WHS grad making national waves

HELENA, Mont. — Wallace High School graduate Gretchen Farkas recently made a trip to the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators general assembly in Florida to give a presentation that should resonate throughout schools across the country.

Farkas, a junior at Carroll College along with senior Roma Seal (Bonney Lake, Wash.) have been working on and spoke about helping college students better understand how point-of-sale tobacco marketing affects youth and how to develop community assessment and community collaboration skills and to practice sharing research findings with community groups.

Both Farkas and Seal are public health majors and their presentation was well received at the conference.

Seal is a NASPA veteran and was pleased to see her and Farkas’ subject matter get a good reception.

“This was my third year at the NASPA Conference General Assembly,” Seal said. “It was great to see people get excited about our work at Carroll.”

For Farkas, it was about the experience.

“NASPA was a valuable experience,” Farkas said. “Although it was challenging to do the work and create the presentation, I’d recommend it to anyone.”

The NASPA General Assembly is the leading association for the advancement of the health and sustainability of the student affairs profession and it focuses on college efforts to promote healthy lifestyles for students.

The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators is a U.S.-based student affairs organization boasting more than 13,000 members at 1,400 campuses and 25 countries. Founded in 1919 at the University of Wisconsin, NASPA is one of many organizations focused on graduate enrollment management.

Graduate Enrollment Management is an area of enrollment management focused on graduate and professional education.