NICOLE WILLIAMSON
GRAD
2018
HONORS EDGE PROJECT
ABOUT MYSELF
I am a current nursing student at Southern Utah University and plan to graduate May of 2018. I value enhanced education and am an active member of SUU's Honors Program. Some of my out of class work includes projects ranging from integrating human anatomy into yoga poses, to a chemistry-based time lapse video of the fall leaves changing color.
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Hover over the images below to learn more about some of my hobbies.
 Tennis and other racket sports |  Floral gardening |  Cooking and baking |  Water color and oil painting |
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 Traveling |  Spending time outdoors |
PROJECT OVERVIEW
For my Honors EDGE Project, I ran for and obtained the Utah Student Nurses Association position of Convention Director. As such, I participated in regular conference calls, voted on topics that affected UtSNA and its members, and planned the finer details of the 2018 convention including location, payment collection, advertising, coordination with speakers, creation of the program, and ultimately the organization of the convention. It had the largest turn out to date with 240 students, and approximately 40 breakout session speakers and exhibit booth presenters.
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As a project deliverable, I created a manual on how to plan a convention for subsequent Convention Directors. Not only will the next generation of Convention Directors benefit from my manual, but it is my hope my employers will be able to utilize my planning abilities to hold productive meetings and conferences in the future.
PURPOSE
To bring together nursing students from around the state to provide networking opportunities with future education and career paths, increase exposure to a variety of nursing fields, and to become more unified as the Utah Student Nurses Association.
REFLECTIONS
Throughout this experience, I was reminded that I am detail oriented, and tend to plan things myself. However, with such a large scale project, I found a great need to delegate. Not only did I learn a valuable management lesson, but we were able to draw closer together as a board. I am also quite proud of our great turn out of 240 students from across the state.
Additionally, I find it rewarding to pass on tips and improvements for future conventions to the next Convention Director. While my predecessor did marginally help me, a majority of the planning was left for me to figure out on my own. This added unnecessary stress, so I am grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge with the next Convention Director.
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As mentioned above, one of the greatest lessons imprinted upon me was teamwork and delegation. In future projects, I’d like to work more together with a team, even though that can be challenging with a variety of opinions. Overall, working with the UtSNA board added the nice stability that variety contributes. I think I would also be better about getting things done sooner. Deadlines are so healthy for my procrastination-prone self. I think some self-imposed deadlines, or more board-imposed deadlines would be beneficial for me in future projects.