Message from the Instructional Systems Student Association (ISSA) President

The 2008-2009 academic year has proven to be a success for the Instructional Systems Student Association. We began the school year by welcoming our new cohort at the Educational Psychology and Learning Systems orientation, which our team played a key role in organizing. The inception of the ISSA mentoring program began this past year with several new and existing students being matched up by similar interests. The existing students answer questions, give advice, and provide moral support for the new students.

In Fall 2008 our team had the opportunity to organize a few events for students, staff, and faculty. We created a banner and ordered a table cover to be used in recruiting efforts. Our inaugural recruitment effort took place at the 2008 Annual AECT Conference in Orlando. Several of our IS students volunteered to work at the booth where graduate students from other schools talked with us about our knowledge of and experiences in the IS program. Near the end of the semester we organized the annual Wine and Cheese Social hosted at Dr. Keller’s home. We were very pleased with the turnout. Everyone enjoyed socializing and getting to know each other on a more personal note. In addition to the previous happenings we hosted a couple of informal gatherings for IS students to relax and get to know one another.

Our program is represented by many cultures.

Spring was full of events, including the first annual International Potluck. Our program is represented by many cultures so we decided to celebrate our diversity with an international potluck hosted at Dr. Keller’s home. Once again, we had so much wonderful food and had a great time getting to know one another better. In addition to the potluck we hosted a brown-bag event where we had Dr. M. David Merrill speak to us about his work and methods. This was very successful, with several people joining us online. Concluding the semester we had the ISSA annual picnic and kickball game at Myers Park.

Anne Mendenhall
ISSA President