This session is open to all conference participants and is included as part of your conference registration fee.

Welcome Speaker/Student Plenary Speaker

Mike Minjares

For nearly 17 years, Mike Minjares worked with students and student leaders to maximize their potential. He spent 14 years in student affairs coordinating new student programs and freshmen housing at his alma mater, San Diego State University. In 2003, he made a move to university development. He often says that while he gave up his career in student affairs, he kept his focus on student development as he raised funds for student scholarships, the Senior Class Gift and in support of the SDSU Ambassadors, the campus orientation leaders and tour guides. He recently seized an opportunity to work from home and to continue to help people build community. Mike is now Community Director and Editor for a community magazine called My Hometown, a monthly publication that goes out to 20,000 homes in south San Diego.

Through Animated Leader, his speaking and training business, Mike meets with students, educators and business people to speak on issues such as leadership, team building, communication and diversity. With an animated and interactive style, his presentations are known for incorporating animated movie clips and for showcasing his passion for bringing good ideas to life.

Mike is no stranger to NODA. Attending his first NODA conference in 1988, Mike became a regular presenter at regional and annual conferences for nearly 15 years. For three years he served as a faculty member for NODA's Orientation Professionals Institute (OPI) and co-hosted both a regional and annual conference. In 2004, he received the Distinguished Service Award from Region II. Mike has been an invited speaker at UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, San Jose State, UCSD, UCSB, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and SDSU. In 2008, he provided a motivating and engaging keynote for the Region II NODA Conference and that presentation landed him a spot in this year's annual conference.

Mike earned both his B.A. in Journalism with an emphasis in Radio-TV News and his M.A. in Speech Communication at SDSU. He lives in San Diego with his wife, a fellow former orientation leader, and their two children.

Professional Plenary Speaker

Dr. Laura Palucki Blake

Join us for an interactive discussion with Dr. Laura Palucki Blake, Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Assistant Director at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA. Dr. Blake will share CIRP data and trends on first year students across the country and on the first year experience. Topics will include special populations, transition, retention and civic engagement. Her focus also will be on implications based on CIRP data for our professional practice.

HERI is the home of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), a national longitudinal study of the American higher education system. Established in 1966 at the American Council on Education, the CIRP is now the nation’s largest and oldest empirical study of higher education, involving data on some 1,900 institutions, over 15 million students, and more than 300,000 faculty. CIRP surveys have been administered by the Higher Education Research Institute since 1973. The CIRP longitudinal program consists of the Freshman Survey (TFS) , Your First College Year (YFCY) Survey, and the College Senior Survey (CSS). It is regarded as the most comprehensive source of information on college students.

Laura Palucki Blake is the Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s (CIRP) Assistant Director. Dr. Palucki Blake’s primary responsibilities include working with institutions to both implement the various CIRP surveys and to develop and communicate about effective and innovative ways of using data for institutional improvement. Prior to joining the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), Dr. Palucki Blake was the Director of Assessment and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Agnes Scott College, where she coordinated data collection, interpretation, and dissemination to support planning and decision-making across the college. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Psychology at The Claremont Graduate University, and her B.A. in Psychology from Smith College. Dr. Palucki Blake’s research interests include assessment and accountability in higher education, the use of institutional data to foster greater understanding of student learning and development, and issues of access and equity during college.