Paige LaBar of Pen Argyl, Pa., is the winner of a registration to the 2021 NCRA Conference & Expo. She was chosen from among new members who joined NCRA by June 30.
LaBar is a 160-wpm online student at the College of Court Reporting in Valparaiso, Ind. She has never attended an NCRA Conference before and said she is excited to this year.
“I am mostly looking forward to all the amazing learning opportunities to help better myself as a future reporter, and I am also really looking forward to getting to meet students and other reporters,” LaBar said.
LaBar said she decided to join NCRA because of the membership benefits and for more opportunities to learn new things.
Renewing member winner
Just to let our long-term members know how much we appreciate them, we also picked one renewing member to receive a prize.
Rose-Marie Robinson, RPR, a freelancer in Salt Lake City, Utah, also received a free registration to the 2021 NCRA Conference & Expo.
“NCRA is the official face of the court reporting profession in this country,” Robinson said. “It’s important for all court reporters to be a part of it, in my opinion, so as to keep up to date on this industry. All other professionals belong to national associations in their industry, and so should we.”
This will be the first NCRA Conference & Expo Robinson has attended.
“I am most looking forward to being surrounded by so many court reporters from all over the country and, hopefully, the world. Any Kiwis coming?” she said. “I’m excited about seeing my former fellow court reporting students and mentors from California, as well as other court reporters I’ve met in online court reporting forums. And I’m taking the Nevada CSR written exam while I’m there in the hopes of obtaining a fourth state license.”
Robinson has been a court reporter for five years and earned her RPR in May 2016.
“I spent decades in the corporate world working for a Fortune 500 company,” Robinson said. “I needed a career change. After much research of options for middle-aged women such as myself, I settled on court reporting. This is an equal-opportunity, in-demand profession where I knew I wouldn’t be passed over because of my age.”
Robinson said she was the oldest student at Bryan University in Louisiana and the only New Zealander.
“I certainly wasn’t the fastest student either, and I had more speed test ‘non pass’ results than I care to remember,” she said. “It took multiple attempts to pass the California CSR. I’m grateful that my instructors at Bryan encouraged me to do the RPR in addition to the California CSR. I moved to Utah five years ago, and that RPR was my ticket to being able to automatically get a Utah license as well as an Idaho license.”
Robinson said she is now a deposition reporter in Utah, and she absolutely loves the profession and working in Utah.
“We are a small group of reporters here in Utah, but we are mighty and so incredibly supportive of each other,” Robinson said. “I’m proof that it doesn’t matter what your age, it doesn’t matter how many attempts it takes to get your RPR and state certifications, it’s all worth it.”
