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Breakout Sessions

Whose Career Is It Anyway?
Take charge of your career and plan for success. Clarify your career goals, identify skills that your current job is enhancing, and create a development plan to energize your career.

Presenter: Diane Brown
Prior to joining HRDC, Diane was the Director of Admissions for South Hills School of Business & Technology. Diane holds a B.A. in Organizational Management and an M.B.A., both from Eastern College. Diane and her husband, Chip, have two dogs, Dylan and Wyatt. They live in a log home in Spring Mills. She is originally from Detroit, Michigan, is 50+ years old, and is blessed to have had a good life.

Download Whose Career Is It Anyway? materials.

Your LESS Stressful Life: Incorporating Balance with Priorities by Looking at the Possibilities!
Use the "formula for balance" that includes your home, career, and leisure. All three are influenced by your attitude and communication style. We'll explore the elements, provide strategies for improving each element, and determine your time wasters.

Presenter: Cassandra Kitko, MBA
Cassandra, the Coordinator of Health Matters in the Employee Benefits Division, has been working at Penn State since 1994. She plans, promotes, and delivers health promotion programs to employees and their family members and assists in benefit plan design.

Download Your Less Stressful Life materials.

Optimizing and Prioritizing Your Time
This breakout session will feature topics such as:

• Assess your time management
• Establish goals and set priorities
• Identify and eliminate time wasters
• Follow proactive strategies to deal with interruptions
• Manage work processes to improve effectiveness
• Create more quality time

Presenter: Bennett Hoffman
Bennett has 24 years of sales management, purchasing management and operational management for an electronic component manufacturing company. He has been the Director of Operations and Lead Instructor for TeamWorks, Inc. since 2002 and an Organizational, Leadership & Team Development Instructor/facilitator for Penn State University since 1996.

Download Optimizing and Prioritizing Your Time materials.

Sustainability
Sustainability has become a fashionable buzzword in Higher Education and beyond, but exactly what is it and how can we become involved? This program will explore Penn State’s commitment to environmental stewardship and the notion of sustainability. We will examine the Finance & Business “Key Initiative” on environmental stewardship launched in 2001 and review progress toward the strategic goals and how we each can contribute to its success. Participants will be asked to share success stories and some ideas that didn’t work out exactly as planned. Finally, we will explore how the lessons learned at the institutional level can translate into our everyday lives at home and with family.

Presenter: Kim R. Berry
Kim is the Senior Director of Business Service and Chief Operating Officer at Penn State Berks. During his tenure, he has overseen the conversion to Bio Diesel vehicle fuel, Bio Hydraulic Fluid for campus machinery, conversion to bio based fluids in a new campus elevator, conversion to bio heating oil, expansion of the recycling and composting programs.

Get more information on sustainability at http://www.takecharge.psu.edu & http://www.fandb.psu.edu/environmental/BOT_ES_presentation_rev10.ppt.htm

Mutual Funds and Retirement Planning: What You Really Need to Know           
This breakout session will assume that your knowledge of investments is minimal.  We'll talk briefly about:  stocks and bonds, volatility (the ups and downs of the market), how diversification reduces volatility, how mutual funds can provide diversification.  We'll then turn to mutual funds:  The "Seven P's" of evaluating a fund, Different mutual fund categories, How to get "understandable" information.  Next we'll discuss a type of fund that might be the solution for the vast majority of investors.  Finally, I'll try to answer all of your questions.
 
Presenter:James Laurie
James K. Laurie is an Instructor of Business at Penn State Berks. In 2006, Mr. Laurie became a full time instructor concurrent with his retirement from a global Fortune 200 corporation. James spent the last 17 years of his corporate career directly managing over $3 billion of assets for retirement plans in North America, Europe and Canada. He is also a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) with several years of experience in public accounting, internal audit and forensic accounting.

On the Road Again: Living the Healthful Life While Traveling Away From Home
This class will provide participants with the necessary “tools” so that they may design a plan for healthful living while traveling for work or pleasure. This session will address the following:

1. The Basics of Wellness—brief review of the components of wellness
2. Understanding your own habits--uncovering the nature of your likes and dislikes
3. Dining out--understanding restaurant menus (interactive) and dealing with buffets
4. Staying active--even when the hotel gym is horrible
5. Making the plan—how to put it all together so that it works for you

Presenter: Linda Tobin, M.S.
Linda Tobin is a Health Promotion Associate in the Health Matters division of the Office of Human Resources at Penn State. She focuses on educating faculty and staff about ways to incorporate positive lifestyle changes into their daily routines.

Linda is a graduate of Penn State in Exercise Science and holds a M.S. degree in Exercise Physiology from Arizona State University.

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