2015 ACA/APSA Holiday Party

The ACA/APSA Holiday Party was a great way to wrap up the year and send us merrily off to winter break!

A huge thanks to the Holiday Party Committee, Cindy Bippert, Lily Doñes, Josh Barham, Norma Hernandez, and Yesenia Sanchez, who did such an excellent job setting this up for us and making sure there was wonderful food and great entertainment.

Tacos generously provided by the Holiday Party Committee

A whole army of mustached coffee boxes!

I took the picture below early in the morning so there ended up being even more wonderful desserts to choose from as the party went on!

Delicious breakfast desserts

Candy canes galore

ACA/APSA folks having a grand old time!

Thanks to Cindy Bippert for the photos below!

Josh Barham, who was wearing a great holiday themed tie, led a fun activity where 20 something movie clips were played and we had to name as many as possible. I was so focused on trying to keep up with the movie clips that I forgot to take pictures!

I think A Christmas Story was one of them...

Beverly Hamilton spoke about her non-profit, Austin Diaper Bank, which helps Austin families in need get access to diapers and have a healthier and more comfortable quality of life. You can find out more information about donating funds or diapers to Austin Diaper Bank at their donation page.

Beverly Hamilton from the Austin Diaper Bank

Eric Carter spoke about the upcoming Professional Development Day happening on February 23rd, 2016. Check out their website for more information about registration.

Eric talking about PDD. Register today!

Then, the moment we'd all been waiting for... White Elephant! Some presents had creative wrapping paper including my little ponies, eyeballs, and highly addictive contents inside.

Yesenia Sanchez read a cute poem that allowed us to swap presents and talk to friends. Fun all around!

Happy Holidays, ACA and APSA! 

See you next year.

ACA Academic Advising Expo 2015

This year's Academic Advising Expo was held on September 30, 2015 on the East Mall of the UT Campus. 

It was a beautiful sunny day with a breeze in the air, perhaps a bit hot if you ended up sitting in the sun... But nonetheless, a lovely day to meet with students, talk with fellow advisors, and make the advising community more visible on campus!

The Advising Expo Committee deserves special recognition! A big thank you goes out to Elizabeth LaBate, Jay Guevara, and Doug Haake for all of your hard work on this great event.

Prime location here on the East Mall

Rockin' Comm Advisors!

Lots of goodies at the UTeach table

Candy AND Tiny Flags!!

CWGS with some very cool pins

Braving the sun!

With excellent table decorations

Look at all of those great t-shirts!

Advising Expo Action Shot

What a beautiful day!

Thanks to all of the advisors who participated and everyone involved with setting up the space. It was a great success!

ACA Volunteers: The Sequel!

On April 10th, 2015, another band of ACA members took to the community and volunteered their time at the Capital Area Food Bank. Big, Huge THANK YOU to Christine Anderson who so smoothly organized us for another successful community service event!

Our wonderful, and hilarious, volunteer trainer. He's about to break the news that we're sorting frozen meat today...

This is what Rose thinks about the prospect of sorting frozen meat.

Jinane, being ULTRA sassy!

I got to help break down boxes, and use the scary/fun cardboard compressor. Luckily, the experience wasn't as gruesome as this warning label!

But my fingers got awfully close to the machine! Eep!

Also, I was so excited about the cardboard cruncher, that I took a video of it in action. Note my exclamation of delight throughout as basically nothing happens.  

Donations are sorted in some pretty neat crates!

More banana boxes! Watta banana model!

Our ACA volunteers, still smiling after the meat encounters. 

Thank you to all who came out to volunteer! We look forward to more community service opportunities with ACA in the future!

ACA Skate Nite!

On March 24th, 2015, some fun-loving advisors from ACA got together for skating and good social times at the Playland Skate Center. Thanks to the FUNdraising Committee for organizing this super fun event and living up to the capitalized portion of their committee name!

Guess what, you guys? Taking action shots on skates is hard. Blurry photos ensued. Enjoy?

That's a glittering disco skate on the ceiling. Like everything else on the rink, it was constantly moving.

I call this composition: Skates, Blades, and Skates in a Time Warp. 

Delisa Lee, sporting them most awesome skating sweatband I've ever seen!!

Josh Barham, excited by the sights and sounds of Playland. 

Kelly Frazer, clearly delighted by Josh's delight. 

"Skating is madness!!!"

"Madness, I say!!!"

Good times were had! Even by those of us who scraped both our knees while getting a little ambitious with the skating (what adult scrapes both their knees, I ask you??). 

Professional Development Day 2015

Professional Development Day was held this year on February 12th, 2015 in the Texas Union on the UT Austin campus. Co-hosted by APSA and ACA, the annual conference was open to advising and student affairs professionals across Texas institutions.

This year's planning committee debuted some changes, including a venue change (moved from the Student Activity Center in recent years) and a fancy smartphone app created just for the event (big thanks to Eric Carter for working his fingers off to roll it out in time!).

The theme was "Making Connections to Make a Difference," which resulted in the adorable logo above!


Your Historian got distracted and forgot to take photos. But don't fret, your fabulous, talented, ever-present Secretary stepped up and saved the day. Enjoy these lovely photos, courtesy of Lovelys Powell:

PDD Co-Coordinator Extraordinaire, Wendy Boggs!

Check-in Champions!

PDD Friendship is alive and well. 

This was our instinct when Lovelys said "look natural and pretend to work."

Breakfast and such. 

Lego centerpieces! This is the future my 6-year-old nephew envisions for all of us.

What a cool bunch!

What an epic background for this photo!

If you squint, you can't tell that Beth is squinting. 

I'm not sure why the fearless leaders are sitting on the floor at this point. To make themselves more approachable to the general public? 

And some shots from various sessions:

Huge, gigantic, massive thanks to the PDD Planning Committee, APSA, and ACA members who came together to make this annual event such a success!