May 2024 President’s Corner

Congratulations, students, and welcome to summer! Many of you have just completed your spring semester or are preparing for a big transition, such as graduation or beginning your externship year. These are all exciting new adventures, and we wish you the best of luck in your new beginnings.

If you attended the AAA annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, thank you for participating in our student-focused events. We appreciate any feedback; feel free to share your experience and send to me at jannahines.saa@gmail.com.

For those of you who may be looking for more summer opportunities, this is a great time to begin studying for the Praxis. When you sign up for the test, ETS provides a free practice test and a study guide. I suggest taking the Praxis as early as you can, and if you can, take the exam before your externship year. I took the exam during my third year, and it was nice to focus fully on my externship. Additionally, I did not have to stress about retakes during or after my externship year, which could possibly delay licensing or your job start date. The national SAA has several helpful resources to help you with your externship journey including blog posts with tips and tricks from past externs.

Another opportunity that is currently available is volunteering with the national SAA for the 2024-2025 volunteer term. If you are interested in volunteering, fill out an application, and if you would like to nominate a friend to volunteer, use this link to send us their name. Finally, we are looking for more national SAA State Ambassadors to assist with interstate communications. A separate application is available for this opportunity and can be found here.

Janna Hines Orr
2023-2024 National SAA President