WHAT: Short “Ted Talks” featuring our unique stories and diverse backgrounds, highlighting our personal and/or professional journeys

WHO: Academic Advising and Student Affairs Professionals

WHY: Our stories are powerful and deserve dedicated space to share and honor them.

Have you ever felt like you had something impactful to share but weren’t sure how to phrase it?  Is the thought of telling a personal story intimidating?  Are you unsure about a specific topic to highlight but interested in honing your presentation skills?

Our hope is for the ACE community to learn from each other’s stories through love, warmth, humor, and respect to inspire personal and professional growth.  ACE Talks is a space where we may be seen and heard, and where we may cultivate deep connections.

TESTIMONIAL:   Why does any of this matter? I went in with the expectation that I’d conquer my fear of public speaking and I might maybe remove some barriers or demystify expectations of getting help from staff and faculty counseling and normalizing our own mental health struggles. But I came out of it realizing that my voice has value, as is, in any space. And yours does too. At the end of the day, we are just hoping to connect with each other through story and narrative and provide a safe, supportive space for us to practice connecting and building narratives for a time when we might need to tell a different, compelling story to advocate for ourselves or our programs.  -Alina Avila nee Haas, Jan 2020 ACE TALKS presenter

HOW WILL ACE SUPPORT YOU?

INDIVIDUAL COACHING

1-3 individualized coaching sessions with ACE Committee Members:

  • Kelsey Duff (leadership coach and UCLA CHR manager)
  • Alina Avila (ACE Talks veteran and academic advisor).

We will meet during the quarter before your presentation to help you from brainstorming to execution as you find/shape/refine your story and presentation.  This gives you a whole quarter to prepare.

ONLINE TOOLS AND INSPIRATION

There are a million youtube videos about storytelling, but here are 3 in particular to get you started and hopefully inspire you to start thinking about not just what story you will tell, but how you will tell it.

As UCLA Staff, you also have access to the entire content library of Linkedin Learning.

  • Links to specific Linkedin Learning modules coming soon!

TESTIMONIAL: One of my professional development goals I had during the 22-23 academic year was to improve my public-speaking skills. The ACE talk was pivotal in my professional growth as it provided me the platform and coaching to do just that. I did the ACE TALK during my first year as an AAP College Counselor, so it also gave me a platform to introduce myself to the academic counseling community at UCLA. I have recently been accepted into UCLA’s Professional Development Program, and I was able to write about my experience with ACE TALKS. I believe that my participation in ACE TALKS ultimately strengthened my PDP application.

My advice to staff members—especially academic counselors— who are considering doing an ACE talk but are perhaps nervous about applying is that it is a great learning opportunity with structured and intentional support. As academic counselors we are often in a position where we are encouraging our students to grow and learn so why wouldn’t we do that for ourselves too?   — Asbeidy Solano, May 2023 ACE TALKS presenter

  • Are you ready to tell your story? 
  • Are you not sure, but would like to learn more?  
  • Is there a staff member on campus that inspires you and that you’d like to nominate to tell their story?  

If you answered yes to any of these questions please connect with Alina & Kelsey at ace@college.ucla.edu.

We’d love to hear from you!

ACE TALKS COLLECTION

Without Fear There is No Courage: My Journey to Academic Counseling