2021 USPAA National Conference (Virtual)

The conference will be held June 7 through 11 during the workday. The exact schedule will be sent at a later date.

Keynote Speaker

We are thrilled to announce our keynote speaker for this year's conference, Julie Lythcott-Haims. Lythcott-Haims believes in humans and is deeply interested in what gets in our way. She is the New York Timesbestselling author of the anti-helicopter parenting manifesto How to Raise an Adult. Her TED Talk on the subject has more than 5 million views, and in 2020 she became a regular contributor with CBS This Morning on parenting. Her second book is the critically-acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience as a Black and biracial person in white spaces. A third book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, will be out in April 2021.

Lythcott-Haims is a former corporate lawyer and Stanford dean,and she holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard, and an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts.  She hosted the podcast "Getting In", that followed a diverse group of New York-area high school seniors through the exhilarating process of applying to college. She serves on the board of CommonSense Media, and on the advisory board of LeanIn.Org, and she is a former board member at Foundation for a College Education, Global Citizen Year, The Writers Grotto, and Challenge Success.

Sessions

Sessions will be held during the morning and afternoon to provide as much flexibility as possible. We will also record all sessions so you can view them at a later point, should you not be able to attend live.

Sessions formats will include: 30-minute sessions, 60-minute sessions, panels, round tables and informal happy hours.

Call for Proposals

We will open the call for proposals March 15 with the deadline as May 5 and notification date as May 14. The form will ask for you’re a) preferred format, b) day/time preferences, c) learning objectives, and d) brief overview of session (150 words).

Based on the survey, there is a strong interest in having sessions on social justice, programming, admissions/selection, alumni engagement, lessons learned from Covid, and student leadership. However, other topics are welcomed as well!

You can submit your proposal here.

Cost

$65 

*Register by April 2 to receive a conference goodie box from USPAA and a copy of Your Turn written by the keynote speaker, Julie Lythcott-Haims.