In keeping with the forward thinking of SWATA and NATA, we can now communicate INSTANTLY with the help of these blogs. Instant feedback!
I'm new to the whole blogging thing, but I'm excited about it. It will be a great way for us to keep a finger on the pulse of the membership and offer a whole new means of communication.
First, a little introduction...
My name is Carissa Spraberry and I am the Young Professionals Committee Chair for SWATA. I am a 2004 Stephen F. Austin State graduate, and I'm an athletic trainer with going-on 5 years experience into my 3rd year at C. E. King High School in Houston, TX.
So the burning question is..."What is a YOUNG Professional?" Well the criteria we have is, an athletic trainer under the age of 32 with less than 10 years experience. I'm definitely not saying that someone over the age of 32 is OLD (haha), but the thought is they have experienced enough to be able to advise and support those just graduating :)
The Young Professionals Committee was created to offer the growing number of young athletic trainers an opportunity to get involved in the future of our association and continue to grow as professionals and leaders. I think this is definitely a move in the right direction and will help secure our future.
We have a great group of people on this committee that I hope will contribute to this blog over the coming months. We have a number of great ideas, initiatives and I feel we understand the issues of young professionals.
Some of the important issues we hope to address...
1. Communication with Young Professional members and involvement of students-bridge gap between students, YPs and Veterans
2. Involvement of YPs in the leadership of the Association
3. Development of networking and mentoring/advising programs to facilitate YPs in their first few years
4. Promoting athletic training to the general public, and promoting membership to the professional association to YP ATs that are not members.
5. Development of annual meeting programming for students and general membership.
We are in the development phase of all of this and I will keep you updated on our progress on each of these issues.
Please consider "subscribing" to this blog. Check back every week or two to keep yourself informed of the Young Professional's activities.
