Student Planner of the Year - Astrid Schrier

Every year the PCMA Education Foundation offers students the opportunity to gain hands on experience at the Annual Meeting through their scholarship programs. This past year I was chosen as the recipient of the Student Planner of the Year award. This scholarship requires that the student create an education session that can be implemented at the Annual Meeting. My session centered on the topic of servant leadership and how it can be put into practice in our industry.

In June of 2007, I was informed that I had won the scholarship. I proceeded to call my boss, GPPCMA Past President Eva Matyskiela and my previous advisor, Dr. Joe Goldblatt to tell them the good news. I think it only took about another two hours before most of the GPPCMA chapter and the faculty at Temple University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management knew about the award. I guess I told the right people to spread the news.

Within the next couple of weeks I was contacted by Kristin Crane, Manager of PCMA’s Education department and Dr. Cynthia Vanucci, my PCMA appointed mentor who was on the Annual Meeting Program Committee. My next step was to work with Dr. Vanucci to establish my goals and learner objectives for my session. After this was completed, I needed to find a speaker. In my original session proposal I identified two men from the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. I contacted one of those men, Larry Spears, but he informed me that he and the other speakers in their speaker’s bureau would be unable to attend. He recommended I contact Jan Levy, a former member of their Board of Directors who lived in Seattle and worked for Leadership Tomorrow. I contacted Jan and she agreed to be my speaker.

In the months before the Annual Meeting I would touch base with Kristin and Jan to make sure that everything was in order for the session. Since I had chosen to have a single speaker on a single topic, as opposed to say a panel of speakers, there was not much else to do before the actual session.

Upon arriving in Seattle, I was able to meet and connect with the other scholarship winners and PCMA staff members. Being scholarship winners we had a predetermined schedule to follow that included attending all of the student sessions, helping speakers, assisting with set-ups and the Career Fair and attending meetings. I also got a chance to be filmed for a video for the PCMA Education Foundation promoting the scholarships that they offer. It was nice to have a preset schedule to follow because I did not have to worry about planning all of my own activities, but we still had allotted time where we could make our own decisions.

My session was held on Tuesday morning proceeding the general session. I started to get nervous on Monday night, but as the general session ended, my nervousness hit its all time high. All of the other scholarship winners except Lauren Staiano from University of Central Florida had to be at another session, so Lauren was instructed to keep me calm and she did. All I really had to do during my session was introduce my speaker after I had been introduced by Gery Seibert, Chairman of the Education Foundation. Of course it didn’t help that my entire chapter was sitting in front of the podium, but I got through it. The session seemed to be a success and the topic well received.

I recommend that every student apply for the scholarships offered by the Education Foundation. Each scholarship, while being different in requirements and prizes, allows students to gain hands on experience that they may not necessarily get a chance to attain. By being awarded this scholarship, I was able to focus on fundraising for other students in my chapter to attend the meeting since my trip was already taken care of. Also, I was recognized by more professionals in the industry because they knew I had been awarded the scholarship.

If any students have any questions about applying for scholarships, please do not hesitate to email me at astrid.schrier@temple.edu.