UNC Pembroke’s Shelby Newsome ‘13, ’22 and Kamren Lewis ‘22 recently returned from the New Professionals Institute’s (NPI) development training conference for new student affairs professionals with a renewed sense of purpose.
Newsome, assistant director for Community Engagement, and Lewis, CARE Resource Center coordinator, attended the NPI held on the University of South Carolina campus from June 7-13. NPI––co-sponsored by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA)Region III and Southern Association for College Student Affairs (SACS)––consisted of an interactive week of learning and networking.
“NPI provided me with a clear path forward on what I want my career to be in student affairs and how I need to grow to get there,” Newsome said. “What I enjoyed most was the relationship building. I met many student affairs professionals doing many amazing things for their students at their institutions. They inspired me, and I made a few lifelong friends.”
Newsome and Lewis were paired with seasoned experts who led presentations on topics ranging from establishing and upholding professional boundaries, navigating campus political dimensions, and crisis management to strategies and competencies needed for advancing careers.
“While being new in the higher education field, NPI allowed me to engage with others in leadership positions and those who may be fresh in the field like me,” said Lewis, who stepped into his role with the CARE Resource Center in March 2023. “While engaging with other student affairs professionals, I was able to think about effective ways to bring back certain initiatives to our campus and how certain viewpoints can help inspire our UNCP community.”
As a student, Lewis was a familiar face in the Community & Civic Engagement Office as founder of the Brave Foundations mentoring program. He’s currently a graduate student in the Master of Social Work program at UNCP.
Newsome, who was named assistant director for Community Engagement in 2023, said she experienced a full-circle moment after attending the training, recognizing that she’s working in the very department that significantly impacted her as a student.
“As a student, UNCP invested in me and now, as a professional, UNCP continues to invest in me by endorsing me for this professional development opportunity,” she said.
