A Pathway to the Ultimate Experience.

The 2012 Networker Symposium will be my third time attending, and I can’t help but think back to my first conference experience. At the time, I was a student intern at the Networker, working part-time while finishing up my undergraduate career.
For the first few months of my internship, aside from learning the editorial ropes and helping with the magazine, the emphasis had been on helping to complete the Symposium Onsite Guide, so I had a basic idea of what the Symposium was. But no amount of preparation could’ve actually prepared me for what awaited at the Omni Shoreham during the last weekend of March 2010….

As a journalism student who fell in love with psychology courses during college and ultimately minored in psychology, obsessed with discovering how the human mind and relationships work, the Symposium was the ultimate experience: more than 3,000 psychology professionals in one place, eager and inspired to learn and share experiences, a wide variety of enlightening and interesting workshop options, inspirational keynote addresses, and so much more. I’d had it in my mind that this would be a weekend of business casual wear and note-taking, but I was completely wrong. This was a weekend filled to the brim of dancing, singing, sharing, writing, learning, talking, and many other verbs that I wouldn’t have really expected to find at a typical conference.

The Symposium is so much more than a conference—it’s a community gathering of like-minded professionals, zealous to get together and share what they know—and it really couldn’t be a  better opportunity for a mental health professional. Better yet, there could be no better opportunity for a student or beginning therapist, as it’s the absolute best way to meet people in the field, learn more about what you’re interested in, learn more about what you never thought you’d be interested in, and most of all, be inspired.

These are tough financial times for everyone, particularly for those just starting their careers, and the Symposium is a great place to get a head start. But because we at the Networker understand just how tough these times are, we’re offering a student scholarship opportunity that’ll prove to be exceedingly valuable. So are you a student or know any students who might be interested in this kind of scholarship opportunity? Just email me at assistant@psychnetworker.org and I’ll provide you with all of the details and answer any questions you may have. Trust me—as someone who attended the conference as a student interested in psychology—it’s definitely worth investigating.