A Message from Our Chair

Welcome to the Standing Committee for Graduate Students and New Professionals’ webpage. As the academic year comes to a close, I cannot help but look forward to the summer as our directorate engages in planning and goal setting for the upcoming year. It’s hard to believe how much time has passed since convention already, however, many exciting conversations have occurred since then that will propel us forward for the next year. The SCGSNP Vice Chairs and I have engaged in our initial conversations as we get started on another great year of engaging our membership in professional development and networking opportunities, and a number of the Vice Chairs have already begun working with their Coordinators to get work started on this year’s projects.

As the new Chair of the SCGSNP, I am filled with excitement and energy as we move forward to enhance the opportunities and services that we offer to our membership, while also focusing on new and innovative ways we can engage everyone throughout the year. In my initial conversations with our Vice Chairs, I have asked that their work support three major goals that I have work the SCGSNP this year.  The first is to embrace the eagerness of our membership to engage in the work of ACPA and our standing committee. With that being said, please make sure you are on our listserv so that you are getting information about all of the volunteer opportunities that we will have throughout the year. The second is to focus on developing new initiatives or re-envisioning ones we already have so that our membership is engaged outside of the annual convention experience. Recognizing that not all of us can attend convention every year is something that graduate students and new professionals know very well, and as such it is my hope that we are able to provide our membership with engaging and developmental opportunities that do not require convention attendance. Lastly, my hope is that we embrace the reinvention of the ACPA Annual Convention and take an innovative approach to reinventing the work that we do to serve our membership.

As we move forward, I welcome any thoughts, suggestion, or ideas that you have. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me and let me know how we can enhance your ACPA membership experience. I can be reached by email at chair.scgsnp@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Brian Hopkins

Chair, Standing Committee for Graduate Students and New Professionals