MoCDA news and updates

1. If you have not yet heard,
MoCDA and Gateway
Career Services Associa-
tion (GCSA) have collab-
orated to present the
Strengths Educator Train-
ing at the University of
Missouri on March 12
from 10a.m.-4:30p.m.in
Stotler Lounge, Memorial
Union. If that wasn't excit-
ing enough, we are
fortunate to have a second
half-day of programming
offered by MU Career
Services. Two sessions
will take place on March
13 from 8a.m-12p.m.
entitled “Applying a
Strengths-Based Approach
in Career Services” and
“Strengths-Based Activi-
ties & Ideas for Use with
Students”.
Registration is going on
now until February 28.
Please go to mo-cda.org
for more information and
to register for the event.
So what’s this Strengths
stuff all about? Gallup,
in collaboration with
Donald O. Clifton, the
late Father of Strengths
Psychology, developed
an assessment that can
help people discover and
describe their talents.
Although there are 34
themes that are exam-
ined, typically the top 5
are the ones given the
most attention. The con-
cept is brilliant in its
simplicity—everyone
has strengths or talents
and should capitalize on
those and not focus on
trying to improve weak-
nesses. By taking the
StrengthsFinder assess-
ments, each of us can
focus on our strengths in
our work and find ways
to be more productive
and satisfied. When
working with clients or
students, we can use the
strengths assessment to
help our “customers”
leverage their own tal-
ents when exploring and
choosing careers or
majors and when search-
ing for jobs.
The Strengths Educator
Training is designed to
familiarize attendees
with the StrengthsFinder
assessment. In fact, it is
required that you com-
plete the StrengthsFind-
er assessment prior to
the conference so you
can reference your own
strengths while learning
about the assessment
and theory behind it.
On a personal note, my
spouse works in the
business world and I
introduced him to
StrengthsFinder. He was
so interested in the con-
cept, he read the book
and then took the assess-
ment. He now
(continued on next page)
Strengths Educator Training
Welcome to Our New Members of MoCDA!
MoCDANewsletter
Volume 3. Issue 2
Leah Fletcher – Park University
Dan Gomez-Palacio – Columbia College
Wes Hobson – Columbia College
Pam Hopkins – Cor Jesu Academy
Lisa Key— MU School of Law
Jeanne Kielhofner – Webster University
Maria Knebel – Excelsior Springs Job Corps
Carrie Smolar – SIUE

2. Page 2
Strengths Educator Training (continued from page 1)
MOCDA NEWSLETTER
uses the assessment with his sales and technical staff as a career development tool. If the particular in-
dividual’s strengths do not match up well with his or her job, my husband works with the employee to
determine if a different role in the company might be a better fit. He has gained a lot of insight into
why some individuals clash with others, for example, and why certain individuals may not be as suc-
cessful in sales as they would like. He has found it to be an invaluable tool.
Although I had previously taken the strengths assessment, at the request of a former boss, I had not
done much with the results. I am so excited to attend this conference and delve deeper into the
StrengthsFinder assessment, as well as learn ways to apply it to my daily work. Has your organization
used the StrengthsFinder assessment? How have you incorporated it into your work? What do you like
about it? We’d love to hear from you about your experiences with this assessment! If you are not able
to come to the Strengths Educator Training, please contact a MoCDA board member with your feed-
back about the StrengthsFinder assessment and applications.
I hope all of you will join us at the Strengths Educator Training. I look forward to meeting you and
learning about all the different talents each of us bring to the career development field. See you in Co-
lumbia!
Jenny Hahn Schnipper, MA, LPC, is a Career and Academic Counselor at St. Charles Community College and is the Com-
munications Chair for MoCDA. She can be reached at jschnipper@stchas.edu.
Contact Us
Feel free to contact any MoCDA board member with your feedback, questions, or to get more
involved with the organization.
Melody Jennings Kruzic, President, melody.kruzic@capella.edu
Marcia Schumert, President-elect, marciaschumert39@webster.edu
Ellen Nickrent, Secretary, ENickrent@stlcc.edu
Kristin Harrington, Treasurer, harringtonkristin@gmail.com
As an additional benefit to our members, the membership committee is currently developing a
membership directory. This directory will include the contact information for all members as well as
members’ areas of expertise. If you could please update your information by visiting:
http://bit.ly/19Zq2KF, this will ensure that the correct information will be included in the directory.

3. VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2
Where do you work, what’s
your title, and what’s one
thing you love about
where you work?
I am the career services manager at
St. Charles Community College. In
that role, I wear several hats includ-
ing providing career counseling,
job search assistance, and academic
counseling. I love helping students
discover their passion, recognize
their strengths, and learn how to
transfer these into a meaningful
career.
What’s your favorite part
about your job?
Those “ah-ha” moments when a
student discovers the career of her
dreams and realizes that it is attain-
able.
Is there a certain career theo-
rist you’d love to meet
(living or not)? What is
one question you’d ask if
given the chance?
Alfred Adler is my favorite theo-
rist. His ideas about our past expe-
riences shaping our future is in line
with my own philosophy about
how our personality evolves.
I would probably ask him to elaborate
on his ideas about birth order in fami-
lies.
What’s your favorite book
NOT related to career
counseling?
Right now I’m reading Cutting for
Stone by Abraham Verghese, which
is excellent.
For fun, here’s a favorite inter-
view question to prepare
students for that we’d love
your answer to: If you
could be an animal, which
one would it be and why?
I would be a lab. That’s the only
type of dog we ever had. All of
ours have been so sweet, gentle
and loyal.
Page 3
5 On the Spot~with Martha Toebben
Martha Toebben, M.Ed., is on the MoCDA Communications
Committee and can be reached at mtoebben@stchas.edu

4. Poetry and Poster Contest Winners from Missouri Announced
Adult Student Division
1st Place-Kayla Peterson
Senior Division
1st Place-Hannah Elsworth
2nd Place-Robin Staples
3rd Place-Robert Adkins
4th Place-Eli Malbs
5th Place-Joseph Taylor
Middle Division
1st Place-Alyssa Moss
2nd Place-Adrienne Stucker
3rd Place-Rebecca Musser
4th Place-Alexsia Smith
5th Place-Scott Burkhart
Career Roundtable Roundup
www.mo-cda.org
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2 Page 4
On December 3rd, the Missouri Career Development Association hosted a career roundtable at Co-
lumbia College from 12:30-3:00 p.m. Twelve career services professionals from Columbia College,
Westminster College, Capella University, University of Missouri, University of Central Missouri,
Central Methodist University, Truman State University, and Webster University attended the
roundtable session. New ideas, programs, and upcoming events were discussed. Topics of discussion
included first destination surveys, internship programs, accountability for career services’ offices, and
serving distance education students.
On December 6, another roundtable took place at Webster University and was attended by partici-
pants from Webster, St. Louis University, Maryville University, St. Louis Community College, and
private practice. Topics of discussion included usefulness of LinkedIn, popularity of the use of Twitter
in job search, and general tips for job seekers to use social media in their job search.
The next MoCDA roundtable will be held on June 27 at Westminster College. More details will be
shared via email closer to the event.
Thank you to those of you that participated in roundtables in the past. Please consider attending one of
our future roundtables. It’s a wonderful opportunity to network with your colleagues and learn from
one another! Also, if you would like to host a roundtable, we would love to hear from you. We are
always looking for different locations throughout Missouri.