Fall Regional Conference

This weekend was a whirlwind of NSBE inspiration for me. It was so well received because I am getting burnt out with school, being president, working and making sure that I pick the best full time job possible. My chapter drove down to Pitssburgh from campus on Friday. When we got settled in the hotel, I took a look around and I loved this flower arrangement for the Thanksgiving season. 

Here is my chapter at our opening session where we got some great speeches and some inspiration quotes. That's why I posted this today - so much inspiration to share with you today! The keynote speaker for the night was Dr. Kathy Humphrey, a dean at Pitt. She was preaching to us, the passion in her voice blew me away! 

Let me just list the one liners that she threw at at us in the time she had to speak:

• It is a gift to receive a higher education.
• If we don't lift as we climb, the world will stay the same.
• To be a leader means that you are doing something great. Leadership is the act of taking zero and make it the sum of something great.
• You are creating the future.

It was awesome, the things that she had to say! We then went to our Zone Session and got to meet a ton of new people!

The next morning started at 8 am and it was a whirlwind of a day. There were multiple workshops including the most helpful one for me: a collaboration between chapter presidents that talked about all of our real issues. I even got to talk with our regional chair and our national chairperson, both who are the sweetest people. 

After a long day or workshops, we had a dinner but before that, I sat with my chapter and wanted to know how they felt about the conference so far. We brought a lot of new people and I loved them seeing the passion everyone has for this organization.  

At the dinner, our assistant dean of multicultural engineering gave the keynote speech. Dr. Amy Freeman killed it. My favorite line from her was " Smart is the new Black." After the dinner, there was a little party that I went to with my whole chapter who didn't go into Pittsburgh for the night. It was a lot of fun hanging with the young ones and making a fool of myself with my dance moves.

The next morning yielded a closing session with feedback and a video we made for the other regions to understand we are coming to Nationals in March! I had a little break before we left, so I spent it reading and eating a breakfast in the lovely hotel bed. Getting home and back to reality was tough but I'm really glad that I went to the conference even though I am sick and tired!