by Benny S. Ligues

Having the opportunity to attend the Austin Lilly Conference was certainly a fantastic way to start off 2016. I felt excited and honored to have been chosen as one of the recipients allowed to attend this conference. The event was packed with individuals from many local, state, and national universities and colleges. All were there with the purpose of learning and sharing ideas, building networks of educators and just mingling with others and making new friendships.

The focus of the conference was “Evidence Based Teaching and Learning”. We started out with the Welcoming and Opening Ceremony, headed by incredibly talented speaker Todd Zakrajsek. He captured everyone’s attention with his excellent presentation skills and welcomed everyone while filling us all in on the history and importance of the Lilly Conference. The remainder of that day, along with the next two days were filled with a variety of Workshop Presentations we could choose to attend. The workshops were presented by a diverse variety of very well organized and talented individuals from universities and colleges all over the nation. The topics of these workshops ranged from Student Learning to Curriculum Design / Redesign to Engaging and Motivating Student to On-Line Teaching and Learning – the list goes on.

I believe that events such as the Lilly Conference, where there are large gatherings of pro-active and enthusiastic educators, are essential in that they provide us with tools we can use to accomplish the goals we have set to achieve the Student Success Initiatives we are striving for. These types of events also serve the purpose of renewing our spirits as we share and exchange new and old ideas with each other. As educators we must continue to learn in order to develop new and innovative teaching and learning strategies.

With the new Guided Pathway Program we are implementing here at Austin Community College, we must use every resource we can find to help us reach out end goal. Please remember that we also have many groups/associations, such as the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, Faculty Voices, the Adjunct Faculty Association Executive Counsel and a few more whose meetings I believe you can attend to get involved and pick up ideas. We owe it to ourselves and to our community.