Here’s a message from our host: Chesapeake College
We’ve been looking forward to welcoming fellow community college faculty and educators from across the state to Chesapeake College for the 31st Annual AFACCT Conference for several years now. We had visions of inspiring faculty with the beauty of Maryland’s Eastern Shore as they traveled to campus, fostering connections once here from the comforts of our new, state-of-the-art Health Professions and Athletics Center, and sharing many other updates since Chesapeake College last hosted AFACCT well over a decade ago. But like so many other carefully planned events, traditions, and milestones in our professional and personal lives, we’ve had to reimagine what this year’s conference will look like due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a good thing that community college folk are accustomed to adapting plans on the fly and operating successfully with limited resources. As you may have heard already, this year’s conference will be held virtually. While we will miss having you all on our campus, we can’t wait to come together for what promises to be a timely, engaging, and essential professional development opportunity.
This year’s conference theme is “Rejuvenate: Yourself, Your Students, and Your College” and will take place via AFACCT’s web-conferencing platform on January 7th and 8th, 2021. In addition to our exciting keynote speakers, Dr. Sandra Kurtinitis of the Community College of Baltimore County and Latanya Eggleston of Anne Arundel Community College, we will have a mix of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, led by an impressive set of colleagues from across the state.
Dr. Cliff Coppersmith, Chesapeake College’s sixth president, knows how tirelessly faculty have been working since the spring to adapt course content for the online environment while simultaneously finding new ways to build relationships with students. He hopes Maryland’s community college faculty will afford themselves some time to pause, learn from one another, and discuss what’s been working (and not working) over the past eight months of largely virtual instruction. When asked what he hopes faculty will get out this year’s conference, Dr. Coppersmith commented, “I applaud AFACCT for finding a way to safely gather and continue its vital function of cultivating ideas and innovation among faculty across the state of Maryland. Faculty are to be commended for their extraordinary efforts & creativity in adapting to the virtual teaching & learning environment. Their students have never needed them more. I hope faculty take this well-deserved moment to reflect, encourage one another, and celebrate their heroic efforts to keep a generation of students moving forward. We hope they return to their work with renewed energy and excitement.”
If ever there was a time to come together for some collective rejuvenation and inspiration, this is that time. As a bonus this year, we can guarantee that you won’t get stuck in any Bay Bridge traffic. We hope to see you online in January. Until then, stay safe, healthy, and keep working educational miracles for our students!
If you haven’t yet registered for this year’s conference, you can do so from the AFACCT website at https://afacct.org. The registration fee for the 2-day virtual conference is $25. You can also learn more about Chesapeake College at https://www.chesapeake.edu. Founded as Maryland’s first regional community college in 1965, Chesapeake offers a range of educational opportunities that combine excellence, convenience and affordability. Our degree programs (with more than 55 college majors), certificate programs, career training, non-credit workforce training and lifelong learning have transformed the lives of thousands on the Eastern Shore. Chesapeake welcomes you to visit our beautiful 100 acre campus in historic Wye Mills, MD. A neighbor to the Wye River, our college is a nationally-recognized leader in environmental sustainability. We hope this year’s AFACCT conference helps make your vitally-important professional work more sustainable as well!