Having the opportunity to attend the WAEA conference allows me to interact with my colleagues, meet other educators, and gain vital information for my future classroom. There is a plethora of information offered throughout the sessions at this conference and I chose to select a wide variety of sessions in order to further my own education in other pedagogies and teaching philosophies. This included information on T.A.B., arts integration, and adaptive art classrooms. Attending these sessions as well as the many pre-service teacher targeted sessions has really increased my confidence in my progress in the Art Education program here at Stout. The ability to build connections between other art educators makes the challenges of the workload and creates a necessary support system. While attending the last two WAEA conferences I have been able to recognize more and more faces throughout my sessions, which I feel has made the experiences more impactful for me. These connections and support systems are what create lasting teachers especially as the percentage of first year teachers staying in the field continues to stay low. While the information is vital for continued professional development the interactions, I have had throughout the work I have done for Art Education is what truly makes me happy and motivated to continue working in the field. Having this opportunity to be in an encouraging, welcoming, and supportive place really represents my reasoning for choosing this major. My want to help others follows very closely in my long term goals by my need to have support and trust in what I am accomplishing and I was able to feel this at the WAEA conference.