Certification Secrets: PSIA-AASI Eastern Examiner Bonnie Kolber Shares Her Insight on the ‘Learning Journey’
The new “Certification Secrets” series features top instructors, examiners, and PSIA-AASI National Team members sharing their personal advice, experience, and insight on how you can start planning and practicing to reach your professional goals.
In this first installment, PSIA-AASI Eastern Examiner Bonnie Kolber, who was featured in the Fall 2023 32 Degrees Member Profile, shares the rewards of always aiming to improve and learn.
Q: Why would you recommend to other snowsports instructors that they aspire to gain advanced certification or specialist credentials?
A: It’s a learning journey – working toward advanced certification or a specialist credential gives the opportunity to continue to hone the craft of teaching and riding/skiing – it’s not just about the certification. You will become a better instructor and rider/skier if you pursue the next level. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Q: How would you set up a strategy for members to achieve advanced certification or specialist credentials this season?
A: First, look at the Standards and Assessment Criteria and identify your strengths and your weaknesses. Then, plan to attend events where you can work on your areas of weakness and attend clinics at your or a neighboring mountain with a trainer who can help you develop your skills. Read the books. Ask questions of people who have been through it. Take notes and apply what you learn in the lessons you teach to continually advance and refine your skills and prepare for the assessment.
Q: What are some of the key resources – both personal and professional – that you would recommend to help guide them?
A: Key resources include trainers, mentors, PSIA-AASI events, the PSIA-AASI website, e-learning, and manuals, and whatever practice or company keeps you grounded and healthy.
Q: What are some of the key takeaways from your own certification/specialist story – both good and bad – and what did you learn from them?
A: No one person has all the answers. I was extremely lucky to have had trainers and mentors who were on ed staff and was able to get multiple perspectives, so if something someone said didn’t make sense to me, I could take it to someone else to parse through it. Or if I was given riding feedback, I could explore and get several takes on it. One key takeaway is that not everything someone says is going to resonate with everyone, so if something isn’t working for you, find another person who can explain or demonstrate it in a way you can understand. Take what works and leave the rest.
Q: What’s the one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you started this journey?
A: That I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but it’s all part of the process of putting the puzzle pieces together! When I got my Level I, I thought I had the whole picture, but I was only looking at the box. When I got my Level II, I had the frame and a few corners and could see how much more there was to know to be able to connect all the pieces. When I got my level III, I was starting to see how everything we do is based on movement patterns with variations in timing, intensity, and duration, and I wanted a bigger puzzle.
Now, I feel that each piece of the puzzle could be its own puzzle; that I could dive in deeply to any number of the pieces that go into all we do with guests on snow. What I know now that I wish I knew when I started is that there are so many potential areas to specialize in, and the learning is never done!
