Jackie Koerner

ACPA Experience

Whew! I’m home now from the 2014 ACPA Convention in Indianapolis and I’m exhausted. The past 4 days were packed with learning, making new connections, and catching up with old friends. What a great time we all had collaborating and sharing our progress and research on topics. I was fortunate enough to share my dissertation research with the ACPA community. I was overwhelmed by the attendance in my session and very appreciative of those choosing to spend time in my session. Overall we had a positive conversation about making students with disabilities feel more welcome on our campuses.

Inside Higher Ed ran an article on the session, and while I don’t agree with the hook they used:

it is good to get the information out and more people in on the conversation.

In the session I asked fellow student affairs folks to consider some action items to tackle when they got to their home campus. I am invigorated by what the people plan to do!

Also, at the closing session today, I received some very poignant words from Brené Brown:

If you are not in the arena and also getting your ass kicked, I am not open to your feedback.

If someone else is in the game with you, listen and appreciate what they have to say, good and bad. If they’re not contributing to the knowledge at large, challenge them to step up to contribute, but ultimately appreciate the risk you took in sharing knowledge and dismiss their feedback.

I encourage you all to get out there, research, tackle those complex situations and always keep Brené’s wise words in minds.

View my presentation from the ACPA Convention below or download ACPA 2014 Presentation Jackie Koerner in pdf.

The Big Day

I’m terribly excited about my presentation in about an hour. I am not nervous at all – only very excited to share this information I have found with others in hopes they will be able to change the outcome for students with disabilities on their respective campuses. I cannot wait for the whole dissertation to be finished so I can share it with the whole world! Well, the part of the world willing to read it.

Hello ACPA

Hello all from ACPA! I have neglected my site for the most part due to dissertation (well, except when snapping pics of the cats while procrastinating on said dissertation). I’m just going to recap some of the energy from the first day:

Good discussion about being Flawsome.
Take it in stride and own up to your mistakes. It’s better in the end, and frankly people like you better if you’re ok with being human.

Met lots of fun people at CelebrACPA.
Music was a bit loud for networking, but we worked it out. 🙂 excited to be more involved with my interest areas and MoCPA.

Safe Spaces or Zones for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
These spaces are devoid of harsh environmental stimuli (fluorescent lighting, loud noises, etc.) and complete with a staff member trained on how to assist students who might need them if they are over stimulated or just overwhelmed by something on campus. Great retreat spaces for students to process the experience they just had.

Masculinity and Disability
Great discussion not only about masculinity and disability but about many things: being human, accepting of others and their mistakes, appreciating people for moving in a different path than we would choose. Finally, discussing the common practice of “removing” people with disability from gender.

Now, I’m off to a coffee and to check out my room for my presentation tomorrow! If you’re here, come to Marriott Indiana G at 10:30 April 1. Students with Disabilities Persisting Through Higher Education: Their Perspective.

Puzzled by Bullshit

Chris ordered the 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit for me – and there’s a puzzle. I’m going to start diagramming this bleep because I want to figure it out so badly. Alas, I will probably think too deep and miss what was obvious.

Best Spam Comment EVER

Sometimes spam on the site is annoying, but today offered up a funny sample:

Why the Grand Thief Auto has several controversial concern is the player from the game themselves. I mean, there’s stuff being released all on the place. This nonprofit organization is situated in Des Plaines, Illinois.

She stayed in contact while using Emperor, but continued to rebuff his requests.

Hold your ground about that Emperor, girl! His Grand Thief Auto is def a bootleg. Hope you didn’t get too much snow in Des Plaines.

XXXI

Last night at dinner, I made a wish (it was 31st my birthday) and blew out my candle. I always have a hard time with wishes, so I took my time. In my mind this time, I thought about what I want to accomplish this year, where I see myself next year, but in the end, I just wished it’s a good one. I always end up doing this. I cannot explain some of the good things that have happened to me, but I have settled on prepared luck.

Here’s to the next year full of preparation, hard work and a bit of luck!

Contributing to the Masses

Mirroring a post by my other half, and the consistent message from the conference I’m attending, we all need to consider what we are contributing to the masses.

Today I did something really exciting. I participated in an abstract exchange for the UCEA conference (a bunch of educational leaders and researchers, new scholars and seasoned sages). My dissertation topic (perceptions of students with disabilities regarding their reasons for persisting in higher education) is exciting to me; however, is it exciting to other people? My advisors and colleagues, sure. But other scholars?

Each participant in the abstract exchange had 3 minutes to address his or her abstract. There were 10 of us, so we pushed 2 round tables together and went around the table in turn. How was my topic received? Everyone said they enjoyed it on the feedback cards. A few people caught me after to chat about my topic and I even received several business cards asking me to send my completed paper. Why did this happen? Was my topic good? Well, I suppose. But why did I get such a reaction out of my audience? Passion. I am very passionate about my topic and what I do.

I know there are many people out there who are passionate about what they do, inspired by something they read, or even just curious about something they have experienced. It is so very important to contribute and to not stop contributing. How else are we going to move forward as a society? We are all very intelligent beings. We each have something to contribute to the vast collective of knowledge. It is vast, but not all knowing – so much left to uncover!

So many of us are armchair critics. It’s easier to gripe about what others have or have not done than to do ourselves. Go forth. Blog. Edit Wikipedia. Make a solid review on Amazon. Just contribute!

Why Healthcare is so Important

While many of the articles on my feed reader this morning are pertaining to the government shutdown (because one party won’t stop their hissy fit about the Affordable Care Act), I am going to highlight one article about healthcare that probably will be overlooked today.

My awareness of public health issues is not all that great honestly; however, while presenting at the Graduate Student Summit this past spring, another presenter discussed his research regarding the Pertussis (whooping cough). He said whooping cough was appearing not only in the lowest income groups, but was almost eclipsed by the middle and upper income groups.

He noted access to services or transportation to services for the lower income groups as potential causes for not receiving the vaccines and following doses to provide immunity. For the other group, the one of middle and upper income, he noted research against vaccinating the children was the cause.

I was shocked. First, wouldn’t the disease be worse than the risk of vaccination? Second, whooping cough is happening?! Still?!

The next week I get a letter from Kari’s school. A child in the school had come down with whooping cough. Wow.

While few adults die from whooping cough, it does present a great risk to babies, children and people with compromised health.

Here is a link to the article on Boing Boing about why new parents need to be vaccinated. Also I suggest reading the linked article from that article.

In spite of the government shutdown, Obamacare still goes into effect today. Go get vaccinated!

Welcome to the First Wives Club

Well, it’s official. My husband has a new woman in his life. Meet Bonnie. There are pictures of her all over his Facebook.

This one is from when he took her to his old college.

They have went on many dates together.

He has taken her on long rides to wineries.

Bought her new accessories.

Even fiddled with her nuts and bolts.

He’s even bought a new outfit to wear on their dates.

And now she sits naked in my garage. She doesn’t even have the respect to put her cover on!

At least I can say my Father’s Day present to Chris was a good investment. 🙂

Where were you?

Last night before bed I had Kari pick out her outfit as always. I told her it was red, white and blue day at school tomorrow. This morning, after getting dressed, I asked her if she knew why today was red, white and blue day at school. She said, “For Patriot Day and Remembrance.” I then asked her if she knew why. She didn’t. I told her on September 11, 2001, some people did a bad thing. They crashed airplanes with people inside. Two were crashed into a very busy building in New York and one the passengers fought the bad people and crashed it into a field in Pennsylvania so no one else would be injured.

Kari then asked me, “Where were you?” I thought this was an appropriate question from Kari, as she was worried I was close to the action, but I am shocked about all the “Where were you?” hashtags, etc. floating about on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Yes, where we were is something that is etched in all of our minds, but on this day, I choose not to remember where I was, but the shock I felt. The shock that a human being could wish to injure other human beings. Remember what you felt on this day, those who were lost and those who lost.