The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) serves more than high school and college counselors who help students and families navigate the admissions process.

Shanda Ivory, NACAC’s director of communications, joins us this week to discuss how the pandemic might permanently change college recruiting. Will the days of college fairs in convention centers with thousands of students ever come back? Is it such a bad thing if they don’t?

We explore those questions and talk about how admissions professionals can strike a balance between not getting stuck and the status quo and not going after every new trend that comes along.

Links to cool stuff

• Shanda Ivory on LinkedIn
• College Admission Decoded podcast
• 2021 NACAC National Conference

Bill Zimmerman, an instructor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State and host of the Happy Valley Hustle podcast, returns to the show to discuss his experience with a year of remote learning and how he hopes education will look different as schools fully come back in person this fall. He talks about how he managed — or sometimes didn’t manage — Zoom fatigue for his students and for himself and how the time in remote learning might strengthen the desire for in-person connections inside and outside the classroom.

Bill is an eternal optimist, and that sentiment really comes through in this conversation. We also talk about running and how it helps focus our minds that are constantly distracted by our inboxes and social media notifications. 

Links to cool stuff:

• Our first episode with Bill
• Happy Valley Hustle podcast
• Bill on Twitter

What’s better than actually going to the HighEdWeb Conference? Recording an episode with your friends that actually went! At least that’s what Lougan is telling himself this week as he welcomes Jackie and Jon-Stephen back to the show along with new guest Alaina Wiens. We chat about what it’s like running social media for the conference, and the various presentations they gave. We also talk about the “golden nuggets” they are taking back home this year. 

Links to cool stuff: 

• Jackie: Twitter | Linkedin
• Jon-Stephen: Twitter | Linkedin
• Alaina: Twitter | Linkedin
• 2019 HighEdWeb Conference Website
• HighEdWeb’s Recorded Live Streams
• HighEdWeb Association Website

Jason Mollica is a professorial lecturer at American University’s School of Communication where he teaches all about social media and social media analytics. Jason is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience as a journalist, news producer and PR professional. On the show, Jason talks about his syllabuses (syllabi?) and how they were created, as well as an awesome certification opportunity for his students. Jason and Lougan nerd out about Marvel, Star Wars and sports. Jackie talks about the Bills. Everyone agrees that being happy in your job is the most important thing.

Links to cool stuff: 

• Jason on Twitter
• The Buffalo Bills on Twitter
• The Nashville Predators on Twitter