, energy and expense that our vendors contribute to make our gathering such a powerful event. After speaking with all of you, it became very clear that you enjoy the counselors as much as they enjoy meeting you. Your resources for their students are priceless and we owe you a huge debt of gratitude for joining us year after year and sharing your expertise with us. We also appreciate the little gifts you bring for all of us and know that these will be put to good use.

Our sponsors enable us to provide some of the extras for our attendees. Special thanks to:

Scenes from the AkSCA Conference