Umoja XV Conference Call for Proposals

Greetings Umoja Community:

We welcome you to become an integral part of the Umoja XV Conference. Propose a workshop for the upcoming conference! The success of this Umoja Community Education Foundation annual event relies on organizations such as yours to provide the platform for insightful and empowering discussions and collaboration between students, counselors, and educators.

Attached you will find the following documentation:

• Call for Proposals Outline
• 8 Effective Practices For Creating Engaging and Inclusive Workshops/Indabas
• Link to the proposal form (SurveyMonkey Link)

Conference Details:

Date: November 1 - 2, 2019

Location: Marriott Oakland Convention Center, Oakland, CA 94612

Expected Conference Attendees: 1,200

Workshop session schedule: 

We are accepting proposals in the following format: 75-minutes interactive workshops. A minimum of 15 minutes of the session should be reserved for questions from the audience.

Format: 

The presenter can determine the presentation format; however, we encourage you to choose a presentation that engages and educates the participants.  As you create your session content, consider the 8 Effective Practices for Creating Engaging and Inclusive Workshops/Indabas.

Presenter role: 

If you plan to use PowerPoint, presenters are required to bring their own laptop and any necessary cords for power and connection.

Handouts: 

To reduce paper usage we are encouraging all presenters to limit handouts only as necessary or provide your documents to the Umoja Office for posting on the Umoja website. We recommend that you provide materials to participants via Google Drive or SharePoint link.

Fee: 

There will be no honorarium or reimbursement for the presentation. The selected presenters will receive a discounted registration rate of $395. We encourage you to register now.

Deadline: Proposals are due no later than Friday, September 20, 2019.

Notification: Those submitting proposals will be notified by Friday, October 4, 2019, regarding the status of their proposal.

Questions: For questions regarding the proposal submission process, please contact the Umoja Community Office at info@umojacommunity.org.

Proposal Submissions

The purpose of the proposal submission process is to identify presenters with interest, passion, and expertise on a selected topic.  All proposals will be evaluated by our program committee based on content, level of engagement, and relevancy to one of the workshop strands below. Proposal submissions will only be accepted by submitting through this link. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UmojaConProposals

Indaba Strands

Indabas, in traditional African culture, are gatherings to discuss issues and topics that affect us all.  Indabas are where everyone is invited to the table and has a voice.  It is where the experiences and stories told to encourage us to share and act when we walk away from the gathering and back to our communities.  This year's conference theme centers around the following quote by Shirley Chisolm: “If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” The following are the Indaba Strands for this year’s conference.

Data Storytelling: Effectively Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Data

Storytelling plays an important role in highlighting cultural values, sharing important information and lessons, as well as providing context and explanations to mysteries.  Umoja Community programs across the state are working to identify effective practices in telling the qualitative and quantitative stories that can inform decision-making for their programs and their campuses. These indabas will focus on effective practices and methodology for collecting, analyzing, and presenting information to create impactful data stories.

Student Leadership, Development, and Activism

The Umoja Community integrates leadership training and opportunities for our students. Programs across the state support student leadership groups. The student leaders are enacting a broad range of initiatives and activities on their campuses to build community and foster student success. These indabas will focus on how student leaders are developing themselves and the activities and strategies they are using on their campuses, and ways to enhance and develop their leadership and activism.

Innovative Teaching and Counseling Strategies: Doing What Matters

The teaching and counseling style of Umoja emphasizes empowerment in our students, cultural relevancy in our curriculum, and respect for the minds of our students so they experience their own voices as important and so they can manifest what they do in our classrooms and programs in their communities. These indabas will focus on counseling and pedagogical strategies that transform equity into action.

Making the Move to Transfer: The Essentials

Umoja utilizes comprehensive and well-documented strategies, as well as lessons learned, for assisting students in transferring from community college to 4-year institutions, including helping our students pay for their education through scholarships. These indabas will focus on making transfer a reality for every community college student who wants to do so.

Building Community for Student Success

Community is everything! Building communal intelligence and relationships within our families, in our classrooms, and in our communities is fundamental to the academic success of our students. These indabas will share how community is created, sustained, and used to create a power base in classrooms and programs.

Reimagining S.T.E.A.M. Pathways and Careers

S.T.E.A.M. is an educational approach that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics to focus on student skills of inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking.  These skills prepare students for a myriad of high demand careers options and pathways.  The 21st century’s rapid advances present opportunities to reimage how S.T.E.A.M. can be diversified, inclusive, and innovative in both traditional and non-traditional subject areas and industries. These indabas will share the scope of academic, career, and industry opportunities for Umoja programs and students interested in S.T.E.A.M.

Critical Conversations: Gender, Race, and Identity as Routes for or Roadblocks to Achievement

African American/Black students often endure particular challenges as a result of being seen only through a stereotypical lens of their multiple identities of race, gender, and culture. Umoja strives to shatter the misconceptions of Black student scholarship by utilizing cultural imperatives that highlight excellence through African centered practices. This grounding provides a cultural safety net that allows students to flourish. Critical conversation workshops should highlight the ways in which one’s multi-faceted identity may be seen as different yet can be reimagined and internalized as a catapult for student success. Critical conversation indabas may also raise policy, classroom and environmental strategies that must be addressed in order to advance and uplift academic engagement and achievement.

Proposals will only be accepted via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UmojaConProposals