Cast Your Nominations for 2018 FloridaACE Awards

Congratulations to the 2017 John T. Brownlee Leadership Award Recipient, John Sheehy

Alicia Smyth, 2017-18 Past President, Florida Association of Colleges & Employers

Brownlee Award Recipient, John Sheehy, with two of his three nominators, Erin Minta and Sandi Ohman

The Florida Association of Colleges & Employers is proud to announce that this year’s John T. Brownlee Leadership Award recipient is John Sheehy. John has been a Career Development Coordinator and Student Success Coach at Stetson University, working with business students, for over 11 years. John has been a member of FloridaACE since 2010 and immediately began serving as co-chair of the Conference Registration Committee. Additionally, he has served in leadership roles over the years for the On-site Logistics Committee and President’s Council. John’s enthusiasm for service also earned him the New Member Award in 2012.

It was John’s efforts in his role as Chair of the Colleges of Central Florida Career Consortium (CCFCC) that helped him to stand out as a leader within FloridaACE. For instance, John came up with the idea to develop a registration reimbursement program to incentivize CCFCC members to submit program proposals to present at the FloridaACE Annual Conference. Members who were accepted were entered into a drawing. In the past two years, six FloridaACE conference registrations have been paid for by CCFCC. Additionally, each member school was able to receive reimbursement for up to two members to attend the 2016 FloridaACE Drive-In Conference. During John’s time as Chair, he also established the annual CCFCC reception at the FloridaACE conference, created a chair position for social media and marketing, established committees, and promoted the idea of creating awards for high achieving members and students of member institutions. FloridaACE was also able to partner with CCFCC to co-sponsor SoACE’s President’s Reception last year when their annual conference was in Florida.

The John T. Brownlee Leadership Award was established in 1987 by the Florida Association of Colleges & Employers (FloridaACE) in recognition of John T. Brownlee’s contribution and tireless efforts on behalf of the organization. It is the highest honor that a member of FloridaACE can receive and the list of recipients is a “who’s-who” of outstanding career services and human resources professionals who have led the way to make FloridaACE the exemplary organization that it is today.

In order to be considered for the Brownlee Leadership Award, a member must receive two letters of nomination. John received three. Excerpts from the nominations John received:

“John has been dedicated to his profession through his work on the leadership team of the CCFCC.  His enthusiasm and passion are evident in his commitment to the members of this group as well as the students served.  John regularly schedules meetings, connects its members to professional development opportunities and just plain gets things done.” – Mark Colvenbach, Director, Office of Career Services, The University of Tampa

 

“John’s leadership style includes modelling collaboration, professionalism, service to the industry, persistence, and vision.  As the Treasurer for CCFCC, I grew under his leadership because the single-minded pursuit of his vision pushed us to expand as a consortium and to develop individually as professionals.  Additionally, John is quick to make newcomers feel welcome and to encourage service and engagement, thereby assisting new career services professionals to develop swiftly and to become successful practitioners, while simultaneously ensuring the progress and ongoing success of organizations such as CCFCC and FloridaACE.  I consider it a privilege to have worked so closely with him these last 3 years, and to have witnessed his exemplary leadership.“

– Erin Minta, Program Manager, Career Services, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

 

“John’s passion and enthusiasm has spilled over into the FloridaACE organization.  He has suggested and led sponsorship opportunities by CCFCC at the FloridaACE conference, encouraged volunteer and presenter opportunities by CCFCC members, and led by example by volunteering himself at previous conferences and events.”

– Sandi Ohman, Assistant Director, Career Services, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

On behalf of FloridaACE, congratulations to John receiving this award! Having worked with John for many years through both FloridaACE and CCFCC, it was a sincere honor to announce John as the recipient and to hand him the award on stage at the Annual Conference this year. It is truly inspiring to see someone’s leadership, hard work, enthusiasm, passion, and service rewarded when you know first-hand how well-deserved it is.

The call for nominations for the 2018 John T. Brownlee Leadership Award will be announced in the November. Please consider nominating a dedicated FloridaACE member who has made a significant contribution to the association and/or the career services or university relations/college recruiting professions. Board members are not eligible. A list of past award recipients and selection criteria can be found on the Brownlee Leadership Award page of the FloridaACE website.

 

Message from the President

It’s hard to believe that my term as your President will be over in a week. It’s been a year full of both challenges and triumphs and as an association we are continuing to ride the wave of momentum that was built after our formal name change in 2014 from FCPA to FloridaACE. It’s an exciting time to be part of this incredible organization and I wouldn’t trade my experience on the FloridaACE Board for anything.

If you are attending the FloridaACE Annual Conference next week, the conference planning committees have been working hard to ensure that your experience is absolutely amazing! You can take a look at the online version of our Conference Program on the website, along with a Schedule-at-a-Glance. I also recommend downloading the FloridaACE Conference Plus app, provided this year courtesy of Career Fair Plus. You can find it on the App and Play stores.

If you have not registered for the conference yet, there is still a limited amount of time. You can either register for the full conference, Thursday only, or buy tickets to attend the FloridaACE Enterprise Closing Banquet & After Party. You can also follow along with us from home through the app and by following the #FloridaACE17 hashtag on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Since our first Drive-In Conference was such a success, we will be doing it again this year. The 2017 Drive-In Conference will be held on November 3rd in the Florida State University Career Center. More details to come in the weeks and months ahead.

The Board accomplished many great things over the past year and met all of the goals we set out to achieve. The most exciting of these is that we were able to increase employer membership by 80%. Welcome to the new companies that are now part of the FloridaACE family: ADP, AFLAC, American Traveler, Ellucian, Ernst & Young, Fastenal, Florida Hospital, PwC, and WellCare Health Plans! We are also grateful to our longtime employer members and I would be remiss if I didn’t give a huge shout out to our top-tier conference sponsor, Enterprise Holdings.

As I transition into the role of Past President, I want to thank our board members who are rolling off the board for their service and dedication to FloridaACE: Adam DeRosa, Robin Kazmarek, Rob Liddell, Carla Toles McKinney, and Kim Franklin. We also have some members who went above and beyond this year in big ways, including Tara Stevenson, Stacy Lanigan, Stacy Ballinger, Matina Wagner, Bill Blank, and Megan Hollis.

It has been a sincere honor to serve as this year’s FloridaACE President. I am confident that you will love the energy of the 2017-18 Board and you can expect great things to come in the year ahead. I hope you will engage with us and help us keep the momentum going into the future by volunteering to serve on committees, presenting at professional development events, and contributing to the blog with your best practices.

I hope to see you next week at Saddlebrook Resort & Spa! If you have any questions about the conference, please reach out to me or our Vice President and Conference Chair, Rob Liddell.

Most sincerely,

Alicia Smyth
2016-17 President
Florida Association of Colleges & Employers
President@Florida-ACE.org

 

 

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Message from the President: Conference updates, award nomination deadline and more!

By Alicia Smyth, 2016-17 FloridaACE President
President@Florida-ACE.org

By now you’re likely in the midst of recruiting season. Either you are busy attending career fairs and sorting through candidates or you are hosting companies on campus and planning career events. Either way, I’m sure you are looking forward to summer!

CONFERENCE UPDATES:

Speaking of summer, registration is now open for the 2017 FloridaACE Annual Conference! This year’s event will take place June 14-16 at the beautiful Saddlebrook Resort & Spa in Wesley Chapel, FL (just north of Tampa). Our theme this year is Bridges and our programming and events will be focused primarily around bridging gaps and building connections.

We took your feedback from last year’s conference into careful consideration and are adding an additional roundtable session into the programming. We will also host a coffee meet-up on Thursday morning and offer several pre-conference options (registration coming soon).

Attending the conference? Book your room now to avoid increased rates! Rooms are available on a first-come, first serve basis at Saddlebrook Resort & Spa in Wesley Chapel, FL. A block of rooms has been reserved for June 13-17 at the rate of $135/night for a one-bedroom suite, free wi-fi, discounted overnight self-parking rate for $12 per vehicle per night ($7 daily rate). We also have a very limited number of two bedroom suites available at the rate of $215/night. All rooms are upgraded and have a full kitchen, living room, dining area, and patio. You can find hotel booking information on our website.

Visit the FloridaACE website to register as a conference attendee or exhibitor, view the at-a-glance schedule, become a President’s Council Sponsor, or fill out the Roundtable Proposal Form. Keynote speakers will be announced soon and those individuals who submitted a program proposal will be informed within the next few weeks.

Pricing Information:

 

 

 

 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

One of our goals for this year is to create ways for graduate students to engage with FloridaACE in an affordable and beneficial way. We will be offering a discounted rate for graduate students (see pricing above). To be eligible for this rate, graduate students must be willing to commit 2-5 hours of volunteer service to the association before or during the conference. Graduate students must be full-time, not currently employed in their field, and studying in a related discipline. Organizations have the opportunity to sponsor a graduate student one of two ways: a) registering them for the conference (if pre-selected) or b) selecting the option on the President’s Council form (if you would like the Awards Committee to select the recipient).

DEADLINE FOR AWARD NOMINATIONS

The deadline to nominate an exemplary individual for the Brownlee Leadership Award, New Member Award or Student of the Year Award is Friday, March 3rd! More information can be found on the website.

CONGRATULATIONS

Please join me in congratulating Vice President and Conference Chair, Rob Liddell! Rob just started a new job as Director of Career Services at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Rob’s new employer is allowing him to continue on the FloridaACE board for the remainder of his term.

If you have questions about the conference or if you would like to join a conference planning committee, you can reach Rob at vice.president@florida-ace.org.

I hope you have a fun and rewarding semester and I hope to see you in June at Saddlebrook!